Dreamer of Dune: The Biography of Frank Herbert by brian herbert

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 26,2025

I very much enjoyed Brian's insights into his Father's life and his writing career. The good, the bad and the ugly were all handled with love and respect. Losing him at such a young age was such a tragedy for the science fiction world. Brian's writing style is truly gifted and surely shows that it can be inherited.

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AnimeandMangaHQ

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 26,2025

How could I not be swept away by the Evergreen state imagery and the fact Group Health saved both of their lives?!?

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kyoko328

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 26,2025

Sometimes I think it’s a mistake to read a biography of an author you really like because sometimes it happens that the man behind the fantastic stories is not a very nice person. That’s what I discovered when I read this biography of one of my favorite science fiction writers, Frank Herbert. The book has all the wonderful details regarding how and when Herbert’s great novels and stories came out and how success affected him and his family. If it were just that, I would have loved everything in it. Unfortunately, it also tells us a lot about the dark side of Frank Herbert. He spent a considerable amount of effort hiding from his ex-wife so she couldn’t collect child support payments from him. He was an overly strong (the word abusive comes to mind) disciplinarian of his children. He was an obsessively reckless driver routinely terrifying and risking the lives of his passengers. (In fact, the famous jump the bridge scene in The Santaroga Barrier appears to have been based on his decision to do exactly that with his wife and friend in his vehicle). He got friend Jack Vance to co-sign a car loan and then purposely didn’t make the payments so he could focus his money on other bills—stiffing Vance for years until he finally made enough to pay him back. In short, Frank Herbert wasn’t a nice man, even though apparently he had a gift for making people like him. And I find that sad, not that it changes how I feel about his stories.

As a biography, this is a pretty fine endeavor, but Brian Herbert also spends more than a small portion of it talking about his own life and his own writing career. To a certain extent, this is fine as he is Frank Herbert’s son and it shows his father’s influence, but often it seemed gratuitous to me. On the other hand, Brian Herbert is pretty honest with his own feelings toward his dad and how they changed for the better after he became an adult. Perhaps the nicest part of the biography is the picture he paints of his mother, Frank’s second wife, and a loving and dedicated spouse. If you enjoy Frank Herbert’s books, you’ll probably want to read this tribute, but be aware, Herbert is a complex man with a dark side.

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Croswynd

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 26,2025

I just finished this biography written by Brian Herbert and......wow...I really disliked it. Let's just say I have personal reasons for reading this book. This account read like a 13-year old's diary - shoving snippets here and there - oddly mashed, incomplete and a lot of times out of place. The constant tug of pity-me/praise-me irritated me the whole way through and made it apparent that Brian has unresolved daddy issues. Cry me a river....

What strikes me most about this book is how Brian wrote in regard to his younger brother Bruce. The "number 2 son" (an unnecessary, self propelling label - I mean really, Brian?) was barely mentioned and mostly coupled with his "unfortunate homosexuality" that Brian and his whole family "wished he wasn't". This made Brian almost seem no better than a bigot - with lines like "Brian and his gay lover arrived" or "experimenting in homosexual practices because my father didn't give him enough attention". Are you kidding me? Maybe Brian turned to drugs, because he couldn't come to terms with his homosexuality - which NEWS FLASH, isn't a choice. This book was published in 2003, not 1973. Herbert did not even mention that Bruce died from AIDS, alone, in 1993. My heart goes out to him and the unfortunate family situation that he was born into.

Ultimately, this book did try and portray the fantastic life of an amazing author, but was overpowered by obvious misgivings felt by Brian. I guess I could not expect any more than this from a man who has made his living by coat-tailing off the legacy started by his father.

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Tekuracer

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 26,2025

There is a lot of detail here about Frank Herbert's life - I mean, a lot of tiny family details...so a real peek into his daily life. What is lacking is insight into the inspiration behind Frank Herbert. This is a well-written 2-D account of FH.... yet it shows that Brian Herbert doesn't - or didn't - really know what was going on inside his own father...

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MrLegitimacy

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 26,2025

Primero lo bueno: Brian Herbert logra plasmar cosas muy interesantes de la vida de su padre en este libro. Detalles que a uno como fan de la obra de este gran escritor le encanta leer. El trabajo de investigación periodística y de registro es amplio y muy bueno, incluso en ocasiones se excede un poco en detalles que normalmente no vienen al caso en una biografía, pero es una bonita experiencia conocer la parte humana de un personaje tan importante para la literatura a nivel mundial.

Lo malo: Brian no es un buen escritor. Lo sabíamos por su trabajo escribiendo secuelas y trabajos adicionales a la saga de Dune que escribió su padre, pero esta obra también lo demuestra en cuestiones de estilo, de edición de texto y hasta en cierta coherencia y fluidez de la lectura. Desgraciadamente también se siente en esta obra el deseo de incluirse a sí mismo en la historia de su padre, como tratando de ganarse un poco el respeto que a través de los años se le ha negado como escritor por valor propio.

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Dizmo

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 26,2025

A sincere, heartfelt portrayal of the author of Dune by his son, this biography would have rated four or maybe even five stars if not for some writing/editing problems.
Brian Herbert gives a candid account of his difficult but ultimately loving relationship with his father. Brian does not avoid issues such as Frank's difficult temperament with his children, or his rejection of his gay son Bruce. The creation of the Dune series is given great attention.
The book, however, lacks tighter editing. Some anecdotes are unnecessary and often give the narrative a fragmented feeling. Brian reintroduces people over and over again, and retells episodes he's already explained. I would also have liked to know more about the aftermath of Frank's passing away - what became of Bruce, for instance. And just how extensive were the notes left by Frank and developed by Brian with Kevin Anderson Jr for the first sequels they wrote to Frank's series.
But at the heart of this biography, the loving relationship between Frank and Beverly Herbert shines through, and makes this a compelling read.

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1ncognit0

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 26,2025

All sons should be able to know their fathers as well. I’m so glad to have been able to read this book. I have been a fan of Frank Herbert’s writing for many years since I was first introduced to Dune, but knew very little about him or his life. I had assumed that he had gone the academic route as had other great epic authors like Tolkien and CS Lewis. It is with some degree of incredulity that I read the unfolding life of Frank Herbert and his uncompromising nature, his vagabond life and his thirst for life.

I’ve also developed a much stronger appreciation of Brian Herbert who worked a regular job most of his adulthood until his mother’s illness and he’s forced to take more of a hand in their affairs. It is interesting who he became because of his love of family. I will definitely read more Brian Herbert. The Butlerian Jihad was a little gruesome for me, but am interested in how he handles other Dune stories as well as his own fiction.

This is not only a great biography of a man whose life should be remembered and celebrated. It is also a wonderful story of family, of those tensions that break family apart and of reconciliation and above all a boy who grows up to be a man in order to understand and forgive his father.

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