When I first heard that BH/KJA were writing Dune 7 based off some notes they claim to have found, I was all excited. Like any Dune fan after reading 'Chapterhouse Dune', I was left wanting more. I patiently read the Butlerian Jihad and Royal House trilogies, feeling disappointed in both and impatient for them to write Dune 7 already.

Alas, this book was better off not written at all. I slogged through it, patiently reading about the struggle between the Bene Gesserit and the Honored Matres, the drama between the gholas on the Ithaca, Duncan Idaho struggling with his addiction, Sheeana trying to figure out her destiny, some drama from the Face Dancers, and a whole bunch of other junk. And then I came to the end of this book. What? After all that drama and meaningless action I have to wait for another book? I was hoping that Dune 7 would be better than the two trilogies penned by Brian and Kevin, but alas. This book holds NOTHING of the essence of Frank Herbert's Dune.

Jesus! Does the writing suck! So much annoying exposition, plot lines that go nowhere, and a predictable ending. Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson are very far from the caliber of writer that Frank was. But the most annoying part is that they hardly impart any terror or horror in their representation of the 'Enemy'. Unfortunately, I can't help but read it because it's Dune and I have an obsessive need to know what happens next.

sigh.

Debated whether or not this book deserves even a star, but decided otherwise people will think i forgot to rate it.

The characters in this display none of the intelligence or subtlety of the original characters, and the book reads almost like a giant ad for the other Brian Herbert/Kevin J. Anderson books - if you read this having only read the original Dune series you might find yourself a bit lost.

Sometimes I wish that I was still tortured with the Chapterhouse cliffhanger instead of being subjected to these sequels.

Here is my 1,000-word review of Hunters of Dune:

After being very disappointed with Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson's "Legends of Dune" series, I'm glad to say that this book is the truest to Frank Herbert's style and vision that I've seen yet out of BH&KA. Based on an outline by Frank Herbert for the seventh Dune novel found in a forgotten safe deposit box (how's that for life imitating fiction?), you can often forget that it isn't Frank Herbert at the typewriter. If you liked Dune, and especially if you liked the last two books of the Dune series (Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune) this is definitely worth looking at.

Edit: I spoke too soon. I just finished this. We're back to the !@#$ing war against the machines. Don't waste your solaris on this either....

It has been 2 years (almost to the day) since I finished the final Dune book Frank Herbert wrote. I consider the series as a whole to be the greatest thing ever written, and think books 5 and 6 are actually the best of the lot. Not surprisingly, I was interested in how the story ends. Written about 20 years after the release of Chapterhouse Dune, this book continues the saga, as the first half of what should have been Dune 7.

Obviously it's not nearly as good as the original series. Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson wrote two books of about 550 pages each, based on a 30 page outline Frank Herbert left.

(...)

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3.5

The step down in writing quality from the originals to this one is clear, but I don’t think this is as bad as most reviews seem to indicate. I have some problems with splitting the conclusion into 2 books and also Brian incorporating his prequel trilogy into the plot, but I enjoy being in the Dune universe and I had a fun time reading.

After reading Frank Herbert’s last written contribution to the series (Chapterhouse), I knew I’d need a long gap before returning to try out Hunters & Sandworms, each written by Brian Herbert & based on Papa Frank’s recovered outlines. A year later, curiosity roped me back into the fold.

I respect the effort.. but this book is a gawdy mess.
2 stars for sentimental reasons and a couple of fun thrills.

Mucho mejor de lo que recordaba.
Es distinto a los que Frank Herbert escribió, no tiene sentido compararlos.
Para mi es estar agradecido por tener al menos una conclusión.

I am so profoundly disappointed by this book. I enjoyed the prequels by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson well enough; they are primarily comprised of their own characters and plots, it does not feel like they are infringing on existing work, and standing on their own merits, they are decently engaging science fiction. I also tend to give authors who take over series a fair amount of leeway and am slow to criticize changes or drift. With that said, Hunters of Dune betrays a profound and fundamental misunderstanding by the authors of Frank Herbert's characters and ideas. Their writing style is very different, and remains amateurish after writing a dozen novels together - that's fine, I've read much worse and it is not the real problem. No, I draw the hard line when there are decisions made by characters which directly contradict their personalities and values, well-established in previous volumes. On numerous occasions, I read lines and shouted aloud in disbelief. The identity of the old man and woman are rendered absolutely silly. What a waste of good characters. Worst of all, there are events which are added for obvious shock value and nothing more, the most egregious of which is that of the sequential torture and murder of seven children. Frank Herbert wrote about brutal violence in his Dune books, but it always served a purpose to the narrative, felt *necessary.* Not so here, where it simply felt like an excuse to make the reader's eyes pop. I don't regret reading this book, and I will read the final volume in order to complete the series, but while I will surely return to Frank Herbert's original volumes again someday, I will not be returning to this.

To paraphrase Roger Ebert: I hated this book. Hated hated hated hated hated this book. Hated it. Hated every simpering stupid vacant reader-insulting moment of it.

Not just this book, but the entirety of the Brian Herbert body of work that relates to Dune. You may assume this is simply because Brian's writing style does absolutely no justice to his father's work. It doesn't of course -- accusing his writing of being "amateur grade" would be an undeserved insult to many talented amateur writers. Or maybe it's just because the series makes for a flat and unsatisfying ending, which is also the case.

But these are all failings that would simply leave me, at worse, very disappointed. Surely "hate" is too strong an emotion to direct towards a weak pulp sci-fi series. Surely we can be adults about this and simply try and forget about this whole business, without having our experience of the original Dune works diminished, because, surely, such a thing isn't really possible, at least not beyond some sort of petulant yet temporary displeasure stemming from the aforementioned disappointment.

As it happens, against all reasonable expectations, the Brian Herbert series of books have succeeded in doing exactly that. They have actually managed to ruin the original works retroactively. All the intricate social, political and religious machinations of Dune have been exposed as being driven by trivial, utterly tired science fiction tropes all along. Everything that was magic and mysterious about the universe turned into cheap parlor tricks.

The truly unforgivable aspect of it all is that these ridiculous story lines are, undeniably, based on Frank Herbert's own notes and long-term plans for the series. It really was there all along - you can go and re-read the original books and there is no avoiding the fact that yes, all this Micky Mouse shit was in the background all along, just wisely kept out of the foreground by a much more competent author. It is possible Frank would have revealed everything in due time without making the concept insufferable. It is more likely however, that the reason he had so much trouble with "Dune 7" was exactly because he found no way out of the corner he wrote himself into.

Hunters/Sandworms of Dune as well the House-prequels and (probably the worst of the bunch) the Bhutlerian Jihad series are awful books written by an awful writer which have the uncanny ability to turn a beloved science fiction classic into hateful garbage. Nobody should ever read these books under any circumstances.