"I KNOW."

This is what I repeated to myself throughout my entire read of this boring schlock.

You know those cheesy cartoons from your childhood that have characters constantly monologuing every decision they make? Even the supporting cast will do it and before long you feel like someone just cut and paste the same lines just to keep the kiddies entertained for 20 minutes. That is what this book does, except for 20 hours... Jesus. This book is the perfect example of things "happening" without actually doing anything.

SO MUCH repeated expositi- *ahem* I mean.... "information". Do the writers think I have short term memory loss?! I don't know how many times I would read the same sentence as to why someone did this, why someone said that, why this was happening. Sometimes, it would say the same thing two different ways! Stop spoon feeding me, I get tired of having the same baby food people! Some would argue that this was to inform new readers of certain details that they otherwise missed from not reading previous novels but seriously, I don't think anyone could have missed anything from how many times these "important details" were mentioned!!!

Also, it's amazing how /SUBTLE/ Brian and Kevin are with their references to their previous works..... NOT. Good god I don't even think the word subtle exists in their dictionary. That is the one advantage with Frank's style; he was extremely subtle with the tracks laid out for his later works and the world of Dune. I have yet to read the prequels (that is torture for another day), but it was extremely distracting how much this story relied on THEIR prequels, not on the story that FRANK STARTED and was unable to complete. I am reading the 7TH book of Dune, not a advertisement for the 11 other books.

Can't imagine how annoying the next one is going to be.

Un po' meno di 4 stelle..

Non sapevo cosa aspettarmi dal settimo libro di Dune scritto dal figlio di Frank Herbert.. ho letto molto recensioni negative..
Invece io l'ho trovata piuttosto positiva come lettura..

È vero, non ha la profondità dei primi libri di Dune, dei primi tre.. ma è anche vero che negli ultimi libri Frank aveva dato così tanto spazio ai pipponi pseudo-filosofeggianti da fagocitare trama e divertimento.. aveva finito per ripetere i soliti concetti, usare i soliti espedienti e tipologie di personaggi.. Il sesto libro per me è stato uno dei più brutti mai letti..

In questo volume finalmente ritrovo una trama degna di questo nome, poca filosofia, che se da un lato rendono meno profondo il tutto e tolgono purtroppo misticismo al progetto, dall'altro lo rendono più fluido e immediato..
Molte della caratteristiche della saga principale si ritrovano qui, e anche alcuni piacevoli nuovi inserimenti che mi hanno fatto ritrovare il senso di meraviglia dei primi libri..

Ripeto, non raggiunge il livello di Dune 1-3 ma resta una piacevole lettura dal piglio moderno, immediato e comunque con delle buone idee e abbastanza sense of wonder da intrattenere.. certo, il compito lasciato di finire la saga principale era enorme, e di certo Frank avrebbe potuto fare un lavoro migliore.. ma per come hanno lavorato, gli autori hanno ottenuto un ottimo lavoro..
Ci sono stati alcuni momenti un po' in più, ma anche altri piacevolmente crudeli che ho apprezzato molto.. la scrittura a tratti un po' didascalica e descrittiva a volte ha tolto un po' di immersione, ma il finale, imprevedibile e affascinante, apre a un ultimo volume davvero interessante che leggerò con grande gusto..

Sul fatto che Herbert avrebbe terminato un lavoro con miglior qualità, ormai non può più essere dimostrato.. quindi questi ultimi capitoli restano di sicuro da leggere per capire come finirà questa enorme saga!!

THATS WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT ALIA!!! THATS THE ALIA I KNOW AND LOVE. This book was such a refreshing breath of air from the disgusting trash 3 books prior to it. I have much too say so let’s hop right to it. I would first like to reiterate how proud I am of Alia. Ahhh remember when you were cracked out on spice to the point you were hearing your dead grandpa make fun of you? Now look at you, making fun of you grandpa that’s also cracked out on spice. Also big shout out to the most reasonable dune character other than Chani. Sheena is such a great leader, she has been the goat of these past three books. Now while I love murbella I’m questioning her logic on some of these decisions. Like what did you think was gonna happen bro. THESE WOMEN LITERALLY BLEW UP A WHOLE PLANET OUT OF SPITE. And then you want them to hold hands and work together? Nahhhhh. ALSO WHO WANTS THUFIR??? LIKE WHOS MAKING THESE DECISIONS??? IS THIS YOU SHEENA?? Oh yeah let’s bring back the dude who betrayed y’all’s whole house just for fun. Like what is he gonna contribute to? Actually I know yall are trolling when yall brought back stilgar. Do you not remember in children of dune…. ACTUALLY STRACH THAT EVEN IN MESSIAH when this dude was complaining the whole time about wanting to go home. Like we’re not in rakis anymore, what is he gonna do? But what’s wrong with Leto?? Yall acting like this kid wasn’t walking around telling yall what to do at the age of 2. So what’s the hold up? Ain’t he 2 rn? I do appreciate yall bringing back my favorite character Jessica!! And of course the famed Paul. But yeah I’m really excited for sandworms.

This book definitely did not go the direction I expected but it was really good. Feels weird to be so close to the series conclusion.

***CONTAINS SPOILERS***

Marketed and hyped as part one of the long lost Dune 7, which was to be Frank Herbert's conclusion to his incredible and essential Dune saga, Hunters of Dune is neither essential nor overall faithful to Frank's vision. When he died in 1986 after the publication of Chapterhouse:Dune (the 6th book in the series), fans were left with an open/cliffhanger ending that left us asking so many questions as to the identities of the mysterious watchers Marty and Daniel, as well as the fate of the small party aboard the fugitive no-ship and the fate of the Bene Gesserit after defeating the Honored Matres and beginning the task of assimilating them into their order. In the late 1990s, Frank's son Brian announced that he had found two safety deposit boxes in his father's name that contained notes and an outline for Dune 7, as well as thousands of pages of other notes, drafts, outlines, etc from all of his father's work. Intending to complete the Dune saga, inexplicably he teamed up with Kevin J. Anderson, a writer of rather poor talent who is almost solely known for churning out pulp-style fluff in the Star Wars, X-Files, and comic-book novel franchises, as well as some rather underwhelming original works. Even more astounding was that they announced that, instead of attempting to write Dune 7 by Frank's outline and notes, they were first going to write and publish *TWO* prequel trilogies to "lay the groundwork and reintroduce the book-buying public to Dune." (First, notice they said book *buying* and not book *reading* public...). The other thing that beggars belief is that they felt they *HAD* to write the prequels...wouldn't the normal thing be for people to simply read or re-read Frank's books #1-6 in preparation for Dune 7? It becomes apparent later on why they decided to do this, and it's really shameful why.

One more thing needs to be said, and that is the fact that it is well-known and pretty much accepted by most Dune fans that Kevin J. Anderson does the bulk, if not all, of the writing in all of these non-Frank Dune books. He's well-known for his prolific rate (he is certainly an adherent of quantity over quality and doesn't even write books, he "dictahikes" them...that is, he dictates into a tape recorder while he hikes, and then pays someone to transcribe them...I couldn't even make something that ludicrous up, but he proudly details and describes this process incessantly on his blog and in interviews) and the stilted style and unoriginal/cliched ideas in the Dune books reads like anything out of any of his books. Brian Herbert has stated himself he is a very slow writer, so coupled with the fact that they've been churning these books out at roughly 1 per year and it becomes clear that Brian's name is first on the covers mainly to attempt and give them some credibility among Dune and Frank Herbert fans. Most fans accept that Brian probably acts more as an editor and idea contributor. It's also suspected that Kevin J. Anderson initiated these projects since Brian has been on record for years as stating he didn't want to tamper with his father's work, and in recent years Anderson has been the main, if not only, public face of these Dune books.

Anyway, on to the story. I won't give too much away, but this is supposed to be part one of Dune 7 and in reality, it's incredibly boring and could have been cut in half. Where Frank Herbert would not waste time detailing every minute and inconsequential thing and leave the reader to fill in the gaps for themselves, BH and KJA feel the need to spell out every meaningless thing; for example, the New Sisterhood hops around the galaxy fighting the Honored Matres holdouts...do we really need multiple chapters for EACH fight when it's all the same thing? "They went, they fought, they won, the end." It's silly. As is their habit of writing multiple short chapters...the longest tops out at 8-10 pages.

I could go on and on, but it's pretty annoying to have to think about it all again after reading it. The characters are wooden, two-dimensional, and don't act or speak anything like they did in the previous books. The dialogue is very lame and simplistic, and when it tries to get deep and meaningful, it fails miserably. (How many bloody times can they use the word "esoteric" in this book? Do they even know what it means?). The plot goes nowhere and when it tries to progress, it's so cliched and predictable that the "surprises" are not really that at all. There's no explanation for *why* Baron Harkonnen's ghola is so evil and depraved...he just *is* (and again, very out of character and 2-D). The good guys are good "just because," and again, they have none of the depth or complexity from the previous books. KJA and BH also rely heavily on scatalogical and gross-out humor or prose, which again is completely out of character with how Frank Herbert wrote. One character tells another they'll end up as "excrement on the forest floor." The Baron Harkonnen is described as making disgusting body noises. Uxtal, a minor character who, for some reason, features in over half of this book, meets his end by being eaten by sligs and shit out after they're done. The renegade Honored Matres milk sperm out of comatose Tleilaxu and no reason is given other than "revenge." It's all so stupid, and I could go on and on with examples like this, but you get the picture.

Another stupid thing is the resurrection of nearly all of the characters from the original books who are dead: Paul, Chani, Jessica, Thufir, Yueh, Alia, Leto II, Stilgar, Liet-Kynes. It reeks of a sitcom finale where they "get the gang back together one more time." And at least it could make a TINY bit of sense to bring back Paul, Thufir, etc when they mention they'll need the skills from historical characters. What possible use could Yueh have? He was a rather minor character from the original Dune who....wait for it...BETRAYED THE ATREIDES and caused the death of Duke Leto and the destruction of House Atreides. What possible reason would anyone with half a brain have for bringing him back? They don't explain it at all, of course.

There's even a lame attempt at integrating one of KJA's (and mine) favorite rock bands, Rush, by using a line (and admittedly a great line from one of their greatest songs) as one of the introductory quotes to a chapter and attributing it to "Pearten," a none-too-subtle homage to Rush drummer/lyricist Neil Peart. Cool, I suppose, but totally out of character for the Dune books, as is having them use 20th/21st century slang like "rock the universe," for example, among others.

My biggest gripe with this book, if you can believe it, is that it's damn near impossible to take it and the authors claims serious that this was faithfully based on Frank's notes and outline when it has NUMEROUS references and tie-ins to their completely unnecessary prequels. Stupid characters and references to their books are thrown in left and right, and the worst part is the surprise "reveal" of the Unknown Enemy who turns out to be...the robots/machines from their prequels! So I'm supposed to believe Frank intended the villains of Dune 7 to be two characters KJA and BH would create 20 years later? I know Muad'Dib had prescience, but apparently Frank Herbert did, too...amazing.

It's especially galling for a number of reasons. Frank did all but spell out in Chapterhouse:Dune, and especially the final chapter, that Daniel and Marty were Independent Face Dancers. Also, in his books, the Butlerian Jihad (which was the topic of many of the prequels) was always described and discussed as a crusade against thinking machines, such that humanity was becoming too dependent on computers and automations and was losing their inherent creativity, talents, and abilities. KJA and BH turned this into a cheesy Terminator-esque fight between humans and robots who wanted to kill them for no reason other than, again, "just because." Apparently, reading beyond a 4th grade comprehension level is beyond these guys. They couldn't read between the lines in the original 6 Dune books, so they had to dumb it down so that they (and presumably and insultingly, we) could understand it. Stupid.

The reason I give this book two stars is because there were *SOME* plot points and scenes that actually did make sense and were enjoyable. Those are the ones that I attribute to Frank Herbert's outline and notes. Those are few and far between, however, and the rest no doubt came from KJA and to a much lesser extent, BH. It becomes clear after reading these "sequels" and the numerous "prequels" and "interquels" that, not only did they (but especially KJA) see this as a way to make some cash and notoriety off of Frank's name and the name "Dune," but it was never intended in good faith to be a true and faithful sequel...it was always intended to be a cash-cow tie-in/marketing ploy for their other books, which have turned a legendary and classic sci-fi series into, as many on the internet call it, a McDune or NuDune franchise of cheap garbage the likes of Star Wars, X-Files, Star Trek, etc (and I say this meaning everything relating to those franchises EXCEPT the original movies/TV shows, which *are* great). It's disgusting.

And I'm sure I'll write something equally scathing about Sandworms of Dune, which is part 2 of Dune 7. I'm 50 pages into that and it's already just as bad, if not worse.

DNF

this was beyond a slogfest. the first like 30 chapters could’ve like not existed. they couldve been flashbacks it was all recap for chapterhouse. so SO boring. the characters are mischaracterized, the women characters are written awfully, AND THEY DID BELLONDA DIRTY. so bad i wasted this much time on such a godawful book.

DO NOT read past Chapterhouse: Dune if u plan to read more Dune past Children of Dune.

Recommended ONLY for Dune fanatics who MUST know how the saga ends. Oh this book is baaaaaaad. the writing is sub-par, but that is to be expected of these authors if you've read any prior works. The WORST, most inexcusable part of this book is...


...the way they ruin the bene gesserit.

These women are supposed to be the strongest, slyest, most intelligent creatures in the universe! This story depicts them as not being able to intuit things better than lower level non-BGs in the same room? I am offended. They also have the BGs showing emotions in front of strangers (would never happen) and being outsmarted by Tleilaxu?!!? I don't think so!! At least not in the elementary way they imagine.

Also, the way they spell everything out for the reader is irritating to say the least. Frank Herbert was so subtle, he let you figure things out on your own. I almost stopped reading after the first few chapters but I simply had to know what Frank Herbert intended with the story, even though he didn't get to execute it. Alas, I am a Dune nerd.

Do yourself a HUGE favor and steer far clear of this waste of time. What an absolute cash grab. Self promoted by Brian Herbert as the planned seventh book culled from lock boxes of dad Frank Herbert’s secret notes, this reads like a poorly written fan fiction. That whirring sound your hearing is Frank Herbert spinning furiously in his grave. Awful. Simply awful.

Četiri godine nakon objave i barem dvije kako mi leže na polici konačno pročitah.


Jako dugo sam ovo čekao, najave idu još davno prije objave knjiga kada je lansirana priča kako su pronađeni zapisi Franka Herberta u nekakvom sefu o kosturu i radnji finalnog dijela njegovog remek djela Dune


Zadnje rečenice zadnjeg tatinog dijela ("Kapitol Dina") završavaju izrazito intrigantno, pravi liffhanger no onda je Frank jednostavno umro i ničega ne bijaše više.

No godinama kasnije pojavio se njegov sin Brian u suradnji s još jednim piscem te počeo objavljivati još dvije serije, prethodnice prve knjige uopće (ukupno 2x3 knjige).

Prethodnica je prethodnica no svakog Duneljupca je najviše zanimalo kako priča završava i objava vijesti kako će se konačno pojaviti finalni, sedmi, dio Dine je silno obradovala svakog pravog fana.

Rezultat je više nego jadan. Apsolutno sam siguran da je cijela priča oko "sefa" notorna laž. Ovo je živi cušpajz svega i svačega gdje su sinek i komšo potopili sve ono što je tata pažljivo razvijao desetljećima.

Uz to su besramno reklamirali svojih 6 ranije objavljenih knjiga.


Ima ovdje zanimljivih dijelova no pročitavši sami kraj u kojem ima jedno 4 deus ex machina nepotrebnih rješenja pravi fan ostane zapanjen veličinom pohlepe sineka.

Dok su još 2x3 knjige prethodnice lijepo funkcionirale ovo je živo blato, mulj u koji smije ući samo zagiženi fan tek toliko da zadovolji znatiželju i brzo se ispere čitanjem stotinjak stranica prve tri knjige.

Samo za okorjele ljubitelje Herberta poput mene, ostali niti ne pomišljajte.

Me gustan más las precuelas que escribió Brian Herbert que las secuelas. Aún así siempre es un gusto volver a saber de tus personajes preferidos aunque se nota que se están agotando las ideas y va deambulando en búsqueda de algo que contar.

Todo bien, salvo los "errores" que para mí tienen todos los libros anteriores. Sin embargo, se nota que flipas el hecho de que los dos hayan escrito las 6 precuelas a los libros originales, porque dan por medio hecho cosas que pasan esos libros. A pesar de esto, el libro cuenta al final con una línea del tiempo de todo el universo Dune, que si te la lees pues al menos no te pilla de sorpresa todo

The penultimate chronicle of Dune can be described in four words. The premise of the book, the setting, the whole storyline, the motivations and development of every single character; it all stems from this short sentence:

n  The Enemy is coming.n

Mother Commander Murbella is preparing the New Sisterhood for war against an unknown foe from the far reaches of space. Mysterious hunters are chasing the escaped no-ship containing the prophet Sheeana and her allies. And in desperation to save his own skin, Scytale, last of the great Tleilaxu Masters of old, comes up with an impossible plan…

Hunters of Dune is defined by two things. First by one of the most daring twists in the history of science fiction. Scytale’s plan. It has the potential to be the most utterly ridiculous concept I have ever read, but also the complete opposite. Time will tell.

And second, by a chain of important revelations at the end leading up to the answering of the ultimate question:

Who is the Enemy?

The interesting thing is that most readers familiar with this series will not have heard of the Enemy at all. It was introduced by Frank Herbert in the very last book he wrote before he passed away. And Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have taken the whole thing to a new level, connecting everything so brilliantly I am almost getting angry at the amount of criticism they have received.

A Dune book this good hasn’t been published since before Star Wars came into existence.

Pre-review:
Huh? Yes yes yes, five stars, four stars, one star... who cares about the stars?

What kind of BOOK does this to me?

I'm writing these words after having walked back and forth for fifteen minutes with my arms on top of my head, all the while laughing hysterically. Seriously.

The book wasn't even exciting until the last 5%.

Ooooooooh, lord.

What a fucking horrible revelation, and yet so damnably brilliant.

Full review to come. Probably. I could just write it now, as I won't be sleeping much tonight.