I finally did it, I got to the end of the great Dune saga, including the two posthumous sequels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Slightly spoilery rant...
Frank Herbert had begun work on book seven of his Dune saga, but, alas, he died before he could finish it. Many years later, Frank's son Brian, with the assistance of Kevin J. Anderson, completed the story.
After reading 'Hunter of Dune' (Dune #7) it was obvious that they had taken the story in a direction Frank had not intended, but we cannot say for sure what he did intend. I enjoyed this for what it was, a book set in Brian Herbert's version of the Dune Universe. This was fine after all Brian is Brian and not Frank, nor does he pretend to be his father.
I got to 'Sandworms of Dune' (Dune #8) and I have to say I felt genuine dissatisfaction with the way it unfolded. I can understand the negativity directed towards Brian's "fam-fiction" and I shall go as far as to say it is entirely fair and justified.
Frank Herbert's Dune: the big message here is about how undesirable charismatic leaders are (the God-Emperor deliberately causes the human Empire to fragment and makes himself into a figure of hate to deter humans from deferring to another tyrant). He also warns humanity of the coming of the Enemy. We are not told who or what this enemy is. The Butlerian Jihad was a fight to free human beings from its reliance on computers. Specially gifted and trained humans called mentats replace inorganic computers.
Brian Herbert's Dune: after Emperor Leto divided humanity for its own protection, there is now a call for them to unite again. The Butlerian Jihad was about overthrowing humanity's AI overlords. When it all comes to a head, we have a big fight to decide who will be the big charismatic, all-powerful leader to end charismatic, all-powerful leaders. The one true charismatic, all-powerful leader saves the day and everyone lives happily ever after. I kept expecting this person to stand down and let everyone get on with their lives without a charismatic, all-powerful leader mucking things up, but no. The Mentats are a bit crap. One was unable to work out who the prime suspects were when searching for a saboteur, despite it being fairly obvious. He was still unable to work it out after one was unmasked when it became blindingly obvious.
My personal Dune journey has come to an end. I shall not be exploring Brian's variation of the Dune Universe any further.
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