Frank Herbert - Dune - 4

Post by **Kvetch** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 11:55 am

Dune /Dune /1

Dune is, I am sure, a truly great book. It ALSO masses in at slightly more than my leatherbound copy of War and Peace. Unlike War and Peace, I have read all of Dune, but it was heavy going. I can't disagree that Herbert's imagination and vision were amazing, because the ideas contained in Dune are simply fantastic. The problem is that Herbert couldn't WRITE - Dune goes on and on and on. and on.

While I was reading Dune, I enjoyed it (although I kept losing track of names), but now, a few months, later I can hardly remember anything of the plot.

Dune is considered one of the seminal works of Science Fiction, and I can see why. I just wish he had had a decent editor. I wouldn't want to have NOT read Dune, but I doubt if I will ever reread it

*I give this an overall rating of 4 (sunstandard, but readable) - this comes from a combination of the quality of the writing (which scores a '2')and the quality of the ideas (scores a '10')

Post by **Darb** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 9:29 am

The problem is that Herbert couldn't WRITE

Don't you think it's a tad presumptuous to assert that an acclaimed grandmaster of the genre can't write ?

Post by **Kvetch** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 9:39 am

not in the slightest. Asimov couldn't either - look at his (Foundation anyway) books - They are great because of their content, but the writing is rather ropy.

There is no (or at least there doen't have to be a ) connection between the quality of an author's IDEAS and their writing ability

Post by **Darb** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 9:47 am

2's incredibly low. I gave brian herbert (Frank's son) higher than 2, and Frank is a vastly better writer than his offspring.

Perhaps you're just going for shock value, like teejay used to ?

Post by **Kvetch** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 10:21 am

no. the book sucks from the point of view of the writing.

IMO, of course.

Post by **Darb** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 10:27 am

What score would you give Brian Herbert ? Read him yet ?

Also, I think perhaps you might be using the enjoyability stat incorrectly. It's supposed to be for your overall enjoyability of the work. Giving something a 2 for writing ability and a 10 for ideas is all very nice, and vertainly helpful information ... but it sort of dodges the "enjoyability" portion of our rating system.

Post by **Kvetch** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 10:30 am

I gave up halfway through dune messiah, and I don't want to read any more FRANK, let alone brian.

Post by **Darb** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 10:32 am

Also, I think perhaps you might be using the enjoyability stat incorrectly. It's supposed to be for your overall enjoyability of the work. Giving something a 2 for writing ability (which is what we were discussing above) and a 10 for ideas is all very nice, and certainly helpful information ... but it sort of dodges the "enjoyability" portion of our rating system. If you dont like it, rate it accordingly, but give it an enjoyability number.

^bump^

Post by **Kvetch** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 5:12 pm

very sorry - I thought I'd checked them all - my bad.

Post by **Darb** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 5:45 pm

Quite alright.

* I give this an overall rating of 4 (substandard, but readable) - this comes from a combination of the quality of the writing (which scores a '2') and the quality of the ideas (scores a '10')

Fair enough.

SlowRain · Post by **SlowRain** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 2:04 am

I read this book a while ago and enjoyed the beginning quite a bit, but found that he wasn't quite able to pick up the story very well after the two year gap. I also found his concept of a massive government of systems and planets was either not fully explained or irrelevant to the plot. It was OK, but not a great read.