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hantzv's review against another edition
1.0
Starting this book I knew it would be a waste of time. And that's the only thing about the whole experience that wasn't disappointing. I can never be so curious (or hopeful) to ever read anything Brian Herbert and/or Kevin Anderson write again, thankfully.
This book is written the way someone with delusion of grandeur would write an autobiography. I'm sure that makes for an excellent book in the authors' perception, for the reader it's simply a chore.
I have said this before after reading Hunters of Dune, I'm saying it again. They do not know how to tell a story. They tell everything that should be kept silent and don't even realize what details are necessary to depict that great story they apparently have in their head.
They have an entire universe (at least a galaxy) at their disposition and absolutely fail to compellingly depict it even once. Instead of describing the "real" features that would make something beautiful or ugly they instead just decree "it was beautiful" and expect that to be sufficient for anyone other than themselves.
For example, here is how they (failed to) describe the tomb where a young 3 year old Alia would rest: "The remnants of the pyramid folded around Alia’s body and reinforced the walls, drawing polished alloys from other structures. Like a magnificent crystal and quicksilver monument, the ruined spire then rose heavenward. The rapidly growing tower crackled and clanged like mechanical thunder as flowmetal streamed upward. Its curves and angles were streamlined, its polished surfaces perfectly reflective.
Duncan guided the semisentient structures with greater care and focus than the evermind ever had. When he was finished, he had created a tomb, a memorial, a work of art that would amaze anyone who looked upon it." So it was a tall, polished, reflective structure and that was beautiful. That's it. No colors, no shapes, no nothing. And this is how everything is described throughout the text. Just bland and blind.
The characters themselves are also completely hollow. So much of the text is spent on "we need to revive historical characters to help us in the coming Armageddon". And all these characters, every single one that was brought back after the last book by Frank Herbert, was absolutely useless. They all lived pretty boring and unremarkable lives. But I guess it was a good marketing scheme to tell Dune readers "Paul Mua'dib and all his family and comrades will be back". First as tragedy, then as comedy?
These characters are also ultimately empty shells that the authors keep around to help them move the plot along and only for that. They don't live, they don't experience anything, they are just there. They are kept alive even when *in their world* they would have died. And the same goes for their deaths. For example, they brought back a ghola of the Dr. Yueh. In the first books Dr. Yueh manipulated by the baron Harkonnen (holding his wife captive) forced him to betray the Atreides leading to their downfall on Arrakis. And from that time, in that world, his name became synonymous with "traitor". But for some unknown reason they bring him back. Not even the other characters who actually argued to bring him back had nor did they provide any reason to justify it. Then Dr. Yueh misled by a Face Dancer kills baby Duke Leto who they were also bringing back. He thought the baby would grow up to be Peter De Vries, the man who helped the baron torture Yueh and his wife in his previous life. But when he told everyone that the Rabbi gave him the cell samples that led him to believe the baby was a De Vries ghola, they just shrugged it off. The old Rabbi even says "yes of course I gave you the samples, but I never told you to kill him!!" Keep in mind at this point in the story, everyone is on edge because Face Dancers have possibly invaded the ship they are on and are sabotaging their supplies. But no one even stop to think that maybe the Rabbi has been replaced by a Face Dancer. No one questions why the Rabbi would mislead him like that nor where he could have found those cells to begin with. No one. Somehow everyone become more suspicious of Dr Yueh but at the same time just let him off the hook. And all that for no reason other than because the authors had a different way they wanted to make that "grand revelation". Which at that point wasn't much of a revelation. And that's how the plot moves along throughout...
These characters also do not feel anything. Here is how Duncan Idaho reacts to learning two of his daughters died: "Murbella frowned slightly. 'The other one, Rinya, didn’t survive the Agony. I forgot you didn’t know. Tanidia, the middle one, is alive and well, assigned with the Missionaria among the refugees. But we lost Gianne, our youngest—born just before I became a Reverend Mother. She died during the Chapterhouse plague.'
Duncan steadied himself. How odd to feel a blow of genuine grief to learn of the death of two children he had never met. He hadn’t even known their names until now. He tried to imagine what the young women might have been like. As Kwisatz Haderach and evermind, he could do many things . . . almost anything. But he couldn’t bring back his daughters." A blow of genuine grief... A BLOW OF GENUINE GRIEF! Yes, such emotions! That's how people's feelings are described throughout the text. They don't act in ways that let you understand how they feel, the constantly chattering (I swear to god they can NOT shut tf up) omniscient authors just simply tell you!
They even managed to turn Tleilaxu masters who despise everyone but their own kind into something they could never be. These masters dispose of Tleilaxu women as less than slaves by turning their bodies into mere incubation vats. They turn the men (of lower caste) of their own kind into tools to fool the outside world. But somehow one of those masters, raised to be just like the others, out of nowhere accepted the leadership and collaboration of Sheanna. Not only a woman but also according to the Tleilaxu a "powindah". And this in itself isn't even an issue, but it happens in a completely unexplained and unexplainable way. The authors simply decreed it and so it was. That's how every character in the book "change".
This is more of a rant than a review at this point. The Brian Herbert books, including this one, can only be compared to the original Frank Herbert Dune books as childish fanfiction. The first nine tenths of the book could be erased and it would have changed nothing to the "story" (which is itself inexistent) . And the last tenth part itself is hardly worth the time and effort. A spectacular display of milking a dead cow. Maybe the cow was alive, maybe there was a story to be told here, but after this talentless wreck it certainly is dead and clumsily buried under hundreds of pages of filler.
This book is written the way someone with delusion of grandeur would write an autobiography. I'm sure that makes for an excellent book in the authors' perception, for the reader it's simply a chore.
I have said this before after reading Hunters of Dune, I'm saying it again. They do not know how to tell a story. They tell everything that should be kept silent and don't even realize what details are necessary to depict that great story they apparently have in their head.
They have an entire universe (at least a galaxy) at their disposition and absolutely fail to compellingly depict it even once. Instead of describing the "real" features that would make something beautiful or ugly they instead just decree "it was beautiful" and expect that to be sufficient for anyone other than themselves.
For example, here is how they (failed to) describe the tomb where a young 3 year old Alia would rest: "The remnants of the pyramid folded around Alia’s body and reinforced the walls, drawing polished alloys from other structures. Like a magnificent crystal and quicksilver monument, the ruined spire then rose heavenward. The rapidly growing tower crackled and clanged like mechanical thunder as flowmetal streamed upward. Its curves and angles were streamlined, its polished surfaces perfectly reflective.
Duncan guided the semisentient structures with greater care and focus than the evermind ever had. When he was finished, he had created a tomb, a memorial, a work of art that would amaze anyone who looked upon it." So it was a tall, polished, reflective structure and that was beautiful. That's it. No colors, no shapes, no nothing. And this is how everything is described throughout the text. Just bland and blind.
The characters themselves are also completely hollow. So much of the text is spent on "we need to revive historical characters to help us in the coming Armageddon". And all these characters, every single one that was brought back after the last book by Frank Herbert, was absolutely useless. They all lived pretty boring and unremarkable lives. But I guess it was a good marketing scheme to tell Dune readers "Paul Mua'dib and all his family and comrades will be back". First as tragedy, then as comedy?
These characters are also ultimately empty shells that the authors keep around to help them move the plot along and only for that. They don't live, they don't experience anything, they are just there. They are kept alive even when *in their world* they would have died. And the same goes for their deaths. For example, they brought back a ghola of the Dr. Yueh. In the first books Dr. Yueh manipulated by the baron Harkonnen (holding his wife captive) forced him to betray the Atreides leading to their downfall on Arrakis. And from that time, in that world, his name became synonymous with "traitor". But for some unknown reason they bring him back. Not even the other characters who actually argued to bring him back had nor did they provide any reason to justify it. Then Dr. Yueh misled by a Face Dancer kills baby Duke Leto who they were also bringing back. He thought the baby would grow up to be Peter De Vries, the man who helped the baron torture Yueh and his wife in his previous life. But when he told everyone that the Rabbi gave him the cell samples that led him to believe the baby was a De Vries ghola, they just shrugged it off. The old Rabbi even says "yes of course I gave you the samples, but I never told you to kill him!!" Keep in mind at this point in the story, everyone is on edge because Face Dancers have possibly invaded the ship they are on and are sabotaging their supplies. But no one even stop to think that maybe the Rabbi has been replaced by a Face Dancer. No one questions why the Rabbi would mislead him like that nor where he could have found those cells to begin with. No one. Somehow everyone become more suspicious of Dr Yueh but at the same time just let him off the hook. And all that for no reason other than because the authors had a different way they wanted to make that "grand revelation". Which at that point wasn't much of a revelation. And that's how the plot moves along throughout...
These characters also do not feel anything. Here is how Duncan Idaho reacts to learning two of his daughters died: "Murbella frowned slightly. 'The other one, Rinya, didn’t survive the Agony. I forgot you didn’t know. Tanidia, the middle one, is alive and well, assigned with the Missionaria among the refugees. But we lost Gianne, our youngest—born just before I became a Reverend Mother. She died during the Chapterhouse plague.'
Duncan steadied himself. How odd to feel a blow of genuine grief to learn of the death of two children he had never met. He hadn’t even known their names until now. He tried to imagine what the young women might have been like. As Kwisatz Haderach and evermind, he could do many things . . . almost anything. But he couldn’t bring back his daughters." A blow of genuine grief... A BLOW OF GENUINE GRIEF! Yes, such emotions! That's how people's feelings are described throughout the text. They don't act in ways that let you understand how they feel, the constantly chattering (I swear to god they can NOT shut tf up) omniscient authors just simply tell you!
They even managed to turn Tleilaxu masters who despise everyone but their own kind into something they could never be. These masters dispose of Tleilaxu women as less than slaves by turning their bodies into mere incubation vats. They turn the men (of lower caste) of their own kind into tools to fool the outside world. But somehow one of those masters, raised to be just like the others, out of nowhere accepted the leadership and collaboration of Sheanna. Not only a woman but also according to the Tleilaxu a "powindah". And this in itself isn't even an issue, but it happens in a completely unexplained and unexplainable way. The authors simply decreed it and so it was. That's how every character in the book "change".
This is more of a rant than a review at this point. The Brian Herbert books, including this one, can only be compared to the original Frank Herbert Dune books as childish fanfiction. The first nine tenths of the book could be erased and it would have changed nothing to the "story" (which is itself inexistent) . And the last tenth part itself is hardly worth the time and effort. A spectacular display of milking a dead cow. Maybe the cow was alive, maybe there was a story to be told here, but after this talentless wreck it certainly is dead and clumsily buried under hundreds of pages of filler.
phane's review against another edition
3.0
I didn't write a review for the previous book because these 2 books felt like one larger book so I decided to just write it out here. Basically, for me, these 2 books were not Dune books. They were fan fiction written in the Dune universe in which all your favorite characters from the previous books are all mashed together (minus some minor stuff like their personalities) and put against a generic foe in order to achieve a Hollywood cliche ending. Basically it was the ending of the Mass Effect series all over.
I won't consider these books true Dune books since they lack the soul, the cleverness and the profound lessons and philosophic subjects that the original books did. Instead they are just a patch-job that tries to give readers closure. You can tell that some of Frank Herbert's ideas are in this book, but they are poorly implemented and just seem to be used as cheap plot devices.
On the good side, they were pretty easy to read, had plenty of action and they offer some kind of ending if you want to accept it as such.
In conclusion, if you expect to see your favorite Dune characters kicking ass, intricate plots, amazing character development and a proper finale to this amazing series, than you've come to the wrong place. As I've said, these 2 books for me feel more like fan fiction and I refuse to see them as canon.
I won't consider these books true Dune books since they lack the soul, the cleverness and the profound lessons and philosophic subjects that the original books did. Instead they are just a patch-job that tries to give readers closure. You can tell that some of Frank Herbert's ideas are in this book, but they are poorly implemented and just seem to be used as cheap plot devices.
On the good side, they were pretty easy to read, had plenty of action and they offer some kind of ending if you want to accept it as such.
In conclusion, if you expect to see your favorite Dune characters kicking ass, intricate plots, amazing character development and a proper finale to this amazing series, than you've come to the wrong place. As I've said, these 2 books for me feel more like fan fiction and I refuse to see them as canon.
braedenm's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
willmo's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
trsclee's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
wincher2031's review against another edition
3.0
After the brilliant build up of Hunters of Dune, this one unfortunately feels like a disappointing downslide to the end rather than an epic final flourish for the series.
The fan service is lots of fun and many of the returning characters' arcs are tied off with satisfying conclusions. However, the plot is bogged down by the expository ramblings of The Machine Crusade mixed with the over-convoluted pacing of Heretics of Dune.
Overall, Sandworms of Dune is a decent attempt at giving an unfinished legacy the ending it deserved but, ultimately, it's less than the sum of its parts.
The fan service is lots of fun and many of the returning characters' arcs are tied off with satisfying conclusions. However, the plot is bogged down by the expository ramblings of The Machine Crusade mixed with the over-convoluted pacing of Heretics of Dune.
Overall, Sandworms of Dune is a decent attempt at giving an unfinished legacy the ending it deserved but, ultimately, it's less than the sum of its parts.
heather_tethered's review against another edition
I couldn't find it in me to finish it out. Genuinely never been this disappointed in a novel, and I already had low expectations given the reputation. Oh well.