My parents decided I was too difficult to shop for, and for my birthday gave me $50 and a box of Count Chocula…
Last night I put that (the money, not the cereal; that came later) to good use and bought all six novels in Frank Herbert’s Dune series.
I’d read the first two as a lad, but never went any further, but I was thinking how much I really enjoyed them, especially the first.
So… last night I went to my local book seller, Sam Weller’s, and picked up all six.
I’ve already burned through the first eighty pages of Dune this morning 
Man, it’s even better than I remember it being!
Frank Herbert is my favorite sci-fi author. I lost track of how many times I read the original Dune trilogy during high school. (And I do mean during school.) His other novels and short stories are also quite interesting.
Dune is probably the best Sci-Fi novel written. I’ve never been able to get through any of the others.
I enjoyed the first one.
the rest. . . .meh. But that’s just me. I enjoyed the Silmarillion immensely, even though most consider it a total snoozefest.
“Dune” is a classic and the next two are good but the quality tends to drop off in the later ones. I’ve been told to avoid the ones written by his son.
For the past few years I’ve been buying up past Hugo winners, I’ve read some great books that way. There are so many published each year it’s hard to filter out the crappy ones, specially when you have ecletic taste.
Here’s a list of hugo winners by year
Odd…I’ve always felt the same.
“Dune” is a classic, as good as they come. I’ve never made it completely through any of the others.
BTW, Wormdiet, I also enjoyed the Silmarillion, and have re-read it many times.
But for Sci-Fi, one of my altime favorites has to be the “Giants” novels of James Hogan. Good good stuff, old-school “hard” sci-fi at its best.
–James
(Lone Dissenting voice)
The first one was pretty good. The second one not so good. The third one not quite so good.
By the time it got to the sixth it was p*ss-poor. In the opinion of this person.
If you read them on the trot you’ll be in a Dune-Frenzy, and you won’t even notice. Just keep it that way.
We recently had the DVD of the film free with our Saturday paper.
I had seen it in the Kinematographic Theatre - now fitted with sound!
It was every bit as bad as I remembered. Too many voice-overs. Things explained in full three times that could have been hinted at. Special effects (“the VOICE”) which should have been left to the actors.
Such a pity. I like Francesca Anis too. And boy, does Sting look young.
I.B., did you ever get a chance to see the Sci-Fi Channel’s Miniseries?
They’ve also gone and done a sequel that comprises the events of Dune Messiah and Children of Dune.
I really enjoyed “The Jesus Incident” by Herbert.
I love all those “reluctant messiah”-type stories, like Heinlen’s “Stranger..” among others.
I liked the first and third, but not the second. I did read the fourth, but didn’t enjoy it enough to pursue the following ones.
There are a few Herbert books that I like better than any of the Dune books. The Eyes of Heisenberg, Hellstrom’s Hive, the Dosadi Experiment, the Santaroga Barrier, probably some that I can’t recall.
Dune is one of my favorite novels in any genre. I love the way he created an entire society with language, customs, mythology, etc.
I got as far as #3 and then my interest petered out.
I only got through the first three. For some reason I just lost interest. Until then I was engrossed.
And I like Count Chocula.
Alas, I am earthbound. Otherwise I’d never get out of the armchair, and the uxorial consequences are unimaginable. Even by Frank Herbert.
I do believe I have seen boxed sets of the same in the shops. You can’t watch the film without thinking that it would be better done as a TV series. There is just too much happening. One day I might have a look at it, when I stop watching the Alien series end-to-end continuously.
I think Frank Herbert is pretty good, but it seems to me that he just had a good look at the Bedouin and redrew their culture in the future.
Frankenberry is totally the best of the three. Count Chocula and Boo Berry can’t even compete.
And here I thought you guys were a fairly wholesome bunch:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29263
(I was looking for the one in which the Pope had excommunicated Count Chocula and suffered the consequences, but it’s not in the archives.)
Don’t miss it if you can. 
Put me in the first-book-was-a-classic, the-rest-not-so-much group. I think I might have put the fourth one down unfinished …which is pretty rare, for me.
Dune has long been a favorite of mine, as is Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. Great Sci-Fi.
Yep …also, Ursula LeGuin’s Hainish series… possibly the best-ever series framework. I want to be an Observer of the Ekumen when I grow up.
I’m about 160 pages into Dune now.
The thing I love most about re-reading favorites of my youth is the emotional renaissance I experience.
For example, I’m remided of how much I admired young Paul Atreides. I may have been about twelve or thirteen when I first read Dune , so I was about the same age as Paul; there were many things about the boy that I felt (and still feel to a degree) I could identify with…
I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed this book.
Save yourself! Save yourself! _Fergawdsak_e don’t read anything in the series by Brian Herbert!!!