I'll call 2026 "The Year of Dune".
I opened the year by finishing off Dune Messiah, then went right through Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, and Chapterhouse Dune. I took a break from that universe and read The Martian and Red Storm Rising (that was a re-read).
Then I returned to Dune. The ending of Chapterhouse Dune left me with lots of unanswered questions. Of course, Frank Herbert passed away before he could write his next book. Years later, his son came in with another writer and, using notes that Frank Herbert left behind that laid out story ideas, these guys produced Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune. I just completed Sandworms of Dune today over lunch after having spent about a month trudging through Hunters of Dune.
I have my doubts that these two books are what Frank Herbert would have written. They were entertaining enough, but were so very clearly not Frank Herbert's work as to feel like they didn't really belong to his universe. But, they did give me one answer as to what might have happened following Chapterhouse Dune. Since no one can ever know what Frank Herbert would have written, these will have to do for anyone who might want to read them. Having said that, I won't recommend them. Their writing style is simply "this is what happens" so "you don't need to think about why it happens". They explain literally everything, whereas Frank Herbert often left that up to the reader.
I need a quick read next. I have a hardbound copy of Alan Dean Foster's novelization of Alien. I have read this book many times in multiple formats - first as a "young reader's" copy that I got through one of those Scholastic book order forms we'd get in school, which cut out all of the colorful language and probably did away with the more graphic violence, and then as a regular "adult" version with all the foul language and violence. I probably read that book a dozen times between 1979 and sometime in the early 80s, but never since then.
I opened the year by finishing off Dune Messiah, then went right through Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, and Chapterhouse Dune. I took a break from that universe and read The Martian and Red Storm Rising (that was a re-read).
Then I returned to Dune. The ending of Chapterhouse Dune left me with lots of unanswered questions. Of course, Frank Herbert passed away before he could write his next book. Years later, his son came in with another writer and, using notes that Frank Herbert left behind that laid out story ideas, these guys produced Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune. I just completed Sandworms of Dune today over lunch after having spent about a month trudging through Hunters of Dune.
I have my doubts that these two books are what Frank Herbert would have written. They were entertaining enough, but were so very clearly not Frank Herbert's work as to feel like they didn't really belong to his universe. But, they did give me one answer as to what might have happened following Chapterhouse Dune. Since no one can ever know what Frank Herbert would have written, these will have to do for anyone who might want to read them. Having said that, I won't recommend them. Their writing style is simply "this is what happens" so "you don't need to think about why it happens". They explain literally everything, whereas Frank Herbert often left that up to the reader.
I need a quick read next. I have a hardbound copy of Alan Dean Foster's novelization of Alien. I have read this book many times in multiple formats - first as a "young reader's" copy that I got through one of those Scholastic book order forms we'd get in school, which cut out all of the colorful language and probably did away with the more graphic violence, and then as a regular "adult" version with all the foul language and violence. I probably read that book a dozen times between 1979 and sometime in the early 80s, but never since then.
