Book reviews – Prelude to Dune series:

Despite saying that I was pretty fed-up after finishing the original Dune series ( Dune – Chapterhouse Dune), I ended up listening to the prelude series (all 3 books) in the past month.

To be honest they were quite a pleasant surprise.  Co-written by Frank Herbert’s son Brian and Kevin J Anderson, they detail the events in the run up to the original novel.

All in all they are a fairly decent, well-written sci-fi novels.  I can understand why fans of the original Dune novels might find them disappointing.  Where the original develops a new world, new ideas and explores its boundaries, a prelude is by its very nature, tied into those same the predefined limits.

The good thing about that is that the story is freed up from the burden of world-building (although it must make some effort to break new ground).  The bad news is that it can leave the story feeling a little superficial – less epic in scope.

I guess they could be read on their own, but I wouldn’t miss out on the original novel.

That put to one side, the story of the rise and fall of the great houses in the Imperium makes for a very entertaining read.