Songs of Muad'Dib: The Poetry of Frank Herbert

by Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert (Editor)

A collection of poems by the science fiction master and the author of Dune includes epic sagas of spice, sandworms, and mystical power struggles of the planet Arrakis, many of them never before published. Original.

Genres: Science Fiction, Poetry, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

111 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1992

About the author

Franklin Patrick Herbert Jr. was an American science fiction author best known for the 1965 novel Dune and its five sequels. Though he became famous for his novels, he also wrote short stories and worked as a newspaper journalist, photographer, book reviewer, ecological consultant, and lecturer.
The Dune saga, set in the distant future, and taking place over millennia, explores complex themes, such as the long-term survival of the human species, human evolution, planetary science and ecology, and the intersection of religion, politics, economics and power in a future where humanity has long since developed interstellar travel and settled many thousands of worlds. Dune is the best-selling science fiction novel of all time, and the entire series is considered to be among the classics of the genre.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Going through my collection I noticed how many "new" Dune books there seem to be especially compared to the original Frank Herbert books. Now this is a discussion that I think will go on and on as to what is justified expansion and what is naked exploitation but I digress (as usual).

Along with the original books there came a number of supporting books spread over a number of years, and this was one of them (another is the Dune Encyclopedia)

I originally stumbled across this book some years ago in my travels around London's book shops. I am not sure of its origins but ACE published this version and I must admit I have mixed opinions. The book is fascinating though the binding is disappointing (it appears to have creases incorporated in to the spin which makes reading the pages very difficult and I hate damaging books).

However the book itself - I guess I am putting that off as a lot of it is poetry which I feel I should understand and connect with - after all it is about the world of Frank Herberts dune but I just feel its not for me.

So in short an interesting book which I am sure is wasted on me however as a completist and a huge fan of the worlds of Dune its an interesting addition.

[Seth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book with a lot of depth.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not a huge poetry guy so it's hard for me to give a great review. It's mostly ok I guess. Nothing you should feel a huge need to read.

[JMarie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Considering the title, I really expected there to be more Dune content in this collection. But Dune comprised a pretty small slice of the total material, and the rest was... let's just call it Not For Me. Like. Publishing this book must've been a comedically blatant cash grab. It's a small paperback, barely over a hundred pages, and to reach a hundred, they had to give separate haiku each their own page. All-in-all not worth the read.

[Christoph Meyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

An odd book for the Dune completist only. Over half the poems are from Dune books but others are just about random real-world subjects. Why mix poems about The Golden Path and Leto with random love poetry about your wife. Several poems about a person named Katsuk, whoever he is. The sad thing is that there is some beautiful poetry in Dune like the Litany Against Fear, which I will recite with very little arm-twisting, much to the annoyance of my wife. I would call this volume a cash grab, just collecting random poems by a famous author and publishing them, but poetry is never cash grab so I'm just left scratching my head.

[The_J · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable traipsing through the poetics of Frank Herbert

[Natasha M]

I didn't know about this!!!! I want it very badly!

[Brandy Alexander · Rating 1 out of 5]

A rehashing of published material. It exists only to taunt Dune collectors.