Dave Sanders answers “I really want to read the novel Dune. I...”

dunzy18 asked this question about Dune (Dune #1):

I really want to read the novel Dune. I was wondering, is it necessary to read the rest of the series or not?

Dave Sanders Frank Herbert is not an author known for light reading. His books are quite heavy going and very politically motivated. Plots and sub-plots and sub-pl…moreFrank Herbert is not an author known for light reading. His books are quite heavy going and very politically motivated. Plots and sub-plots and sub-plots of those sub-plots are going on all around and it's sometimes hard to keep a track on who is doing what to whom and why.
There are many factions and as you'd expect, they all have their own agenda and while the agenda itself is quite clear, the motivations for it may not be, usually until it all starts to tie up at the end.

While his books are quite heavy, Frank Herbert was, in my view, one of the few authors who's books almost give you a visual image of what is going on and the surroundings the characters are in, his descriptive writing style is second to none.

The film does not accurately portray the book and a lot of artistic license was used in the film purely for effects purposes, the Wierding Module for example. You'll find many inconsistencies present in the film like that. The Children of Dune miniseries was probably cloer to the book but even then, they incorporated parts of God Emperor, Heretics and even Chapter House into it.

If you read Dune, you really should read the rest of the original 6 books from Dune right up to Chapter House in order to get a full idea of how much thought went into the entire story before Frank even wrote the first book.

Sadly, in my view, his son Brian, as an author, was nowhere near the same league and the follow-up books were not as deep as the originals. It made me think he was simply using his fathers legacy to give him a boost into writing as, his style lacked the ability to leave the reader engrossed like his father could.(less)

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