I'm writing this on January 22, 2001. Last reading: 1 day ago

For anyone who's never read the original Dune, do it. It's probably the best science fiction novel I've ever read. It was a novel that had everything a reader could want: strong characters with whom you easily empathized, vivid settings allowing immersive escapism, a wonderfully complex plot coming to a satisfying conclusion, and more.

Unfortunately, in comparison with that novel, the others in the series were rather disappointing. I read the following 2 novels in the series, and found them to be worth reading, though not great. I'd heard from friends that the rest (there were 6 Dune novels by Frank Herbert, before his son decided to write this prequel series) were far weaker than those. I know of others who disagree with that opinion, but I saw little reason to continue reading: it felt more satisfying to recall only the original Dune and disregard all the sequels.

However, when I heard that Frank Herbert's son was doing a prequel series, I was curious: it is a fascinating setting, and I thought it would be interesting to see what someone else would do with it. Still, it wasn't high on my list of things to buy and read, until I got the second novel (House Harkonnen) as a gift. Since I had that one, I decided to buy the first.

I must say, this novel is pretty solid. It fills in some interesting gaps, adds some background, throws in some new characters. It's reasonably told, and has a few nice twists to the plot. But, in some ways, it also came across as somewhat bland to me. The way things were described, down to the sentece structure, often seemed almost formulaic. Some of what were likely inteneded to be surprising plot twists were rather predictable to me. A few characters were given remarkably little "life" in the way they were described, the things they did. It was entertaining for fans of Dune, but not essential reading, and not likely to turn any others on to reading the earlier ones in the series.

One other aspect seemed troubling to me, seemed to contrast with the general impression given by the original novel. The ages of the characters and the timing of things seemed somehow contrary to what I'd imagined. Lady Jessica is on the order of 18 years younger than Leto, 15 years younger than Rabban, 9 years younger than Duncan Idaho? Feyd and Rabban, although brothers, are also separated by at least 15 years in age? Liet Kynes is about the same age as Jessica? Granted, use of spice can have strange effects on lifespans and apparent ages, and relative ages weren't stated in the original novel, but this just seems somehow distorted. Of course, that's just my impression; the authors have a much more solid understanding of what was written in all of the novels, and of what was intended by Frank Herbert.

At any rate, I'm not really disappointed by it; it was a good novel, worth reading. But then again, it's not one I would put on a list of things to recommend as a "must-read."