What is proper response when someone questions of your stupid nonsense? Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson think making nonsense more stupid. I questioned two decisions Hunters of Dune made. I am pretty sure I am not the first one because those were two biggest issues. Well. In Sandworms of Dune they bring back characters from prequel books. At least they try and tell they could try again. Just to show there are no longer any rules or restrictions for Brian and Kevin. Nothing matters any more. One character question the other issue and book says it won’t tell how that is possible. Why tell new rules? It would require more work. Easier to just make stuff up.
Spoilers because I don’t care any more. You know the most iconic part of Frank Herbert’s book. The sandworms who were hurt by water. SEEWURMS!!!! SEEWURMS WITH GIGAMEGASUPERSPICE!!!! Yeah. Those seaworms on cover. Some guy modified worms’ genetics and it worked. That is not only worm related stupidity. One character goes inside worms mouth to meditate and gets visions. At the end we learn sandworms can see the future now. Yeah. Anything goes. No rules anymore.
Whole ghoula subplot is just fanfiction waste of time. They just brought half of characters of first book to play with Brian’s dad’s toys. Don’t remember ghoulas to be destined to be their previous versions or becoming them after gaining back the memories. That is no longer the case. These are almost the same persons as their originals. Reason for this is to give almost everyone happy ending. Original versions had sad endings but their ghoulas get happy ending. It is so obvious you expect it to happen and then it happens. You just wait it to happen. When people say this is fan fiction this is one of the reasons.
Hunters of Dune had few interesting moments. I assume it was the one based on Frank Herbert’s notes. This doesn’t have those moments and it is full of fan fiction. Someone else could have made the twists and big moments interesting. After book told it doesn’t care about consistent world it was hard to get invested. Refugee ship Ithaca made “dangerous” jumps all the time without any problems. Ship had saboteur but it felt more like making book longer without advancing the story. Like anything could happen to fan fiction characters. All subplots are one thing happening after another without anything major changing. Chapterhouse planet was ravaged by deadly plague. Didn’t feel like it changed that much. Did they use uncredited ghost writer for better parts of Hunters of Dune? Don’t understand how this could be this much worse if it was written by same people.
You will be really disappointed if you got Hunters of Dune and this to get conclusion to Frank Herbert’s books. There was some conclusion in Hunters but this is almost all fan fiction and conclusion to prequel books. There are much more references to first book than any other Frank Herbert’s book. Like that is only important Frank Herbert book. But it is not more important than prequel books. How stupid it would be if Frank Herbert’s books are concluded by characters of his first books and characters from prequel books? Surely that was Frank Herbert’s plan. Like this book is based on his notes.
Leto II commands sandworms against enemy to save the day. Weren’t there a girl in Frank Herbert’s last two books. She was like a big deal in those books. But no. She can’t save the day. It has to be someone else. Someone like God Emperor himself. Because nobody but characters from first books or prequels can be important. And she is woman. Women can’t save the day. If the worms attacking was in Frank Herbert’s notes I am pretty sure it wasn’t Leto II commanding them. Why would book said to be sequel to Frank Herbert’s last books give important moments to characters of those books?
There were good and evil Paul ghoulas. Evil one gives deadly wound to good one. Never once I thought good Paul would die because this is stupid fan fiction. Only question was how would good Paul survive. He fixes his wounds by thinking about them and pulling his blood back into his veins. That is new reverend mother superpower. I know they had similar superpowers but after this it is wonder any of them was killed as easily as they were during this book series. Why they just didn’t fix their body if it was this easy? It is easier to just make stuff up than working to keep your (or your dad’s) world consistent.
How Face Dancers were beaten you ask? One Face Dancer had long evil guy monologue. Leader of thinking machines tells him it had installed fail safe to Face Dancers. Then Leader send telepathic signal all over the universe and kills all Face Dancers. When someone says stay away from Brian Herbert’s and Kevin J. Anderson’s books you should believe them. These are almost complete waste of your time and insults to your intelligence.
Thinking machines original leader was called Omnius. How it was beaten you ask? There was god like being from prequel books who had monologue and then Omnius just disappear with all of its backups or something like that. This was so insanely stupid my brain wants to forget it already.
Duncan Idaho becomes ultimate Kwisatz Haderach after others tell him he is ultimate Kwisatz Haderach. Who needs spice when you can just tell a guy he is ultimate Kwisatz Haderach. Evil Paul ghoula had become regular or little bit better than regular Kwisatz Haderach after taking ultraspice. In this book Kwisatz Haderach is bridge between humans and robots. I think it was something else in Frank Herbert’s books. Thinking machines were reason why there wasn’t computers in Dune’s world. Because Brian and Kevin wrote book series about war against thinking machines, ending of Dune saga is about thinking machines.
I really don’t know if everything ends well ending is what Dune saga should. I understand there is win at the end. This ending lasts ages and give almost everyone happy end. Alia ghoula dying seems to be only sad part. Humans and thinking machines live happily ever after. Surviving characters (almost everyone) get some sort of resolution. Sandworms survived in Arrakis. Almost only thing left ruined is Dune’s lore.
I knew some Dune fans don’t consider Brian’s and Kevin’s books as canon. I didn’t expect these to be nonsense like this. It is not that their writing style is different than Frank’s. It is not writing style if you don’t care about the lore or consistency of the world. This book’s ending was deus ex machina after deus ex machina. I didn’t mention every stupidity. There was much more. I only mentioned most annoying ones.