Last year about this time I was speculating about Frank Herbert's motives when he wrote Dune Messiah. I had decided to read the entire series — starting with Frank's books then circling back to read Brian's. I got sidetracked briefly by Paul of Dune
*, but have continued on with the original series… with some dismay, I have to admit.
The last time I tried reading the Dune series I got as far as God Emperor of Dune
… and could proceed no farther. I hated to admit it, but I was simply bored by it all by that point.
This time, I soldiered on and, after slogging my way through God Emperor, dove into Heretics
with, ultimately, the same result. I just got tired of it and decided I needed a break from this particular universe.
A couple of weeks ago, I dove back in, pulling out my copy of Chapterhouse Dune
, ready to continue on with the great Dune saga. (To my chagrin, it turns out that Chapterhouse is probably the most direct sequel in the entire series. The first three books were probably the closest in terms of consecutive timeline, but even those were decades apart. God Emperor and Heretics were literally thousands of years separated from their previous novels. Chapterhouse starts less than a decade after, and all the characters and situations from Heretics return… meaning that the long gap I've left myself between the two novels has not done me any favors in terms of continuity.)
Today I'm about a third of the way through Chapterhouse and I've finally figured out why I'm having so damn much trouble getting through these last books of the original series. To be blunt… nothing happens. I don't mean there's no narrative through line. Just that the bulk of the action happens "off screen" and you're told more about it than actually "seeing" it. This is most painfully obvious in Chapterhouse (which may explain why it's taken me this long to realize it), but it was prevalent in the preceding two books as well. The current book is over 450 pages long, filled with page after page after page of discourse, rhetoric and discussion, with nary an active moment in the entire book. I'm sure that, as with God Emperor and Heretics, there will be a dramatic climactic battle to wrap up this chapter in the saga, but first you've got to slog through that first 400 pages of "big ideas" masquerading as storytelling.
It's sad (for me, at least). Dune is one of my favorite novels, and was a book filled with interesting ideas, which also managed to tell a compelling story filled with action and savagery and love — the kind of stuff all good adventures are made of. Somewhere along the line (sometime between Children
and God Emperor apparently), Frank lost track of that. Or maybe he just lost interest in that kind of story. His later Dune novels, wrapped up in the "Golden Path" he's been alluding to since the first novel, simply don't have that same narrative drive for me.
So here I am, slogging my way through Chapterhouse, determined to finish the chore I've set myself, and annoyed that I'm a) considering it a chore and b) apparently incapable of shirking this self-appointed punishment. I've got Brian's sequels to Chapterhouse (Hunters
and Sandworms
of Dune) and, despite the nearly universal negative reviews I've seen online, I'm actually looking forward to reading those to see where the Dune saga ends up. I know, at least, that Brian doesn't suffer from his father's aversion to action, so I have that to look forward to.
But first I have to finish Chapterhouse.
(*An interesting read, though it didn't really ADD anything to the mythology for me. I'm wondering at this point if Brian hasn't milked his dad's legacy for all it's worth. Time will tell, I suppose.)
*, but have continued on with the original series… with some dismay, I have to admit. The last time I tried reading the Dune series I got as far as God Emperor of Dune
… and could proceed no farther. I hated to admit it, but I was simply bored by it all by that point.This time, I soldiered on and, after slogging my way through God Emperor, dove into Heretics
with, ultimately, the same result. I just got tired of it and decided I needed a break from this particular universe. A couple of weeks ago, I dove back in, pulling out my copy of Chapterhouse Dune
, ready to continue on with the great Dune saga. (To my chagrin, it turns out that Chapterhouse is probably the most direct sequel in the entire series. The first three books were probably the closest in terms of consecutive timeline, but even those were decades apart. God Emperor and Heretics were literally thousands of years separated from their previous novels. Chapterhouse starts less than a decade after, and all the characters and situations from Heretics return… meaning that the long gap I've left myself between the two novels has not done me any favors in terms of continuity.)Today I'm about a third of the way through Chapterhouse and I've finally figured out why I'm having so damn much trouble getting through these last books of the original series. To be blunt… nothing happens. I don't mean there's no narrative through line. Just that the bulk of the action happens "off screen" and you're told more about it than actually "seeing" it. This is most painfully obvious in Chapterhouse (which may explain why it's taken me this long to realize it), but it was prevalent in the preceding two books as well. The current book is over 450 pages long, filled with page after page after page of discourse, rhetoric and discussion, with nary an active moment in the entire book. I'm sure that, as with God Emperor and Heretics, there will be a dramatic climactic battle to wrap up this chapter in the saga, but first you've got to slog through that first 400 pages of "big ideas" masquerading as storytelling.
It's sad (for me, at least). Dune is one of my favorite novels, and was a book filled with interesting ideas, which also managed to tell a compelling story filled with action and savagery and love — the kind of stuff all good adventures are made of. Somewhere along the line (sometime between Children
and God Emperor apparently), Frank lost track of that. Or maybe he just lost interest in that kind of story. His later Dune novels, wrapped up in the "Golden Path" he's been alluding to since the first novel, simply don't have that same narrative drive for me. So here I am, slogging my way through Chapterhouse, determined to finish the chore I've set myself, and annoyed that I'm a) considering it a chore and b) apparently incapable of shirking this self-appointed punishment. I've got Brian's sequels to Chapterhouse (Hunters
and Sandworms of Dune) and, despite the nearly universal negative reviews I've seen online, I'm actually looking forward to reading those to see where the Dune saga ends up. I know, at least, that Brian doesn't suffer from his father's aversion to action, so I have that to look forward to. But first I have to finish Chapterhouse.
(*An interesting read, though it didn't really ADD anything to the mythology for me. I'm wondering at this point if Brian hasn't milked his dad's legacy for all it's worth. Time will tell, I suppose.)
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