I enjoyed the first book a lot it went very quickly downhill from there, and I stopped after “God Emperor”, though I have the next book and some people telling me it gets better.
Yup. I started the next book once (Heretics?), but even from the start it just felt like Frank Herbert had locked himself in with these characters and this universe, and no longer had any idea what he wanted to do with it, the story just had to go on regardless.
I think a lot of what makes the first book so good is that there’s this whole new and mysterious universe, and he keeps it rather mysterious throughout. You don’t really know what the Bene Geserit are, what a Mentat is, or even really understand what spice is. You’re stuck on a strange planet in a strange universe, learning how things work as you go. That puts you in Paul’s shoes, and makes the book great.
Once all these concepts are established and have lost their novelty, I honestly don’t feel like there’s much appeal to the storytelling. Throughout God Emperor and the first chapters of Heretics it started feeling like a slog, just based on the same established concepts and characters, with very little real development.
Exactly! This is what I always say. If a book introduces elves or tentacled aliens, then you basically know what you’re dealing with as they have an established cultural narrative. But FH’s worldbuilding is so fanrasitcally different to everything else, yet fits together so neatly, that it’s really compelling despite the weirdly paced plot.
I enjoyed the first book a lot it went very quickly downhill from there, and I stopped after “God Emperor”, though I have the next book and some people telling me it gets better.
Idk I quit after God Emperor, too, that kind of felt like the end of things to me. The book after just wasn’t interesting anymore
Yup. I started the next book once (Heretics?), but even from the start it just felt like Frank Herbert had locked himself in with these characters and this universe, and no longer had any idea what he wanted to do with it, the story just had to go on regardless.
I think a lot of what makes the first book so good is that there’s this whole new and mysterious universe, and he keeps it rather mysterious throughout. You don’t really know what the Bene Geserit are, what a Mentat is, or even really understand what spice is. You’re stuck on a strange planet in a strange universe, learning how things work as you go. That puts you in Paul’s shoes, and makes the book great.
Once all these concepts are established and have lost their novelty, I honestly don’t feel like there’s much appeal to the storytelling. Throughout God Emperor and the first chapters of Heretics it started feeling like a slog, just based on the same established concepts and characters, with very little real development.
Exactly! This is what I always say. If a book introduces elves or tentacled aliens, then you basically know what you’re dealing with as they have an established cultural narrative. But FH’s worldbuilding is so fanrasitcally different to everything else, yet fits together so neatly, that it’s really compelling despite the weirdly paced plot.