Dune: House Atreides

Recently finished reading Dune: House Atreides by Brian Herbert (son of the original Dune author Frank Herbert) and Kevin Anderson. I've been thinking for a couple of days of putting my thoughts up here, except I'm not sure what I actually think of it. Of course, it's no Dune (which was very much a book of ideas). It couldn't be. Heck, the five sequels written by Frank Herbert were no Dune. I wasn't expecting it to be. Based on those lower expectations, the book had some merit. Specifically,

Pros:

• The basic stories are interesting. Herbert & Anderson have done a good job of developing the original idea (presumably this is due to the fact that they are working from Herbert Senior's notes)
• The authors have done a good job of fleshing out the basic ideas into a fairly fast-paced and well-motivated plot. I was definitely interested enough to keep reading (despite the bad writing) to find out what happened next. I will be reading House Harkonnen, the next book in this series, as well.
• It's an easy read.

Cons:

• They spell everything out. The original Dune was well-known for its nuances and subtle writing. This book spells everything out for you; the political machinations in particular are beat to the death as the writers provide us with every single detail of how every single character arrives at a conclusion as to who's doing what and why.
• The writing level is just not on a par with the original series. Herbert Junior is clearly not as smart as Herbert Senior (who is?) and because of this writes as if the reader is too dumb to follow along. Well, I may not be as smart as Frank Herbert, but I'm definitely smarter than the authors. This sometimes makes the reading monotonous when they review something for the reader for the third or fourth time. Some things (including most of what they spell out) are better left for the reader to work out on his own.
• The character development is often not interesting or deep; some of the characters (e.g., Duke Leto's mother) are one-dimensional. It's often a mystery why they do what they do (can't elaborate without a plot spoiler, but trust me when I say that some plot twists are unbelievable).
• They use the same short chapter technique as the original, but each section is just too short. As a result, the action often feels jerky, rather than the smooth transitions the original managed to achieve.
• There are many disagreements with the original Dune series. So many in fact that they had to put out a spin sheet on the www.dunenovels.com website to explain away these discrepancies and errors.
• It's an easy read.

So, where does that leave us? Still not sure, maybe 3 stars out of 5? The only thing I can say with certainty is that it's neither as good as nor as bad as some of the reviews on Amazon would lead you to believe.