Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Sandworms of Dune (Dune Sequels Book 2)

Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2020

I first read the 6 original Dune books in the late 80's, early 90's and always so far abstained in reading the sequels or books by the son. But a new movie is coming soon, the trailer is quite good, so I reread all the series and then got trapped by the heavy marketing the son does for his two sequels on the Kindle edition. I really shouldn't have. I read through them in a few days (it's so vapid that if you read the first and last sentence of each chapter, you get the drill anyway) with a sort of morbid fascination : how can the heir of such a great mind release words with such abysmal lack of style, depth, interest, plausibility, consistency with the previous stories ... And it took two to do that ? This is the shameless exploitation of an undeserved legacy. Stay away if you ever loved the original books !

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Michel Labeque

More than ever, I miss Frank

Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2019

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I’ve read 19 books in this series, never once feeling the profound reality that Frank Herbert was able to impart in his original books. I finally figured out why this is the case. Frank Herbert wrote a true masterpiece that enthralled everyone, including people like me who do not normally read science fiction. Therein lie his genius, and therein lies my lack of connection to the volumes written by his son and friend. The latter write what I see as typical science fiction—robots, space ships, planetary travel etc... I only read them because I wanted to maintain that deep personal connection I’ve always had to Frank’s original Dune world. Alas, that is not what I experience in the non-Frank books. And it hits me again that we lost an irreplaceable, insightful Kwisatz Haderach when we lost Frank Herbert. And nothing less will do.

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Pedro Clark Cespedes

Disappointing but decent story ending

Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2021

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THESE AUTHORS LOSE ANY GOOD WILL BY REFERRING TO PAUL AS SUPERMAN SEVERAL TIMES. At this point everyone should accept that Brian Herbert in no way has the skill of his father. "Sandworms of Dune" is not a horrible story but is objectively plain. The initial plan by Frank Herbert was one final novel to end the Dune series which was absolutely possible. “Hunters of Dune”, the previous entry, is a pointless setup novel for this book.. “Sandworms of Dune” is a much better story than I was expecting but follows a middle of the road path to end the Dune series. Thankfully, the repetition of information has been vastly turned down here; while still present it is nowhere near as annoying as in “Hunters of Dune”. Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson do the best they can but their limited skill means an average ‘they all lived happily ever after’. This book has cliché plot resolutions at every turn but at the very least the 'balance' mentioned in the original books was achieved. The incredibly predictable finale has been seen several times in books, movies and video games before this book was written and has been seen many times since. An outline is not a story, and a story is not plot. These authors don’t understand this concept and show this with their two ending novels. I suggest reading the Butlerian Jihad trilogy followed by the original books and this ending for a satisfying series.

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Alpert

A disservice to classic characters

Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2021

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Once again, fairly disappointed. I loved the Great Houses of Dune series, the Schools series was also excellent, Machine War was meh, but this and Hunters of, both just predictable and, more than anything, a massive disservice to the personalities of Dune longstanding. I could predict the outcome of the paranoid hypotheticals the second any hint could be provided, yet the renowned intelligence of characters like Duncan Idaho and Miles Teg, not to mention the BG mothers who exist as tools of intrigue cannot deduce the most simple of mysteries and connections which are flagrantly obvious. I find it hard to be compelled forward to discover the answer to mysteries a ten year old (and not a reawakening Teg ghola, mind you) could solve, and given that, this book does a huge disservice to characters of such renown.

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an android dreaming

A Grand Conclusion to DUNE?!

Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2019

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I waited a very long time to read Hunters of DUNE and Sandworms of DUNE... With the new film adaptation of DUNE coming in 2020, I decided to reread Chapterhouse: DUNE (the last DUNE book that Frank Herbert completed), then the 2 sequels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.
Some time ago, I had enjoyed their 6 Prequel DUNE series of books, and the 2 sequels were just as good - if not better!
I can't recommend Sandworms of Dune (and Hunters...) enough. So much inspiring moments, and wonderful action and 'looking deep' into so many great characters that make all the DUNE series so memorable and a joy to read, again & again! All I can say is a heartfelt "Thank-You!" to Brian and Kevin for all their 'Labors of Love' in the DUNE universe... Good Job, guys!!!

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Theodore Holzem

Poor Legacy for Herbert's Masterpiece

Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2015

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Two major flaws in this book. First the annoying one. The author seemed to fin it necessary to continually remind
D the reader of past events that occurs in previous Dune books, as well as the current book. While I understand needing to refresh the reader about characters and events from previous books, doing it over and over was annoying at best, and disrespectful at worst. The same is true for plots and characters from the current book.

Second, the fact that Tegg and Idahoe were unable to detect the two face dancers that were sabatouging the ship was rediculous. They are supposed to be the two greatest Mentats of all time, and they could deduce that the two characters who traveled to a Facedancer planet and narrowly escaped were the most likely suspects. It's just not believable.

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J. Aaron Mullis

Not a good ending for Dune.

Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2022

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I really disliked the way the series ended. It didn’t feel like any of the characters earned the ending. Specifically Norma just forced an ending and Duncan told us everything. It ignores the old adage to writers show me the story, don’t tell me. Even Erasmus failed to meet his obvious growth potential. The first trilogy in which he was developed saw his character continuously focus on how he was unique, and thus worthy of preservation. At the same time, he couldn’t understand why Serena Butler was so upset about the death of Manion. This book should have shown for more in the way of his recognition of this fact. In the end, this book feels rushed and poorly edited.

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James Fife

Crawling toward Kralizec

Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2022

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I read the two posthumous novels solely to try to glean some idea of what might have been in Herbert's outline for his last Dune novel. That required me to read through the entire book, but it was torturous. I'd much prefer they just published the outline. The writing is ponderous, the pace is glacial, and the characters developed to comic book level at best. The plot line is also 180° from what Frank Herbert clearly indicated about the inevitable effect of a hero. That was the theme of books 2 to 4 in the series. That meant it was hard to discern what was truly Frank's idea, but I realized any passage where I wasn't irritated or bored must have been based on some point in his outline. Those passages were too rare.

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Benjamin Strange

A pearl of Frank Herbert's consciousness lives on in an endless nightmare...

Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2014

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*NO SPOILERS*

Never have I been so enraged by a piece of entertainment that I have been compelled to write a review, until I mistakenly committed to re-read the entire Dune series, this time including Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune. Sure, I've read poorly written books before, but I've never read a series that so thoroughly squandered the original author's vision.

True - taking on the monumental task of completing the (possibly genius) works of Frank Herbert was destined to fail to meet the somewhat impossible expectations of his readers, but this... this was absolute failure on every possible level. There's just so many things wrong with these books, but the most unforgivable sin is this: it is insulting to the reader. The authors seem to think that their readers don't remember what happened in the previous books, nor even remember what happened just paragraphs before, and take it upon themselves to explain EVERYTHING to us. Indeed, there is ENDLESS unnecessary rehashing of various plot points, character motivations, basic concepts of the Dune universe, and even reminders of what the various factions such as the Bene Gesserit and Honored Matres even represent, in the most dull and stilted dialogue possible. Characters are constantly explaining themselves and their situations to each other (and, by proxy, to the reader), a tactic that the elder Herbert never stooped to. Part of the allure of the previous Dune novels was that there were giant leaps of logic and intuition presented to the reader, which still managed to make sense and only increased in richness upon re-reading. Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune dispense with this altogether, and instead we're presented with a writing style that's somewhat akin to micro-managing boss: telling you exactly what's going on at all times, with no room for interpretation nor imagination.

These books' other failings are described in much greater detail in other reviews, so I won't bother with re-hashing those here. I will pile on my hatred in a more general fashion: the writing style, while purposefully (and wisely) different from Frank Herbert's, is a huge drop in sophistication from the previous 6 novels. Hunters and Sandworms seem to be written for an audience of 10 year olds. The characters that were once rich with individual traits are reduced to nothing but names and only the most basic motivations. The good guys are good, the bad guys are evil, and not one of them bothers with a single moment of true introspection. Even the long awaited Enemy, whose identity was only hinted at in the Frank Herbert novels, is a huge let-down in this regard. Worse, the characters that we have come to know in the previous books, who are supposed to be the culmination of the best characteristics of the entire human race - leaders of incomparable genius, some gifted with prescience, some gifted with super-human physical qualities - are reduced to complete and total morons. None of them can figure out even the most obvious situations without having it explained to them in mind-numbing detail. There is no pretense of high art here: word choice is extremely limited, as if a Thesaurus is something B. Herbert and K. Anderson have never heard of, and the writing style is clunky, stilted, and repetitive. Unnecessary (and stupid) plot lines and characters are introduced, given short shrift, and then completely abandoned. It's just really, really bad writing.

I committed to reading these, as I was curious about the 30 page outline that Frank Herbert had left behind, which was to supposedly wrap up a story arc that had run the course of thousands of years and untold manifestations of Duncan Idaho gholas. It was a colossal disappointment, in every possible way. It seems funny (not funny in a "haha" kind of way) that Frank Herbert had supplied an apt metaphor, in that a pearl of his vision lurks beneath the surface of these books, much like how the God Emperor's consciousness lived on in his sandworms. I struggled through these books, trying to read between the lines of horrible prose, unremarkable characters, and idiotic plot in an effort to see what Frank Herbert had originally envisioned for his Golden Path. Sadly, all I found was insult piled upon insult. This was NOT the way to continue Frank Herbert's legacy. This is a disgrace.

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Dutchess

One of my favorites of the series.

Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2019

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The original three books were amazing. You couldn’t put them down. The following books were stilted and I slogged through them. Book 18 and 19 (this one), were worth waiting for. They restored my faith in the Dune series. I couldn’t put them down. So many twists, turns and surprises. This will be on my “read again list!

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5 star		65%
4 star		21%
3 star		7%
2 star		4%
1 star		3%

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