*Also, reading Dune was really similar to reading Tolkien – it was the source – the work that everyone was ripping off.*

Among actual fantasy writers rather than their fans, Fritz Leiber and Jack Vance are considered much more influential than Tolkein. Which is GOT, Feist’s work and Pratchett’s all follow the Low Fantasy model instead of the High Fantasy one. Really: all those people have written this.

*This is the stuff that George Lucas was reading when he dreamt up Star Wars (and don’t say you don’t see correlation – desert planet, galactic empire, ancient prophecy etc..).*

No, Dune was not the first SF novel to have a galactic empire: trust me. It was something of an influence of SW, but a much bigger one – Lucas kept the books handy during production and used their terminology in the draft scripts – was the Lensman series. (Which Dune itself borrowed from.)

*Yep, I assume that if I red the books at 16 I would probably find them boring too. I highly recommend re-reading at least the first one for the socio-political and religious tangents that would probably be hard to appreciate at 16. :)*

I thought they were great as a child – and I read them a lot younger than 14 – but as an adult with experience of the world and real education the holes really show. The secret plots are imbecilic and the “layered” society is tissue thin. Dune’s main achievement is the *illusion* of depth in the mind of a certain type of person (ironically, these people always seem to miss what Herbert said he meant to be the themes of the book.)

[…] and wisdom of age. But to be fair, Hellstrom’s Hive, even though it has been described as “right at the lowest point of [Herbert's] form and it shows”, is still pretty good, notwithstanding the anachronisms to be expected of most sci-fi written […]

Since this shows up on Google’s 1st search page about HH, I’ll say that I can’t agree with your analysis of this novel. The insect hivemind concept is incredibly different from the ecological ideas fleshed out in Dune and HH is one of the only SciFi books to ever look deeply into what a hivemind organization of humans could look like. This is still a relevant concept in the internet age – the radical hacktivists “Anonymous” come to mind – and the social interactions described in HH are extremely well done. I’d put this up there with Soul Catcher or The White Plague as one of Herbert’s best stand-alone novels.

Thanks, I’ll put that on my reading list. :) Nice to see another Herbert fan around here!

I am a HUGE Herbert fan! I’ve probably read the Dune series about a hundred times. My favorite, of course, is book one.

If you want to read something of his that is completely different – but still pretty good – pick up “The White Plague” published in 1982.

Yep, I assume that if I red the books at 16 I would probably find them boring too. I highly recommend re-reading at least the first one for the socio-political and religious tangents that would probably be hard to appreciate at 16. :)

Also, reading Dune was really similar to reading Tolkien – it was the source – the work that everyone was ripping off. This is the stuff that George Lucas was reading when he dreamt up Star Wars (and don’t say you don’t see correlation – desert planet, galactic empire, ancient prophecy etc..).

Dune is the sole reason why every desert planet in every universe has giant sand worms. :P

I read all Dune books when I was 16 or so and I found them mostly boring, apart from the 1st and the 3rd which were only slightly boring. The films left out most of what makes up the story, so that was terrible, too, but in a different way. I stopped watching the german TV adaption (3 parts) after the first part, and my wife didn’t even understand a thing until I started explaining.