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No God No Brian Herbert is a producer on the new film

posted 16 years ago by ozziebear66
20 replies | jump to latest

I accidently did a search for Brian Herbert last night and it lists him as a producer on the 2010 film. My first reaction was "I wouldn't let this boy on the set let alone be a producer". Having only read House Atreides I can't comment on the other books. But from reading House Atreides I always got the feeling that Brian Herbert was a 30 year old brat writing fan fiction for teenage boys to pay for his semuta habit. I have nothing but contempt for the man. But he's in his 60s which makes him far more contemptable. Why has he done these awful books and why wont he stop!Soon after he stops writing them they will vanish from the book shop shelves so please stop Brian and leave more space for Frank Herbert's books.

[–] Cordwainer_Smith 16 years ago

Agree. Happened the same things to me : a few years ago, I read House Atreides because I was curious to see if it would pay justice to Frank Herbert's legacy. My eyes litterally burnt while trying to read this pile of junk.

Now, I consider the 6 original books to be the only parts of the Dune universe. And I hope there is a warm place in hell waiting for Brian for the way he destroyed his father masterpiece...

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] mattmatthew808 15 years ago

<b>I'm sorry to report that of Pinky and the Brian's Dune novels, that one was the most respectful to the original novels. It only goes downhill from there!</b>

It went downhill as soon as Brian decided to "continue" his father's legacy. More like milk his dad's franchise. His work tries so hard to replicate the intricacy of his dad's work, but lacks all of the sophistication, and carefully placed ambiguity. It's like reading a bastardized form of Charle's Dickens, the way everything wraps up so neatly at the end. Ugh. Please stop, Brian.

[–] Babywetsallnight 16 years ago

Yeah this is truly bad news. Could not agree more. Didn't someone tell Peter Berg that his novels are juvinile pieces of teenage fantasy crap?

[–] entacto-gen48 16 years ago

I did not read the House of X prequels, but the Jihad-series and Dune 7 and 8 because I hoped that would provide some closure. Inconsistencies with the original series aside, what annoyed me most were the permanent repititions and explanations of the obvious. They could have reduced those 5 books to just two without any loss of information. I felt insulted because they treat the reader like someone suffering from Korsakoff's syndrome.
My hopes for the next movie where smashed however after I did a search on who this Peter Berg guy was (Hancock??!!). The fact that the name did not ring a bell though I knew the face says it all.

[–] therealboozysmurf 16 years ago

Its probably a ceremonial / name only credit as the owner of the book franchise so he gets more money out of the films.

[–] Star-Spawn 15 years ago

I read five of the Dune prequels before I came to my senses.

What was wrong with me? Why did it take so long?

[–] Barron_Tide 14 years ago

I read Dune as a kid, only the 1st book, and watched the Lynch movie a number of times. A few years ago I was looking for an audio-book in the public library to listen to on a long road trip. I checked out the Butlerian Jihad read by Scott Brick and was quite entertained. Over the course of the next year I read the other 5 prequels and then jumped into the original again. It was as if I had been drinking low-carb beer the past 5 books. I soon finished all of Frank's books and then was horrified by the way his son decided to conclude the series. Although I am very disappointed in what his son is doing, it did get me to read the originals. I do believe he is probably responsible for the resurgence in the popularity of the Dune universe. It is just unfortunate that after 10 (going on 11) books he hasn't improved in the least.

[–] mrtraska 13 years ago

I'm pretty sure it wasn't Brian Herbert who dictated how the series ended: Frank Herbert left behind **LOTS** of very detailed notes about how future books would have proceeded. Unless you've had access to and read those copious notes, I doubt you can say with any accuracy that Brian is responsible for that particular plot development. Or any plot developments, for that matter. That said, he can certainly be blamed for his own writing skills or lack of same.

[–] lbrad2001 14 years ago

I'm a 28 year old Dune fan and have a friend of mine who is as well and we are both fans of Brian Herberts books especially the House series. In my opinion Dune and Dune Messiah and parts of Children of Dune contain the best writing in the series. However after that it gets quit borish with 20 and 30 pages of nothing happening but dialogue back and forth between various characters that doesnt seem to resolve anything. I'm willing to give the books another try since its been about 3 years since I read God Emperor, but the thing that bores me the most is the fact that the books after Dune take place almost exclusively on Dune. I like the political intrigue and plots back and forth between the various houses and experiencing the other planets and the entire Dune universe not just Dune itself. I think Count Fenring is a fascinating character who needed to be studied a bit more. I find the friendship between Rhombur and Leto quite interesting and after I read the House books I could never figure out why House Vernious never helped House Attreides in the original Dune, but all that is explained later in an interesting fashion.

I consider myself an intelligent reader and my friend is too, but we enjoy these books and the direction Brian has taken the series. The only thing I cant comment on is Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune as I have yet to read those.

But Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, I just wonder for some people who hate Brian Herbert so much, if they were reading the exact same books but it said written by Frank Herbert, would you feel the same way? And hes done the next best things by going off notes of his fathers that he intended to use to write other Dune books.

[–] lbrad2001 14 years ago

And heres another point for you, we'll never know what Frank would have written had he lived, it may have been similar too his sons material or maybe not. But even you ardent Brian Herbert haters must admit that Brian has messed up the Dune series much much less than George Lucas messed up the Star Wars series.

Maybe Brians books dont have as much depth as his fathers but I love the Universe of Dune so much and find it so fascinating that I'm willing to look past that, especially when I think at times his dad went too deep.

[–] mrtraska 13 years ago

Actually, we DO know what Frank would have done: as I mentioned above, he left behind an enormous amount of very detailed notes on how the book series would have proceeded. As far as I know, Brian Herbert stuck pretty much to those notes. So: blame Brian and Kevin Anderson if you don't like the writing in their Dune novels, but blame Frank Herbert if you don't like the plot developments.

[–] agent_tau 14 years ago

I guess I'm in the minority in that I rather enjoyed the prequel trilogies.

Please don't hurt me!

To lose is to win, and he who wins shall lose.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] The_Black_Ghost 14 years ago

I dont think Brian's books were bad, they just lacked the same energy and understanding of the overall story that Frank had.

[–] mrtraska 13 years ago

I didn't mind them either. They're not as good as the originals or almost anything by Asimov, Bova, Clarke, or Kim Stanley Robinson, but they were okay summer beach-book reading.

[–] TalesfromTheCryptfan 14 years ago

Those other books feel like going to Mcdonalds while Frank's books are like going to a fancy eating place.

"Here's My Invitation"-True Lies.

[–] Batsu73 14 years ago

Or to put it another way, it's like hearing Brett Ratner will helm a sequel to Lawrence of Arabia.

I think Herbert and KJA know they can't match the heights of Frank Herbert's writing so they decided to go down the adventure route. There are other authors who I think could have taken the prequels and sequel on with more skill (Jon Courtenay Grimwood springs to mind).

Still they beat the hell out of anything Dan Brown excretes through his keyboard. =)

[–] SiPayn 14 years ago

They are writing Space Opera, quite good space opera, but just space opera, whilst Frank Herbert was writing Shakespeare which happened to be set in a universe he created.

Whilst the scope and action of the Baby Herbert and the Despoiler are similar to Frank Herbert's what is lacking is the understanding of politics, philosophy and the consistent themes that permeate the original 6 novels. Plus Frank Herbert is as pointed out simply a better writer....

Allow me to introduce myself. I'm a man of wealth and taste......

[–] mrtraska 13 years ago

We might be able to agree here that Frank Herbert's Dune series was among the classics of true science fiction (I'm not including fantasy), whereas the Brian Herbert/Kevin Anderson Dune books are more like pulp fiction -- which, truthfully, is most of what's out there in sci-fi books (or fantasy, for that matter). The bulk of the genre isn't that great; that said, there are certainly also some really wonderful, skilled, breathtaking authors of sci-fi sprinkled liberally throughout the not-so-great. Frank Herbert is out on the far edge of the bell curve in sci-fi, along with a relatively small group of outstanding others, whereas Brian and Anderson are in that big bulge in the middle. Average, maybe a little mediocre, too.

But let's not render yourselves less than credible by comparing even Frank Herbert to Shakespeare, okay? There's really, really good, and then there's landmark-of-literature-and-making-history good. Frank's in the first category; Shakespeare's the latter. Let's keep it real, yes? Just saying.