Children of Dune by Frank Herbert

Hi. I am reading "Dune" and have read "Children of Dune", and I must say I think these are some among the best books of the past century. Truly I cannot understand how the critical reviews about Herbert's saga of Dune say that "he is not a prose stylist". I think Herbert's prose is one of the most refined proses we could encounter (not merely in the genre of SCI-FI). Herbert has created by nothing a whole world and I may say that reading his novels I've "seen" it, the sceneries, the monsters, the characters, and, last but not least, the "inner thought" of the characters. Reading Herbert is being on Dune - not as ourselves, but as the main characters. And it's a unique, wondrous experience. Dune's saga is one of the greatest literary works that literature has ever seen.

WARNING; Review may include spoilers to those who have not read the book

I found the first Dune book to be very well done, intriguing and thought provoking yet not to the degree that would eliminate any action from it, and the second was slightly more prophetic, for lack of a better word, but the third one I found to be a bit slower paced. To me, the main point of the third book was to lead up to the foruth, with Leto II donning the sandtrout skin.
It was ineteresting enough to make you want to keep reading, but a bit lacking in interest from the previous two.

Herbert develops the personalities and unique gifts of the children of Paul Atredies (Muad'Dib). Then he spins another of the best science fantasy stories the world has ever seen - AGAIN!
If this were the first of Herbert's books I had read I would still be a fan. The concepts, drama, intrigue, and action in this book are in some ways even better and more entertaining than the original Dune. Of course, it is impossible to imagine this novel without the previous two, but it makes great reading even without the two previous books - Dune, and Dune Messiah.
-Tomas, May 2002