[tanner7]

Hi there, I'm looking for recommendations... I'm interested in novels that are character-driven, plot-centered and have less of a 'hard' scientific orientation, but with a more fantastical element. I've always thought of Dune as a wonderful novel, so if you can give me titles or authors that are in some respects similar I'd really appreciate it. (This can apply to 'fantasy' as well as sf.) Thanks.

[SusF]

Dune is a hard act to follow. I just recently re-read it after 30 years and it's still excellent.

Hmm Fantasy I liked Guy Kay's Lions of Al'Rassan. Right now I can't come up with a science fiction novel similar to Dune.

[Stephen Palmer]

I'm diving back into the Duniverse for the first time in 25+ years... as said above, it's a hard act to follow. Maybe Gene Wolfes Book Of The New Sun ?

[Sparrow]

Well, if you want something "Dune-esque" you don't have very far to go... read Frank Herbert's other masterpiece. It's called his WorShip Novels, or Destination Void Books, and for my money they are even better than Dune. I think the fact that the last book in the series was written while Frank was dying makes it the more special. Bill Ransom co-authored the work and brought a more down to earth sensibility to the story and I think kept the whole thing from going too lofty. Which is the problem I have with the later Dune books.
These are the three books you should consider, they are f&@king beautiful examples of how sf once was, articulate, imaginative, and (oh-no here it comes), intellectual.

The Jesus Incident
The Lazarus Effect
The Ascension Factor


... and btw, if you dive into these books, you need to read them in order or things won't make alot of sense... if you only read one, then let it be The Lazarus Effect, and if it matters, the computer game Marathon is inspired a wee bit on some of the material.


And I almost forgot to mention, Mr.Herbert had a sense of humor... Dune is of course a desert planet, Pandora (the world at the center of the Destination Void books) is an ocean planet... all ocean, there is no land mass for these forgotten colonists to call home.

[nquixote]

I recommend Neverness, by David Zindell. The sequel trilogy is also good.

Also try anything by Roger Zelazny. Lord of Light is a classic, as are the Amber books.

As an aside, The Lions of Al-Rassan SUCKS. Sorry to have to say it. :rolleyes:

[Michigan]

I recommend Neverness, by David Zindell. The sequel trilogy is also good.

Also try anything by Roger Zelazny. Lord of Light is a classic, as are the Amber books.

As an aside, The Lions of Al-Rassan SUCKS. Sorry to have to say it. :rolleyes:

well I like it... alot.

[Erfael]

well I like it... alot.

A great many of us do....but how can we argue with such a well-reasoned argument as that...?

[SusF]

A great many of us do....but how can we argue with such a well-reasoned argument as that...?

And that made me laugh! :)

But I keep thinking of other SF like Dune, and I can't come up with any. I read Dune Messiah and half of Children of Dune, but they were not as good as the first so I stopped.

When I re-read it last year I was so pleased that it stood up to the test of time, too. A lot of things from that time does not really bear re-reading very well.

[nquixote]

A great many of us do....but how can we argue with such a well-reasoned argument as that...?

Oops! I see now that I was wrong, it doesn't suck. :rolleyes:

[Erfael]

Oops! I see now that I was wrong, it doesn't suck. :rolleyes:

See...I've run rings 'round you logically.

As to the original request, I'm having trouble with coming up with books that I think of as Dune-like. I can think of character-driven, plot-centered, and less hard, though.

Try Simmons's Hyperion Cantos or any of Peter F. Hamilton's doorstoppers. It's quite a bit darker, but you may also like Donaldson's Gap series, which begins with The Real Story, though I'll warn you that the first book tends to put a lot of people off.