Just bought this book. I kept seeing it on sale and almost buying it, but then i read something somewhere about the plot, or one of the plots, that made it seem really interesting to me, so i bought it. Anyways, I was hoping i could get other peoples opinions on it, just out of curiosity. No spoilers of course. Also, i always always thought these two guys had a bad reputation because of what they're doing with Dune. Is that true?
Really? Nothing? Not one reply?
I can't say anything about Hellhole, as I haven't read it; but, I do know that they have a spotty reputation when it comes to the Dune books they've been putting out.Originally Posted by tylenol
Haven't read it either.
I'm a big fan of the original Dune series, so when Brian put his name on a Dune book I gave it a go. And another, and another, etc. Brian and Kevin's Dune books are just plain flat.
Well I was curious about Hellhole, so before i bought it i looked up some stuff online and i came across an interview with them about it. And they were talking about some really cool ancient civilization/At The Mountain of Maddness-ish stuff that for some reason reminded me of the movie Prometheus, so I decided to buy it. I'll read it eventually.
Haven't even heard of it but here are two online reviews for you to check out http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-7653-2269-2 and http://www.booklistonline.com/Hellho...rt/pid=4559307
Its absolute trash. The writing is even worse then in the Dune books these two wrote, and the ideas, where they are not stolen wholesale from the pulps, are awful.
My favorite: On a backwater, ecologically ruined world that is so said to be so tough to live on that nobody but the dregs of society go there, there is not one single real ecological danger presented in the text that is of any consequence, and the place they all like to hang out for navel-gazing is.....
....wait for it....
....a vineyard.
I honestly don't know WTF these two clowns were thinking. It's obvious to me that they (again, for the hundredth dang time) are stealing from Frank Herbert. This is their version of the garden in the Arrakeen palace, on an ecologically inhospitable world where the tough go to fight or die. Only they are too stupid to realize that in a world such as this, a delicate thing like a vineyard needs to be protected by walls.
Avoid these two like the plague, whether they are working together or solo. Your mind will thank you.
Last edited by Omphalos; November 29th, 2012 at 04:55 PM. Reason: syntax
I sold my Herbert & Anderson hardbacks at Half Price Books. I probably would have gotten more satisfaction out of burning them. On the other hand you could say that I set them back out there to trick then torture some other uninitiated readers. :::sadistic laugh:::
Kevin J. Anderson is, by some considerable margin, the least-talented author being published by a major publishing house today. His early solo SF work from the start of the 1990s is okay, but from the second he got the gig working on Star Wars (to start off with) in 1993 his writing just fell off a cliff and he's turned into the biggest hack in the business. Not to mention there is the outrageous lying he did to get people to buy the Dune books because they were 'based on Frank Herbert's notes' which this in fact turned out to be 'total nonsense'.
Avoid.
I had not heard that. I was under the impression the duo was working from the Master's notes. The reason the books were bad was, I assumed, the authors just s***. A similar thing happened with Zelazny's Amber books continued by some hack whose name I forget at the moment (and don't want to recall).
The notes are nothing but a big pants load of hooey. I run two (2) dedicated Dune web fora. I personally, and others on the site, have gone to Herbert/Anderson book talks to interview them about the supposed notes, and we have culled literally huhdreds of interviews of those two have done on a variety of issues, including the supposed notes. those two clowns cannot keep their stories straight. They constantly change the details of where they found the notes, when they found them, how far their own stories had come along by the time they found them, whether attorneys or bankers were involved, how many pages they were, how many different sources there were, whether they were on disks or on paper, whether they were in a box or a safe or an attic or a safety-deposit box, who was present when they were found, how many pages of notes there were, how detailed they were, etc, etc. In short, they cannot figure their own lies out and tell a consistent fib about then.
There is not a doubt in my mind that they found some of Herbert-the-Greater's doodles about what that book would have been about had he lived, but there are no "detailed notes." I think what they have done is go down to the Herbert archives at Fullerton to page through what is there. Ive been to that archive myself many times, and there are a LOT of things in there that with enough spin, spit and lies they could transform into some "literary legacy" for Brian "Bobo" Herbert.
Don't believe a word that comes out of Anderson's mouth. He's a beady eyed charlatain that means to do nothing increase his word count.
Actually replied on another thread, can't remember where it was, something about worst SF books ever. I plugged Hellhole in there as one of the worst books I've read in recent memory. Absolutely flat as a bored as mentioned by someone above. I got about half way thru and almost threw it in the trash. To put this in perspective, I've never done that before, and I have literally hundreds and hundreds of books.
At any rate, it's still sitting on my bookshelf in the basement, and I think I'm going to take it to half price books and leave it on the shelf while no one is looking.
Ah Ha! I found it
here are my original comments
"I've got to jump in on Hellhole by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson. I almost couldn't finish it, which for me, is almost incomprehensible. It's the kind of book they might give to insomniacs who don't respond to heavy medication. At any rate, stay away from it if you can."
"http://www.sffworld.com/forums/showthread.php?38774-The-crappy-SF-book-thread"
"
Why would you do such a thing to an unsuspecting person?
Your right, I can't do that to someone. I'll bury it in the backyard instead.
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