I read Dune not long after it originally came out, when I was in my early teens, and I've reread it several times since. I do find there's a lot to appreciate in the novel: the world-building and creation of cultures, the focus on ecology (this was a major theme in a lot of SF of the period), the mysticism, the politics, and definitely, the strong women characters (that was pretty rare back in those days).
Neither filmed version does the whole tapestry justice, I fear, and the sequels written by Frank Herbert fall short of the intricate yet balanced tapesty of actions, characters and ideas that is Dune - although they continue to be interesting on several levels - some are quite decent action stories, they all continue the vast contemplation of "laws" of politics and history, and they continue to develop the range of interesting new human cultures.
Unfortunately, Herbert died before completing his planned multi-millennial story-arc, so the last book that he wrote leaves many strands of his future history unfinished, and leaves the reader unsatisfied, becasue you're left with the sense that all that's past is prologue, and the final point is yet to be made.
Equally unfortunately, his son Brian Herbert, who has been writing prequels to Dune for several years now and apparently is soon to release several more sequels to Dune, based on Herbert's original notes for what was going to happen in the series, is nowhere near as competent a writer as Frank Herbert was (and as you note, Frank Herbert was not a great writer), and I think he really doesn't "get" the totality of what his father was attempting to say - either that, or he lacks the ability his father had to weave the historiography and political theory into the wroting.
I've often thought one of the many things that Herbert was attmpting with Dune was to make a critique of the mechanistic view of history in Asimov's Foundation series (only the original three novels in the Foundation series had been written when Herbert wrote Dune - what with the whole business of the Bene Gesserit trying to shape history through politics and breeding, and Paul Atriedes coming along to throw a wrench in all their plans. If you do read the later books, you'll find that the question of whether it is possible to shape human nature and control the destiny of the human species remains a significant theme.
Neither filmed version does the whole tapestry justice, I fear, and the sequels written by Frank Herbert fall short of the intricate yet balanced tapesty of actions, characters and ideas that is Dune - although they continue to be interesting on several levels - some are quite decent action stories, they all continue the vast contemplation of "laws" of politics and history, and they continue to develop the range of interesting new human cultures.
Unfortunately, Herbert died before completing his planned multi-millennial story-arc, so the last book that he wrote leaves many strands of his future history unfinished, and leaves the reader unsatisfied, becasue you're left with the sense that all that's past is prologue, and the final point is yet to be made.
Equally unfortunately, his son Brian Herbert, who has been writing prequels to Dune for several years now and apparently is soon to release several more sequels to Dune, based on Herbert's original notes for what was going to happen in the series, is nowhere near as competent a writer as Frank Herbert was (and as you note, Frank Herbert was not a great writer), and I think he really doesn't "get" the totality of what his father was attempting to say - either that, or he lacks the ability his father had to weave the historiography and political theory into the wroting.
I've often thought one of the many things that Herbert was attmpting with Dune was to make a critique of the mechanistic view of history in Asimov's Foundation series (only the original three novels in the Foundation series had been written when Herbert wrote Dune - what with the whole business of the Bene Gesserit trying to shape history through politics and breeding, and Paul Atriedes coming along to throw a wrench in all their plans. If you do read the later books, you'll find that the question of whether it is possible to shape human nature and control the destiny of the human species remains a significant theme.
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