Good but operatic in flavor

As I run through Frank Herbert's original Dune stories, I think the best adjective for the flavor and pace is "operatic"...a good story with great color and flavor, but paced slowly. Much of the book is spent with people talking about what will before much of anything does happen. That doesn't mean it's boring...understanding the motives and machinations of the principals really are the story, but it's an unusual flavor for sci-fi.

For those who are not familiar with the previous works, this won't make sense. You need to do them in order.

This story centers around Leto II and Ghanima Atriedes (the children of Paul Muad'Dib and imperial heirs presumptive, now aged 9), Alia (their aunt and imperial regent) and the Lady Jessica (mother of Alia and Paul). Alia is struggling against the inner voices from her ancestral memory, while Leto and Ghanima try to avoid the same fate. The mysterious, blind Preacher only adds to the mystery.

Part of the vast Duniverse tapestry, Children of Dune doesn't live up to the high standard of the original Dune (few books by any author do), but improves on Dune Messiah.

Excellently narrated by Simon Vance with an assist from Scott Brick.

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great story, more production problems

So the producers seem to have completely given up on the entire dramatization thing that they were doing in the first book of this series, Dune (see my review there). Simon Vance does a good job of narrating this story, but towards the end of the book it becomes very clear that he wasn't available to do some re-dos and missed text. So they end up getting some random guy to finish the project. Its actually the case that sometimes one word in a sentence is dubbed in by this other narrator. Bothersome.
The story in and of itself is good, not as good as Dune, but certainly worth listening to or reading. My only critique is that Herbert sometimes goes on far too long about relatively minor issues or expanding upon points that were made well enough earlier in the text.

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Back to the good stuff

So, I LOVED Dune, and was really disappointed by Dune Messiah - but Children of Dune gets back to the grand, empire defining space opera I was craving.

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Storyline drags

What did you like best about Children of Dune? What did you like least?

The story is very pedantic, dragging out and repeating story lines. Not near as good as the original Dune.

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Continued Good Work

Scott Brick and Simon Vance do a remarkable job bringing the characters and places to life in the Dune series. It has been a while since I have read "Children" and I am impressed with the layers of the Dune world that Herbert describes. I hope Audible continues to translate the original series into the audible format. My second favorite book after "Dune" is the "God Emperor," so I hope the trend continues. "Children" is an enjoyable listen for fans of Herbert.

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A great job continuing the story of Dune

This is my second favorite of the Dune series. Frank Herbert does an excellent job tying the events in this book to the previous two. He also treats all characters, except a few, with sympathy. The narration of this one is much better than the previous two.

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Brilliant story, brilliant narration

If you're a big fan of Dune, don't hesitate to get the audiobooks. It really adds a whole new level of understanding to the storyline and paints a picture that reading a paper copy alone won't do. I've read the physical copies of the entire series and now listened to the first three. It's truly the best way to solidify the incredible experience that is Frank Herbert's masterpiece.

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I was suprised.

I was surprised to find this book to fit so well with the previous two. Even though you are following a new main character, I found the transition was natural and the story flowed very well.

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Fabulous readers, compelling story.

As is the case with all of the Dune texts I’ve read, this one stuns in its capacity to tell a compelling story while using challenging language that asks the reader to think. There’s something to be said for simple and imaginative books such as Harry Potter and for series like the Enders Game series, which was compelling and inventive and yet scattered, because of Orson Scott Card’s self-professed carelessness in sketching out his fictive worlds. Yet there is something more profound about Herbert’s works, which hint that the author was a bit of a madman and a genius. His worlds are brilliantly demarcated, consistent, and inventive. In this book—which is fabulously narrated—we see the consequences of some of the actions taken by our favorite characters from Dune. As with all of the books in the series, it is interesting to read Herbert’s philosophical science fiction, which often challenges us to think through murky moral territory and imagine what actions we’d take in a similar universe. It is also fascinating to read about a fictive world with concerns that are so different from our own, while still resonating with our political situation (such as how water and spice is used and consumed, and the parallels in our world of water rights and the sale of drugs and weapons).

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Children of Bizarro World

This third installment of the Dune series started out promisingly. Early on I had high hopes. But by the end it seemed to me the story got more complicated and bizarre than it really had to be. I know it’s science fiction and science fiction is expected to take weirdness to new heights. Still, the Dune series seems headed somewhere I’m not interested in going.

I really wanted to like it. I even purchased the next book, Dune Messiah, in advance. I’m undecided at this point whether to return both Children of Dune and Dune Messiah, or to soldier on and hope things improve. My online research indicates the sailing may only get choppier.

On the brighter side, I’m glad I took the time to find out how things wind up for the various surviving characters. I just wished I’d liked those outcomes better.

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