Naming pattern for House prequels

[AeonGrey]

Why were these books named this way.

[TMA_1]

hmm I dont agree, because I dont think it is the issue of which house gets more "air time" on each prequel. I think what it means is that the primary story is still in play, but that in each prequel they try (note that I say try) to highlight the house that is mentioned in the title. see what I mean? Not only that but it corrisponds with the importance of the time. Like in House Corrino it is talking largely of coups within house corrino and focuses a lot on it. With HOuse atreides it talks a lot about caladan and the issues of atreides.

so I think the titles (though a bit uncreative) do fit.

[Andrew]

The titles suit nicely for the house prequels.

I think they mostly focused on the title in each book while obviously telling the other stories to continue the timeline.

In the inside cover (dustjacket) it explains what the book is really about.

[Vanguard3000]

Yes, it is pretty much as TMA described.  Although House Harkonnen focused more on the Atreides, as I recall.  But I guess it would be pretty dumb to name the books House Atreides, House Atreides 2, and House Corrino.

I wouldn't put it past them, though...

;)

[driftingcloud]

I agree that the naming of the books does not fit. The first book balances out issues with all three houses, but book two does deal significantly more with Atreides than it does with the title family of Harkonnen. Book three does not significantly focus on House Corrino, although the most important aspects of the third book take place on the home planet of the Corrinos. I think that if they were going to name the books after the three houses, they should have covered the whole timeline that encompases all three books in each of the three books, but the first one focussing on the Atreides perspective, the second on the Harkonnen perspective and the third on the Corrino viewpoint. All three would cover the same range of events, but from a specific POV. A fourth book could have been House Arrakis perhaps to deal with the Kynes stuff. But I don't think the authors would have been up to the task of presenting us four differing viewpoints on the same series of events. There really is not much difference between the houses in terms of character depth or the way they view events. None of the three groups, Harkonnen, Atreides or Corrino have any widely divergent perspectives on political events through the course of three books.

[Timenn]

My guess is that they first came up with the titles, and then started writing. Later on they discovered that the titles didn't fit. But because they are Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson they didn't change the titles, but they tried to implement some non-significant stuff (like Harkonnen family problems, and the "Spice War") to make the titles suit the books more.

[TMA_1]

lol I can just hear it now.

House Atreidies Strikes Again was the best prequel ever! hehe

[AeonGrey]

I dunno, I just really feel like the focus of the entire trilogy was pretty much on House Atreides and House Vernius.  But then again, it was kind of a struggle for me to even finish them...so I'm probably not the right person to be critiquing them.

[Colonel_Worf]

To be honest, I'm not sure why the prequels are named that way. It was probably just something to catch people's eyes... because it really has no significance on the novels for the most part.

[Vanguard3000]

House Atreidies Strikes Again was the best prequel ever!

Wow!  Do you work for the New York Times or something?  That sounds like the kind of review they'd give...

;)

[Alexander_Ordos]

I don't quite seem to understand what is so bad about those titles? We all know very well that the tilte doesn't have to completely represent the whole contents of the book. House Atreides, House Harkonnen and House Corrino are cool names for the books, besides they are more attractive. For example the title House Harkonnen made me buy the book and become a Dune fan.  ;)

Where's Dune: House Ordos  :O :'( ;D

[Tinuviel]

I know this is slightly off topic... but I have a question. Are the House books comparable to the original books, i.e. are they any good? I'm curious... I haven't finished the original series yet, but I'd like to know if those others are worth getting. Give me an opinion, if you would. :)

[Andrew]

NO

Read the originals, then read the prequels at your own risk. ;)

Originals are about 100 000% better than prequels. You can predict what is going to happen in the prequels and the storylines are well, dull.

But don't let my opinion deter you from reading them. I read them all, but I would rather read the originals again and again and again before reading the prequels again. So when you have finished reading all the originals, then read the prequels, and if you don't like one, don't bother reading any other prequels (not missing anything).

Also check out other Frank Herbert books as well.

I read The Dosadi Experiment (an ok book) and

The White Plague (a very good book)

EDIT - I think the house books are a lot better than the legends of dune series, so start with the house series.

[Alexander_Ordos]

I started Dune from the prequels. I believe it is better to read the books by following the storyline. For me the prequels are a bit more than ok. Dune is Dune  :P

[Andrew]

Rule of thumb: Read books in the order they were published.  :D

[driftingcloud]

I'd have to agree with Andrew on this one. FH first, then try the prequels, if you don't like them, don't continue to read them. If you read the prequels first, there are major plot points in the FH series that are literally given away and the FH books will seem lessened by these premature exposures.

White Plague is a most excellent FH novel too. I've never read any of the other FH works, as I just kept rereading the Dune series over and over and over whenever I needed a FH fix. Even after more than a dozen times through the first few books (Dune, Dune Messiah, CoD, GEoD), they are still fresh and exciting. I think I've only read HoD and CHD maybe five or six times each.

[Vanguard3000]

I would definately recommend Herbert's other works as well, including the Dosadi Experiment, Destination: Void, and Man of Two Worlds.

[Tinuviel]

Thanks everyone... I will definitely read FH's other works as well. I'll see if I like the prequels after I finish the originals. Frank Herbert is such an awesome writer, I don't know how any imitation could compare!  8)

I'm working on CoD right now. Amazing. ;D

[TMA_1]

yeah totally vanguard, but I would say that the best are the "Ship" Series, with Jesus incident and whatnot. Then I would say the Whipping Star series is wonderful too.

Oh and some of the smaller books are good too, like Santeroga Barrier (always wanted to try those jaspers.hehe)

lots more too.