[Dragaera] Reading series

[Margaret Young]

Or, as Aldiss would say "Let's be Frank".

Insert groan here.


Margaret

>>> Kenneth Gorelick <pulmon at mac.com> 1/19/2009 4:27 PM >>>
With regards to the Herberts, I feel it best to be Frank.

On Jan 19, 2009, at 4:26 PM, Jeffrey Kiok wrote:

> Being a rabid Dune fan myself, I feel a bit compelled to interject.
>
> While I agree, Maraget, that Brust has much better continuity than  
> the Herberts, I do think, in fairness to Frank Herbert, it should be 

> pointed out that there are two Herberts you're talking about, and I 

> think many a Dune fan rates the one far higher than the other.
>
> I think (thought) that Frank Herbert's sixth book ended the series  
> masterfully, and that his son essentially created a new storyline  
> (destroying the old one) in order to create the seventh and eighth  
> book in the series.
>
> -Jeff
> On Jan 19, 2009, at 3:47 PM, Margaret Young wrote:
>
>> I spent a good part of my winter break re-reading two series
>>
>> The Vladiad (for my own purposes)
>> The Dune Series (for a project a student of mine is working on)
>>
>> One of the things that really stands out on rereading Brust is how
>> tight his continuity is compared to the various Herberts. Brust  
>> has, of
>> course, played wonderfully with various levels of unrealiable  
>> narrator
>> (unrealiable for more than one reason). We do obviously find cracks 

>> in
>> our relentless rereading but some of Herbert's (even in Frank's  
>> books)
>> are quite noticeable. And frustrating.
>>
>> One of Brust's nice touches is to go back and either clarify or use 

>> an
>> apparent discontinuity whereas the Herberts just .... well they
just.
>>
>> It is always a problem when a series of books are written over an
>> extended period of time — the writing of them becomes much more
>> similar to the problems involved in keeping continutity in a  
>> television
>> series than what one associates with writing.
>>
>> Anyway, one of the joys of Brust to me is that his work continues  
>> to be
>> a joy. Indeed I find myself reading at least as carefully the fifth 

>> or
>> sixth time through as I did the first.
>>
>> Which in my mind is one of the things which distinguishes one level 

>> of
>> writing from another.
>>
>> Margaret
>>
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