Rediscovering why I didn't read all the "Dune" books

kw: book reviews, science fiction, political fiction, fantasy

I've read just four chapters, of 86, in Timeweb, the first of a new series by Brian Herbert. I've decided to go no further. Reading the last page confirmed my decision. I read Dune by his father Frank Herbert, and a small part of Dune Messiah. The inter- and intra-family conflict, the incessant intrigues, the overblown political and social enmities, were more than I could stomach.

Brian Herbert and collaborator Kevin J. Anderson wrote eight Dune novels (Frank Herbert had written six) and a few stories and collections. More are apparently on the way. From time to time I considered reading one or the other, but never did. The other day a the library, I saw Timeweb, and decided to see how Herbert the younger writes. He is, if anything more than more of the same. The few "setup" chapters I read indicate that the crux of the story is an undying, obsessive enmity between a planetary ecology of shapeshifters and that of earthlings. There are, as well, alliances and intrigues enough among the humans to keep the undertakers very, very busy.

It all just makes me very, very tired. I have enough tiring me without inflicting it upon my leisure time.