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Earlier quoted context omitted.
Read the 6 books by Frank Herbert, skip the other spin offs by his son and the other guy - they're terrible in comparison.
I never though much of Dune 2-5 either, but I guess I'm in the minority on this one.
Dune number one, yay! I love all six books.
For those of you interested, it's available as a free ebook here: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelera...
I'm a big fan of Iain Banks since reading Excession (which still remains my favourite). Also loved Dune, but haven't read any of the sequels yet. I'd also recommend Catherine Asaro's saga of the Skolian Empire to anyone that is into physics/maths.
Read the 6 books by Frank Herbert, skip the other spin offs by his son and the other guy - they're terrible in comparison.
First, rather than just telling a masterful story with compelling characters, they over-explain and lean heavily on disturbing scenes. For example, in the originals, Gurney Halleck was simply (or not so depending on how you look at it) a very loyal and honorable person..it was that simple and beautiful. The prequels go out of the way to explain that the loyalty comes from being tortured and having his sister raped by the Harkonnen's. It's like the stupid Midi-chlorians.
Secondly, every book comes off as though they are trying to make you buy all their other books. Forget about reading their "conclusion" to the original series (book 7 and 8) without reading their Legends of Dune series. They go out of their way to make references to their other books, even when it isn't necessary.
Argg...sorry I got upset there.
Dune is great..in fact, the original 6, except maybe God Emperor, are all great. Hyperion is a good book, as is the 2nd in the series The Fall of Hyperion. However, the two last books are really quite bad. Personally, i found Ilium+Olympos to be his best work. I found the Culture novels disappointing. Except for Consider Phlebas and maybe Excession, you quickly realize that they are pretty much gods and that there's…