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> Read God Emperor of Dune. This one stands alone. Lots of people hate it. Whether you like it or not, don't stop.

Here is the plot of God Emperor of Dune: <SPOILER> sits on their butt all day and discusses politics. Oh, there's a sort of assassination plot happening on the side, but let's not let that distract us from hearing political ruminations!

As for (some of) the Dune books whose position in canon is of some dispute:

... I can't recall anything that happened in Dune 7. Surprisingly forgettable. Then again, I don't remember a lot of Heretics or Chapterhouse in the first place.

The pre-prequels are set during the events of the Butlerian Jihad and suffer horribly from the sin of feeling the need to explain the genesis of every single important piece of lore in the series. Be amazed as every important event in the universe happened within a hundred years of each other, no matter how unrelated they are to one another.

I mean if you take a reductive tack like that then you can say the plot of Moby Dick is just that a certain sea captain chases a whale around and some poor simp is along for the ride.

The plot isn't the sum of these works, it is the scaffolding provided so that the author can explore various themes and theses.

God Emperor of Dune is my 2nd favourite of the series after Dune - I regret reading the novels after that though.

Yes, with the additional advice to try to get through the first 100 pages of Dune before judging -- it took me that long to really get into the story. Also I think Dune and Messiah were originally meant to be one book, and for whatever reason they ended up being two books.

Otherwise I thought the entire series worth reading, Messiah and God Emperor included.

> it took me that long to really get into the story

Was there anything in particular that turned you off? I do remember putting off reading it for several years because it simply didn't sound that interesting and the feudal aspects sounded more like fantasy than sci fi. I'm genuinely surprised by that comment though because I thought there was more than enough intrigue and mystery introduced early on, I was hooked almost instantly.

More like nothing in particular grabbed me. Personal taste I suppose. Also I was fairly young when I first read it (very early teen?). I may feel differently about it now, though it’s been years since I’ve reread it so I don’t really know.

> In my experience, people who like Dune generally will enjoy at least through Children of Dune.

When I was very young and first found the Dune books, I liked Dune, but failed to finish Dune Messiah, let alone the rest. A few years later I re-read Dune, plus Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. I needed some maturing I suppose.

I stopped after that at the time because my parents only had the first 3 books, the book's front matter listed exactly those 3 books, and there was no internet yet to tell me there were 6 books instead of 3.

> Anyone who enjoys God Emperor of Dune is insane (maybe why it might be my favorite).

Some more years later I was browsing the sci-fi section of a bookstore and to my surprise found 3 more Dune books. Read them all, enjoyed them all, even God Emperor of Dune.

I read one or maybe two of the prequels; enough to decide that continuing reading the _other_ Dune books was not a good idea.

I played Dune 2 first (in ~1993), then saw Lynch's Dune, then played Dune 2000, and then saw the Dune miniseries and Children of Dune (which, in a fan move, I posted on Usenet and got me my first and only DMCA warning from the MPAA :^). 10 years or so later, I bought the book Dune, and a few years later I finally read it. It is a legendary book indeed, but I wish I read the book first.

If you can, please read the book first before seeing/doing anything else in the universe. Don't let your imagination be spoiled!

(I'm not very interested in reading the sequels. Children of Dune was a terrible movie, IMO.)

Which makes me wonder what I missed with regards to J.R. Tolkien and George R. Martin.

> Which makes me wonder what I missed with regards to J.R. Tolkien and George R. Martin.

A second "R", for one.

Dune Messiah is meh, but Children of Dune are great. I really liked all the books (original, not the abominations that were written after Frank Herbert died) besides the Messiah, not sure why.

I'm in an odd camp - I only ever liked the first book and found I really disliked all the rest. I read the first four and got half way through Heretics before finally stopping, so I did give it a decent try IMO.

I have since reread the first book a fair few times (most recently via the excellent Audible audiobook production) but never had any desire to try the subsequent novels again.

I enjoyed Sandworms.

At some point, I was so sucked into the Dune universe that any continuation would have intrigued me.

I liked Sandworms also. I get that it doesn't stack up to the first 4, but to be me, neither did Heretics or Chapterhouse.

God Emperor would be my favourite, with Children of Dune following after

Am I the only one who finds 1-3 to be utterly boring and 4-6 to be absolutely brilliant? (4 is my favourite.)

I love all 6 books in different ways. Heretics was my favourite though

Closing out my 8th read-through of the original 6. Just finished Heretics yesterday. I first read it when it came out in the 80s. It's still awesome.