Dreamer of Dune: The Biography of Frank Herbert

Rating:
Summary: I loved it, but it's not for everyone
Review: A reader usually does not pick up the biography of an author unless seriously interested in that writer's work. I've bought and read most of Herbert's works, and have found them uniformly fascinating and mind-expanding. What interests me most about SF writers I admire is the intellectual content--the level of depth they put into their writing--and I'm always curious about where they get their information. Unfortunately, Brian Herbert did not deliver those particular goods.

That said, I gave this book four stars because it moved me. This was a very interesting, smart man, and his works have greatly impacted my views and my writing. He presents his father from a truly unique perspective. Perhaps Hemingway's kids wrote about life with "the great man," but otherwise I haven't seen many sons-writing-about-their-fathers books. Maybe I was just affected by the father-son dynamic of the book. (Herbert had another brother, Bruce, who was apparently estranged from his father because he was homosexual). Perhaps, if viewed from that perspective, Brian Herbert's book deserves to be called a triumph. You can read it and respond to it even if you aren't a science fiction fan.

This, then, is the story of the Herbert family, a group of itinerant travelers who centered its collective life around the father in order to ensure the success of his career-as seen through the eyes of the "number one son." There is also a remarkable love story here, that between Frank Herbert and Beverly Stuart, his wife. Fans can get some idea of this love between husband and wife by reading the postscript of Chapterhouse: Dune. The death of Beverly tugs at the heart, as does the death of the great man himself, when it comes. You can empathize with Brian Herbert and his struggles getting to know and love his brilliant, driven, and difficult-to-know father.

There are flaws with the book, though. There are many places where passages repeat. I also found it odd how Herbert would alternate between calling Frank "Dad" or "Frank Herbert." Sort of like the discomfort one might feel hearing a friend address their parents by first name instead of "Mom" or "Dad." One gets the feeling that anything the author experienced personally was attributed to "Dad" while anything the author looked up was attributed to "Frank Herbert." And, of course, the author didn't deliver the goods when it came to some of the intellectual aspects of his father's work. Everyone asks an author, "Where do you get your ideas?" Brian Herbert answers a few of these questions with regard to Dune and other stories, but not enough. I suppose one would have to read a more "lit-crit" analysis of Frank Herbert's work to know where he acquired his unique, super-cerebral style or lofty political insights. Having read a couple of Brian Herbert's books, I'm afraid he doesn't know, either. The prequels he's written have not matched the father's work, much to my dismay.

So, bottom-line, if you want a good father-son story that just happens to involve a famous author you might like, by all means, read this book. If you're looking for an intellectual analysis of this SF colossus, you will have to look elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: I loved it, but it's not for everyone
Review: A reader usually does not pick up the biography of an author unless seriously interested in that writer's work. I've bought and read most of Herbert's works, and have found them uniformly fascinating and mind-expanding. What interests me most about SF writers I admire is the intellectual content--the level of depth they put into their writing--and I'm always curious about where they get their information. Unfortunately, Brian Herbert did not deliver those particular goods.

That said, I gave this book four stars because it moved me. This was a very interesting, smart man, and his works have greatly impacted my views and my writing. He presents his father from a truly unique perspective. Perhaps Hemingway's kids wrote about life with "the great man," but otherwise I haven't seen many sons-writing-about-their-fathers books. Maybe I was just affected by the father-son dynamic of the book. (Herbert had another brother, Bruce, who was apparently estranged from his father because he was homosexual). Perhaps, if viewed from that perspective, Brian Herbert's book deserves to be called a triumph. You can read it and respond to it even if you aren't a science fiction fan.

This, then, is the story of the Herbert family, a group of itinerant travelers who centered its collective life around the father in order to ensure the success of his career-as seen through the eyes of the "number one son." There is also a remarkable love story here, that between Frank Herbert and Beverly Stuart, his wife. Fans can get some idea of this love between husband and wife by reading the postscript of Chapterhouse: Dune. The death of Beverly tugs at the heart, as does the death of the great man himself, when it comes. You can empathize with Brian Herbert and his struggles getting to know and love his brilliant, driven, and difficult-to-know father.

There are flaws with the book, though. There are many places where passages repeat. I also found it odd how Herbert would alternate between calling Frank "Dad" or "Frank Herbert." Sort of like the discomfort one might feel hearing a friend address their parents by first name instead of "Mom" or "Dad." One gets the feeling that anything the author experienced personally was attributed to "Dad" while anything the author looked up was attributed to "Frank Herbert." And, of course, the author didn't deliver the goods when it came to some of the intellectual aspects of his father's work. Everyone asks an author, "Where do you get your ideas?" Brian Herbert answers a few of these questions with regard to Dune and other stories, but not enough. I suppose one would have to read a more "lit-crit" analysis of Frank Herbert's work to know where he acquired his unique, super-cerebral style or lofty political insights. Having read a couple of Brian Herbert's books, I'm afraid he doesn't know, either. The prequels he's written have not matched the father's work, much to my dismay.

So, bottom-line, if you want a good father-son story that just happens to involve a famous author you might like, by all means, read this book. If you're looking for an intellectual analysis of this SF colossus, you will have to look elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Ghastly writing, some interesting content
Review: After about 60 pages into this book, I was wondering - where were the editors at Tor when this was being made ready for publication? It is incredibly repetitious, there must be at least 4 different places where Brian Herbert writes that the seed idea for the Bene Gesserit was from Frank Herberts group of strong minded Roman Catholic aunts. Or, that a haiku is a 17 syllable Japanese poem. I could go on, but I think I've made the point.

As others have mentioned, it is more of a family biography than a biography of Frank Herbert himself. There is far more about Brian Herbert in this work than I expected (or wanted).

I think a good editor could have reduced this mess from a bloated 576 pages to a nice tight 300 pages.

It was only my curiosity about Frank Herbert and the love I had for the first few Dune novels during my youth that enabled me to persist, via skimming.

I certainly hope this will not be the "definitive biography" of Frank Herbert.

Rating:
Summary: A missed opportunity, but with some key aspects on Herbert
Review: I could call this book a "Family Biography" rather than only a bio on Frank Herbert. This is no surprise coming from the pen of his son, Brian Herbert and souldn't had implied something negative, nonetheless I feel that the result was not overall satisfactory, and an important opportunity missed by Brian Herbert.

On the good side, we get to know the intimate family life of Frank Herbert and specially his relationship with his wife Beverly and his sons.In this way we discover the man but we are far from discovering much of the writer. We hardly get any insights into many of his writings (the exception is of course Dune). I was eager to know about the origins of the Pandora Cycle, the Dune Sequels or many of the great short stories, but non of that is propoerly developed and sometimes it is only barely mentioned. We even get more details about Brian Herbert's own writings!, which seems to me a lack of sensibility on the author's part.

While not the best I would expect, "Dreamer of Dune" is certainly valuable for the most familiar aspects of Herbert which would have been unavailable otherwise. Nevertheless, we won't get the full picture of one of science fiction's grandest creators and I recommend to complement this title with other valuable sources to fully understand Herbert's achievement. Some recommendations are Frank Herbert by Timothy O'Reilly (found on the web at Tim O'Reilly's Web Page), The Maker of Dune, a collection of articles by Herbert himself on various topics and the academic works by William Touponce and Daniel Levack.

Rating:
Summary: Who's Biography?
Review: I must say that I have been waiting for this book to come out for a couple of years now, so my expectations were running pretty high.
The content of the book as far as information is very cich and interesting. No one else could have written such an accurate account of Frank Herbert's personal life like Brian Herbert has done here. He seems obsessed to the point of telling us what kind of wine they had on a certain date and with what food...sometimes a bit too much. Yes, we can all appreciate all the wonderful things Frank Herbert knew about, his extensive knowledge about many things including wine, but who cares what kind of wine he had everytime he is eating? So yes, the insider's look backfires a little but it also gives the readers all the goodies, like Frank's tempers and his obsessions, and seems not to hold back on anything. At times I didn't know if I liked the Dune creator...
What was really bad was the author talking about his writing and his career. Who the hell cares about the caracters in his novels? It rather made me feel sorry for Brian at times, he seems to be a person without an identity, always emulating his father(He signs a book just like his father did-crossing out the printed name). It just feels he went on a free ride here, I bought the book to find out about Frank Herbert, and ended up finding out as much about Brian Herbert's writing, which was very sad.

Rating:
Summary: Ghastly writing, some interesting content
Review: I think that to appreciate fine art you must know the artist.
This book is a biography of Frank Herbert written by his son, Brian Herbert. Frank Herbert was best known for his Dune chronicles, but also wrote many other books including nonfiction and was a newspaper journalist for many years. Brian Herbert did a worthy job of providing vivid details about growing up with his father Frank Herbert. Frank Herbert was a rare science fiction writer who understood how to write about possible futures and hold the reader's interest. Brian Herbert follows closely on the heels of his father and writes an interesting and detailed biography. Frank Herbert, a highly acclaimed author, and justifiably so, had the ability to look beyond old habits, myths and superstition to go past the limits most people set for themselves. The book contains a medley of fascinating anecdotes as well as thoroughly researched accounts of the successes and failures of Frank Herbert. I especially liked the descriptions of how Frank Herbert worked at writing and how unbelievably energetic and exuberant he was in the many years before he was finally so very successful. The book is also a very personal and touching story of Brian's relationship with his father. Frank Herbert died in 1986, but we are still blessed with his literary work. I feel I can better understand his work having read this biography.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Biography of a unique person
Review: I think that to appreciate fine art you must know the artist.
This book is a biography of Frank Herbert written by his son, Brian Herbert. Frank Herbert was best known for his Dune chronicles, but also wrote many other books including nonfiction and was a newspaper journalist for many years. Brian Herbert did a worthy job of providing vivid details about growing up with his father Frank Herbert. Frank Herbert was a rare science fiction writer who understood how to write about possible futures and hold the reader's interest. Brian Herbert follows closely on the heels of his father and writes an interesting and detailed biography. Frank Herbert, a highly acclaimed author, and justifiably so, had the ability to look beyond old habits, myths and superstition to go past the limits most people set for themselves. The book contains a medley of fascinating anecdotes as well as thoroughly researched accounts of the successes and failures of Frank Herbert. I especially liked the descriptions of how Frank Herbert worked at writing and how unbelievably energetic and exuberant he was in the many years before he was finally so very successful. The book is also a very personal and touching story of Brian's relationship with his father. Frank Herbert died in 1986, but we are still blessed with his literary work. I feel I can better understand his work having read this biography.

Rating:
Summary: A Sons Books About His Father
Review: I thought this was a nice ode by Brian Herbert to his father. Some reviewers felt it was hatchet job, but all Brian Herbert is doing is presenting an honest picture of his father. No, he was not perfect, not a great father, and a little strange; but then, that's how he was. If you're looking for some insight into how Frank Herbert struggled and slaved to create the Dune universe, this the perfect book to read. It shows us how long Frank struggled until he finally came upon the idea for his greatest novel; moreover, it shows the great love he had for his wife, his muse Beverly, and how much he truly loved his children, even though he wasn't always capable of showing it. The major negative for me was that it was so "Brian-centric," but then it was more about Brian's relationship with his father and how they got past their early problems and developed a close personal and professional relationship. This book is an excellent ode by a son to his father, and especially to his mother.

Rating:
Summary: A Sons Books About His Father
Review: I thought this was a nice ode by Brian Herbert to his father. Some reviewers felt it was hatchet job, but all Brian Herbert is doing is presenting an honest picture of his father. No, he was not perfect, not a great father, and a little strange; but then, that's how he was. If you're looking for some insight into how Frank Herbert struggled and slaved to create the Dune universe, this the perfect book to read. It shows us how long Frank struggled until he finally came upon the idea for his greatest novel; moreover, it shows the great love he had for his wife, his muse Beverly, and how much he truly loved his children, even though he wasn't always capable of showing it. The major negative for me was that it was so "Brian-centric," but then it was more about Brian's relationship with his father and how they got past their early problems and developed a close personal and professional relationship. This book is an excellent ode by a son to his father, and especially to his mother.

Rating:
Summary: A great read for the devoted Herbert fan.
Review: I'm actually only part of the way into the book, so this review is provisional. However, only a few of chapters in and I am enjoying it thoroughly. This book I think will be greatly enjoyed by any big fan of Frank Herbert. His Dune, and other, novels and short stories have enchanted millions around the world. As popular as they are, it is amazing that Herbert, who died in '96, is so enigmatic. This substantial biography (it's fairly long) will wipe away the mystery, and really give a detailed view into what shaped his writing, his values, and his life.

Brian Herbert knows his audience, and jumps right in providing links between Frank's life and the Dune stories (and others) almost right off the bat. These little morsels are sprinkled throughout descriptions of Frank's growing up near Tacoma, WA and his later years. The complex layering of political, religious and scientific belief systems evident in the Dune chronicles is revealed as you spend time with Frank Herbert during some of his childhood adventures and experiences.

In places, you may feel like you are reading passages from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Frank Herbert had a truly amazing childhood, and the telling of it can make you wish for simpler times.

I am not generally a big fan of biographies. However, this one (so far) is well written, and discusses one of the most important and least understood icons in all of literature, let alone science fiction. Furthermore, having read other works from Brian Herbert, I would say that Brian Herbert's emotion and devotion to his father comes through clearly without being syrupy or pedantic. This is arguably one of his best written works, if not the best.