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I'm quite a fan of Dune. I think it's an intricate work of political intrigue in a feudal setting in the far future. Herbert's prohibition of “thinking machines” from his universe enabled this stark contrast of futuristic technology and old-fashioned manpower, allowing his characters to inhabit an interstellar empire while keeping all their worries human worries, focused on human ambition and goals.

Messiah and Children spoil the fine balance slightly by introducing new technologies, but the early stages of the Golden Path, the connections to family dynasties, and the off-stage jihad, broaden Herbert's lens, giving the developing work even more of an epic tone while keeping it grounded in human affairs in the small.

God Emperor is quite gripping for people who, like me, enjoy trying to read sense into narrative that is short of it, but the God Emperor's endless monologuing draws it out far past the length it should be, and there are no strong characters. Perhaps Herbert is trying to make the point, crucial to the plot, that you can't have strong characters in a universe that contains a near-omniscient, prescient, almost indestructible being, and that they are all puppets to him; even if this is true, it doesn't make it any easier to read.

Heretics and Chapterhouse return to the old-style political intrigues, but never attain the grace of the original Dune. The balance of power has shifted now, and the plot focuses on the Bene Gesserit far too strongly.

Then, disaster of disasters, Frank Herbert met his Maker. After a gap of some years, his son Brian teamed up with Kevin J. Anderson and wrote a trilogy of prequels, set a generation before the events of the first Dune. They were inexpertly written, but entertaining. Because you know the situation the book has to finish with, it is somewhat like watching a very corny horror film, where you know the female lead is going to try to escape upstairs, and you know she shouldn't try to hide in the bathroom.

The second set of trilogies, set in the far past of Dune, lacked this factor, and all the things I mentioned in the first paragraph, but they kept the same slightly cheap writing. As a fan of the series with a good memory (and having re-read the proper Dune books before starting) it was interesting to see how they arranged everything to set up all the historical background that we already knew from the earlier books.

And now, Herbert junior and Anderson have shot into the future. Hunters, and its sequel Sandworms (which I haven't read), continue the story where Chapterhouse left off. We are awaiting the identity of the mysterious Enemy from outside the known universe, and there is a distinct shortage of spice in the Old Empire.

It will be obvious from the first few pages that the Enemy do not arrive in any real way in the first book, though their identity is made clear. The intent is that it be made clear in a Shocking Revelation in the last few pages, but the authors telegraph it so strongly that anyone should be able to spot it by the time they've read half the book, if they haven't guessed before starting. The authors also introduce a character, the Oracle of Time, who it is said the Guild Navigators have been communing with since the foundation of the Guild; this leaves me wondering why this Oracle has never been mentioned before. The Oracle is the subject of another Shocking Revelation at the end, but the identity and nature of the Oracle is also obvious from early on.

Apart from that, not very much happens. There is quite a common ploy in modern sf books that are trying to be epic, for padding the plot into more pages. You simply have two or three sets of characters. Each set interacts among themselves, but the sets never meet (or only meet at the end). Write a few short paragraphs explaining the situation one set finds itself in. Then write a few paragraphs of one character's thoughts on the situation, or two characters talking over lunch about their situation, or even better, one of the characters having a Mysterious Vision, dream, prophecy, &c. This should come to two or three pages, so call it a chapter. Repeat this for each set of characters. Then write a page (or just insert a note) to show that some time has passed. Now go back to each set of characters. Write the same description of the same situation, inserting the word “still” a few times. Pick a different character from the set and write his thoughts on the situation, or make him have a dream, or better yet, make him discover a mysterious artifact, or receive a garbled transmission, which is the sf equivalent of a minor character saying “I know who did it! The murderer wa—aaggghghgh!” Go round all your sets of characters. By the time you've covered all the characters in all the sets, that is at least two dozen chapters. By then, the reader will have forgotten the first characters you mentioned, so will appreciate a reminder of their thoughts on the situation, perhaps accompanied by them talking about their childhood or by a sex scene.

This is how Hamilton manages to write the Night's Dawn trilogy, which is roughly 3500 pages filled by a two-hundred-page plot. It's how film directors make a three- or four-hour miniseries about a nuclear disaster or train wreck which takes 10 minutes. It's also how Herbert and Anderson manage to write the more than 600 pages of Hunters without anything actually happening. There are one or two battles, but they fizzle out without any real fighting. There are some sex scenes, quite risqué ones I thought, but without the emotional ties that make them meaningful. There are two or three negotiation scenes, but between them they have less subtlety than Prime Minister's Questions.

It pains me to have nothing good to say about a book, but all I can manage this case is that the book isn't that bad of itself. Even for the most hardcore Dune fans, even those who were willing to stick out the mediocre prequels just because they featured the characters and factions we have come to know and love, I can't bring myself to recommend Hunters. It won't give you a new insight into Duncan Idaho's character. It won't make any progress towards a sense of resolution, or fill the hole left by the dangling plot at the end of Chapterhouse. It will just bore you to tears and take up time you could have more profitably spent reading a good book.