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Frank Herbert and Brian Herbert - Man of Two Worlds
Posted: 06 Oct 2008 18:04
by SimonH
Is Man of Two Worlds worth buying?
My FH collection is nearly complete. I was going to buy The Santaroga Barrier on ebay, but shipping will be better with more books from the same dude. The only thing that he has for sale that I don't have is Man of Two Worlds.
I remember reading some disparaging remarks about BH's contributions to this book
Posted: 06 Oct 2008 18:48
by SandChigger
I bought a used copy through the Amazon sellers back during the summer; had a glance through it but haven't read it yet. (It arrived during or soon after my plough through Brian's silly
Sidney's Comet, so I really wasn't in the mood for more of his shit. It's still in a near-bed book pile, and glares at me every night and morning.
)
My impression from the quick glance was that it's a bit silly, FWIW.
Posted: 06 Oct 2008 19:17
by SimonH
hmmm. silly FH is my least favourite FH. Let alone BH input...
I may buy it just to move towards completing the collection
Posted: 06 Oct 2008 20:40
by Omphalos
Lots of people say it is good. I suppose parts of it were (
) but most of it sucked soiled ass.
Posted: 07 Oct 2008 05:02
by Lundse
It's been a long time since I read it, but from memory:
The premise is an OK, standard, sci-fi romp - you can tell it is Frank doing it, though, and sometimes interesting bits shine through. But never as well in his better works, and I found nothing truly new about it which was not repeated better elsewhere.
Posted: 07 Oct 2008 08:43
by Mr. Teg
Lundse wrote:It's been a long time since I read it, but from memory:
The premise is an OK, standard, sci-fi romp - you can tell it is Frank doing it, though, and sometimes interesting bits shine through. But never as well in his better works, and I found nothing truly new about it which was not repeated better elsewhere.
I just reread in Dreamer of Dune how Frank would always consent to basically any changes Brian wanted to make or if he didn't approve of the direction Frank wanted to take with something.
I'm assuming Brain mentions this the way he did to prove that he had a certain level of talent validated by his Dad, but I can't help but wonder given the context of the situation, his Dad was simply focusing on the relationship with his son.
Posted: 07 Oct 2008 08:56
by Freakzilla
It's along the lines of...
Son: Dad, watch me!
<kid twirls around awkwardly, falls and busts his lip on the coffee table>
Dad: That's great son!
Happens at my house all the time.
Posted: 07 Oct 2008 09:11
by Mr. Teg
Freakzilla wrote:It's along the lines of...
Son: Dad, watch me!
<kid>
Dad: That's great son!
Happens at my house all the time.
Exactly
Posted: 07 Oct 2008 09:42
by Lisan Al-Gaib
SandChigger wrote:I bought a used copy through the Amazon sellers back during the summer; had a glance through it but haven't read it yet. (It arrived during or soon after my plough through Brian's silly
Sidney's Comet, so I really wasn't in the mood for more of his shit. It's still in a near-bed book pile, and glares at me every night and morning.
)
My impression from the quick glance was that it's a bit silly, FWIW.
I'm in the same situation, I bought this book too, but I'm so interested in read another things that I couldn't start reading it yet
I didn't get into the plot so much...
Posted: 07 Oct 2008 15:52
by SandChigger
IIRC the book came out after Frank has passed on, right?
It's hard to tell how close what finally got published is to the last version he saw/approved before he died. (I don't suppose Brian discusses that aspect in Dreamer?)
Posted: 08 Oct 2008 14:52
by DuneFishUK
SandChigger wrote:IIRC the book came out after Frank has passed on, right?
It's hard to tell how close what finally got published is to the last version he saw/approved before he died. (I don't suppose Brian discusses that aspect in Dreamer?)
It's 1986 - so yeah it probably will have.
I seem to remember it felt like a solid old sf concept with a definite FH edge to it, but everything is pretty colours and there's a thick layer of pointless aesthetic crud to pad it out.
(Just had a look at the author photo on the back of my copy - damn Brian looked young back then...)
Posted: 08 Oct 2008 15:25
by A Thing of Eternity
I haven't read it since I was really young, but I remember thinking that whoever wrote it was either writing for children or was really high. I'd have to read it again to give you an honest opinion on it.
Posted: 08 Oct 2008 15:27
by Freakzilla
A Thing of Eternity wrote:I haven't read it since I was really young, but I remember thinking that whoever wrote it was either writing for children or was really high.
Why not both?
Posted: 08 Oct 2008 16:10
by A Thing of Eternity
Freakzilla wrote:A Thing of Eternity wrote:I haven't read it since I was really young, but I remember thinking that whoever wrote it was either writing for children or was really high.
Why not both?
I said
high not
drunk.
Posted: 08 Oct 2008 16:14
by SandChigger
Ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch!
Posted: 08 Oct 2008 16:15
by Freakzilla
A Thing of Eternity wrote:Freakzilla wrote:A Thing of Eternity wrote:I haven't read it since I was really young, but I remember thinking that whoever wrote it was either writing for children or was really high.
Why not both?
I said
high not
drunk.
Maybe Frank was high and Brian was writing for children (as if he could do anything else).
Posted: 11 Oct 2008 02:42
by SandChigger
I pulled the book out of the pile this morning and just had a look at the dustcover inner-flap text. A few interesting points.
ISBN 0-399-13132-9
>$18.95
(Not bad for a hardcover in '86? I forget how much I paid for it. More for postage than for the book, tho.)
MAN OF TWO WORLDS
FRANK HERBERT AND BRIAN HERBERT
The first-time pairing of the incredible talents of two Herberts, father and son, delivers a brilliant blend of exciting science fiction adventure and slightly outrageous comedy. Double the enjoyment!
Frank Herbert, one of the world's most popular and successful science fiction authors, is best known for the Dune books. The six volumes that have appeared to date in the fabulous future-world saga are celebrated as serious, highly philosophical books of tremendous scope. Mr. Herbert's son, Brian, is a widely acclaimed author in his own right whose works are full of wacky, offbeat humor.
In Man of Two Worlds, their first collaboration, the reader is treated to a glimpse of the lighter side of Frank Herbert and the more serious side of Brian Herbert. Here, these two writers combine their prolific talents to create a charming science fiction adventure story replete with the fascinating elements we expect from the creator of Dune and peppered liberally with enough stabs of wit and improbable situations to mark it clearly as the send-up it is meant to be.
Send-up or not, Man of Two Worlds is a story with a compelling premise:
Suppose all of Earth—all of the universe—were the creation of the fertile imagination of an alien world; suppose too that we had reached the point of being able to destroy that world, without realizing it was our creator, without knowing that its destruction would virtually erase our existence. And suppose that the future of both races lay in the hands of a confused man who is half greedy, aggressive human and half precocious, naive teenage alien!
A masterful concept, masterfully and wittily presented and resolved, makes for the Herberts' newest bestseller.
Frank Herbert is the world-renowned author of Dune and over two dozen other books of science fiction. Brian Herbert, author of The Garbage Chronicles, Sidney's Comet, and most recently Sudanna, Sudanna, lives in the state of Washington.
I love how the author of the blurb ends that last line: "...lives in the state of Washington." Like they had nothing more they could say about him.
Nah...sorry, but just from that description, I already kinda know that this one really isn't going to do it for me. I'll probably read it someday, but not any time soon. (Maybe I'm wrong, but that "teenage alien" bit makes me think "YA".)