To read or not to read

[DuneFishUK]

if the writing is overwrought or over-the-top to start with, Brick makes it worse - almost to the point of satire.

If POD had been read straight I don't think I would have made it. Gurney's ridiculous scottish (I think ) accent got me through.

He does ok in GEOD - a straight-up Simon Vance version would be my preference, but Brick doesn't ruin it at all.

[TheDukester]

I think how Brick sounds depends very much on the material.

Brick is material-dependent. There are times when you can almost tell he's not interested; in those cases, he's very average, indeed.

In terms of his McDune efforts (of which I've listened to some passages here and there), there's only so much he can do. TheKJA's prose is so amazingly poor — "This happened. Then this happened. Then this other thing happened." — that no voice actor can possibly save it. Orson Welles would have sounded like a punk amateur if he had been forced to read Sandworms.

[niño-gusano]

Recently a copy of Hunters has landed into my hands and I have decided to read it. SandChigger, I am following your advice, I haven´t wasted a penny (in fact, it´s an illegal copy).
I am looking forward to finish it and come back here!!!

[A Thing of Eternity]

Hunters wasn't so bad, of the books of theirs I read (I didn't read the house series or the two newer ones from the heroes series) this was the one I dissliked the least.

It's still not any good, but at least it didn't leave me with the shakes from rage.

[Omphalos]

It's still not any good, but at least it didn't leave me with the shakes from rage.

It was absolute shit. Each book to me seems to be progressively worse.

[A Thing of Eternity]

It's still not any good, but at least it didn't leave me with the shakes from rage.

It was absolute shit. Each book to me seems to be progressively worse.

The story was total shit, but I think the overall writing was an improvement from the Legends series. Still utter shite, but better. The absolute dive bomb that the prose takes in Sadworms was truely glorious though, I've never seen anything like it, especially in two books so close to each other.

[Hunchback Jack]

I agree that the first half or two-thirds wasn't bad. I'm not sure how much of that was due to my own anticipation rather than to their ability, though. That would require me to reread it, which I won't do .

I seem to recall some real anger while reading the latter part of it, but I don't think I actually verbally abused the authors out loud until Sandworms.

This should *in no way* be considered a recommendation, though. The only possible reason to read either book is so that you can draw on first-hand experience when telling others not to read them. And even then, I'm not sure it's worth it.

HBJ

[Omphalos]

It's still not any good, but at least it didn't leave me with the shakes from rage.

It was absolute shit. Each book to me seems to be progressively worse.

The story was total shit, but I think the overall writing was an improvement from the Legends series. Still utter shite, but better. The absolute dive bomb that the prose takes in Sadworms was truely glorious though, I've never seen anything like it, especially in two books so close to each other.

Not the impression I got from the books. By the time the "final books" came out I really got the impression that they were just phonin' it in.