Frank Herbert
- FRANK HERBERT - A black ink and gray pencil drawing on an 11 x 14 size vellum paper. It appears on the cover of "STARMONT READER'S GUIDE No. 5".
Frank Herbert became rich and famous for writing "DUNE" books. I read the first two Dune novels when they were originally published as magazine serials in Analog SF back in the 1960s. The first "Dune" novel was great. The second; "Dune World" was very good. I never got around to reading all the other Dune sequels.
Way back in the early 1950s, when the public had no idea that flying to the moon was possible, I was having lunch at work at the Curtiss Wright Electronics Division in NJ. And while eating my sandwich I read, "The Martian Chronicles," a paperback by Ray Bradbury. A co-worker frowned when he saw the title and commented, "You read science fiction? How can you waste your time reading about people who never lived, doing things that never happened?"
Well, I believe that any work of fiction that is worth reading says something meaningful about us humans and the way we live, something worth knowing or thinking about. A good writer uses his fictional people and their story to do that. And that is what I told my co-worker.
After reading the first two Dune novels I sensed that Herbert was going to ride his giant sand worms into an endless series of books that led to no conclusion, and I was not prepared to follow him. I decided that Dune had nothing more for me worth thinking about. As the saying goes, I have so many other books to read, and so little time . . .
Feel Free to add your Comments about this Artwork
Please do not abuse this feature or it will be removed, Keep it clean, keep it classy, keep it respectful