Frank Herbert's Non-Dune Books

Have any of yall read any of Frank Herbert's non-Dune books? (I did a search but didn't find any previous posts about this).

I'm about to finish up Chapterhouse: Dune, then Murderbot #7, but I'm thinking about diving into some of Herbert's other books. I've never read any of his work outside his Dune series (and I have no intention of reading the Brian Herbert Dune books). I like Dune because I like science fiction that doesn't spoon feed you the story, has complex characters, that doesn't involve killer robots/killer AI or space aliens (Shai Hulud is fine, but Shai Hulud isn't like Star Trek or Star Wars sentient space aliens)

I'm thinking:
Hellstrom's Hive (reminds me of a technothriller, dystopian Dredd/F451 vibes)
Direct Descent (reminds me a bit of Asimov's Foundation)
Destination: Void (has killer AI but I'm willing to give it a shot)
The Godmakers

Intrinsic said:

Not related but what are your thoughts on Tchaikovsky? I see posts all the time about the Children of Time series but have never given anything of his a shot.

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I was just talking about Children of Time earlier on a different thread lol.

I read Children of Time in about 5-6 days. That's the only time I've crushed a 600+ page book that fast. It was one of the best science fiction books I've ever read and highly recommend it. Albeit, it may have been lightning in a bottle. I've read about 1/2 of Children of Ruin (the sequel), and 1/2 of Doors of Eden (a fantasy book of his), and tbh, I didn't like either and DNF them. I might try his Dogs of War book at one point, but not in any rush after the last two books of his I didn't like. I have bought Children of Time several times as gifts and every time it's a smash hit.

Intrinsic said:

A few have come up on Broken Binding for trade but I avoided it bc I tend to not buy physical or limited copies unless it ranks high on my list. Wil try it out after the next couple on my list.

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Do you have a kindle? I can send you the epub if you dm me your email. I prefer physical copies. Mostly bc I work on a computer screen for 9 hours a day and just need a bit of a break from screen time.

Picked up Destination Void by Herbert and it’s definitely very ”classic Scifi.” Lots of weird Scifi horror with brains in jars and ethics of cloning. Pretty interesting read so far and very different from his Dune work. Ive read all his Dune books but this is so left field for what I’m used to. It doesn’t even sound like the same narrator style he uses for Dune. Hella short chapters. Gets to the point. Very fast paced. Almost no thought bubbles (tbh I hate the thought bubbles in Dune).

he wrote this in between Dune and Dune Messiah, and definitely can see the jump to why he included Gholas in Dune Messiah. The clones in Destination Void are basically gholas. Even grown in the same axolotl tanks that the Tleilaxu grow ‘em in Dune.