bobquasit | GoodReads Review: Doon

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars

A brilliant parody of Frank Herbert's Dune. Weiner's mimicry of Herbert's style is dead-on accurate. How he managed to successfully parody a huge tome in such a relatively slender book is beyond me.

I'd tried to read Dune at the age of ten, and I simply wasn't ready; I cried and threw the book across the room (not something I had ever done before or since). I bore a grudge against Frank Herbert for years. When I read Doon, I was delighted at the skewering of Herbert's style and plotting.

And yet...somehow, it led me back to Dune again. I was much older by then, and now I was ready for it; the humor of Doon added a leaven of humor to Herbert's extremely complex and dense masterpiece.

Doon lampooned Dune, literally, but not by tearing it apart. I'm not quite sure how to explain it, but Doon actually enhanced Dune, at least for me.

I can't help but wonder if Herbert read it...and if so, what he thought of it. He's not considered one of science fiction's great humorists, but I've caught a few in-jokes in his works (read the appendices to Dune carefully and you'll catch one or two). I'd like to think he'd have enjoyed Doon.

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Dood--

This is v. gratifying. It was fun to write, and get this: when it came out, I ended up at a Santa Monica s.f. book store (A Change of Hobbit--I don't know if it still exists), signing autographs at a table next to--Frank Herbert, who had pub'd (I think) vol. 4 of Dune. He was quite nice and gracious, although I don't remember if he'd read mine. The line in front of my table: 4 guys (God bless them). In front of his: 25. As it should be.

Thanks for this. I assume it's out of print, but it's always nice to be appreciated.

Best,
Ellis Weiner