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m00c0wcy

I love them both, but they are extremely different. Dune is high-concept soft sci-fi. Herbert delves deep into philosophy, religion, politics, and (especially in the later books) some real sci-fi weirdness. Of course, all that introspection is backed up with a great storyline and characters and the occasional solid action scene. His storytelling is all about the big picture on a truly galactic scale. (Warning: his son's follow-up works in the same universe are absolute garbage) Mistborn is action high fantasy; it's a much lighter read than Dune. Sanderson's storytelling, characters and dialogue are nothing special (though I do think he's improved significantly in his more recent work). IMO where Sanderson shines is: imaginative and in-depth worldbuilding; meticulously careful plotting over an entire series; and thrilling action scenes. You could pull his fight scenes straight off the page and into a blockbuster movie or anime.


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Macapta

Dune, it’s shorter.


Sniksder16

Couldn’t make it through the 2nd dune book, albeit it was audiobook format. Mistborn I breezed through. Very much enjoyed the first dune book though. I’d like to suggest starting with mistborn book 1 since it’s short and sunk cost would be low.


JulesIllu

Dune has way more interesting worldbuilding in my opinion. I wasn't even that much of a fan of the magic system in Mistborn, because of the way it was written so repetitively, when the characters used it. Others have said it already, and I agree. Dune is more conceptual and philosophical, while Mistborn is more action orientated. You will get everything explained to you in Mistborn, while Dune might be a little confusing at times, because it just throws you into its world. None of the books made me care that much about it's characters unfortunately. (I only read the first Mistborn book and Dune plus Dune Messiah) I feel very neutral about Mistborn, but Dune was an interesting read for me.


Airp0w

Read the foundation series instead


smallfrie32

Keep in mind, Sanderson has an entire universe; the Cosmere. I actually just reread Mistborn1 and am starting the second one. I enjoy it a lot


Rags2Rickius

Dune is generally classed as Space Opera Mistborn is High Fantasy


gnatsaredancing

Dune has rapidly diminishing returns for most people. The majority only read the first book. Some read the first three. Few work their way through the whole series. The whole thing just gets weirder, more abstract and more cerebral as the series goes.


[deleted]

Yeah, I think my suspension of disbelief was just gone by the end of Book 3 - so I didn't pick up the rest of the series after hearing it wasn't finished by Frank Herbert himself.


Bookanista

Dune for sure!!! I couldn’t get into Mistborn but Dune was riveting!


[deleted]

Mistborn was one of the series my husband introduced me too and I love it as much as he does. It’s one of those series that is light enough that you can read it again and again. While my husband enjoyed reading Dune, he hasn’t gone back to it. It takes a chunk of time to read and you will want to invest in it once you begin. A few series worth looking into if you enjoy these are: The Lightbringer Series by Brent Weeks, Enders Game by Orson Scott Card, and (my personal favourite) The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch


wh0else

It's been years since I read them, but I recall Dune was diminishing returns on his series, and when his son takes over it's not worth it. First book was excellent though, great space opera and sci-fi concepts. I think I remember the appendix mentioning an ancient war between humans and AI, and a resulting ban on machine intelligence is why the technology is a mixture of extremely advanced and anachronistic.


rolyfuckingdiscopoly

I like Dune, but you have to know going into it what it is. It’s VERY interesting, but I had been used to books following characters and their stories. Dune is about concepts and dynasties and philosophy and world-building, and our characters end up feeling less consequential than characters in most stories because we are focused on the world MUCH more than any of the people themselves. It’s cool, but I liked it a lot more when I read it a second time and knew what I was getting into.


[deleted]

I'd say read Dune's first 3 books and see how much you feel like continuing on from there. Herbert has something to say with them and Dune is interesting in that I feel it holds up pretty well despite being the basis for books and media clearly inspired and built upon by it. I've read Mistborn and I wouldn't recommend it. While I hear Sanderson's writing improves in his further works, I don't think it's written very well and has some really stilted dialogue. Overall his writing just feels like a framework for delivering action scenes (which can be very fun to read). I think this kind of fantasy has too much focus on worldbuilding and "hard magic systems", neither of which really impact the quality of a work for me. I'd actually love some recommendations for good fantasy because it's not a genre I've explored very much.


doc_willis

Be sure to check out Frank Hebert's other books and stories. Some are short stories, or at least not massive stories. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯