Reply To: What are you reading?
Once you’ve read the second Dune, you’ll want the third; those two form a coherent whole, and the first big time jump happens after three. Four sort of finishes up the ecological story, and is where I’d stop if I ever read them again, but there’s really only one or two plot points left after three that, if you care about those particular details, would make four “necessary”. Five through seven were pretty clearly intended to be a trilogy, but since Herbert died at the end of six, it’s instead a really unsatisfying conclusion.
The prequels are not good, and it’s a shame. Brian Herbert had the makings of a promising career before he teamed up with KJA.