Completely different...

... but not without some similarities. Lands of people with mysterious ways, overpowering governing bodies, seemingly alien lands...

I'm enjoying one, the other is leaving me sad and disillusioned. Let's say I'm looking forward to finishing Dune Messiah so I never have to read it again. And hopefully Dune hasn't been ruined by it for me. But sometimes you do just pick the wrong book to read. Van Diemen's Land, on the other hand is an excellently well written and very readable history of Tasmania. I'm saying that as someone who doesn't ever (almost) read non-fiction for fun. It's giving me a whole new understanding of how the convict system actually worked, the relationship with the local aboriginal populations and how that became so hateful, and where today's Tasmania has come from. I highly recommend it.