posted
I tried. Read "Dune" and "Dune Messiah". Got about a third of the way through "Children of Dune" before I just couldn't take it any more and decided to turn them all back in before I clawed out my eyes. Though I did shelve them all on numerous occasions.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
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Very, very few people bother to read past Dune, for good reason.
Well, actually, I guess lots of people bother, as they were all bestsellers. But look at what sells the best. Uh, anyway, my point is that post-Dune, critical opinion tends downward.
I've cooled on the Dune books a lot since those bygone days of, oh, 1998-99, but Dune is justly considered a classic novel.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
I have the books. On a nondescript shelf. Somewhere. Where I'll never find them again. I got started in the first, but I had to put it aside because it brought on acute symptoms of Campcultishy syndrome.
Oh, the pain.
But I did have a kickass trip on that psychedelic from Lynch, so I'd like to think I know the basic story.
[ August 23, 2003, 02:23 AM: Message edited by: Cartmaniac ]
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
Got 'um all, read 'um all. The original novels pick up after 'God Emperor', 'Heretics' is my favourite though (after the original, of course.) As for 'Messiah' and 'Children', they were little more than epilogues to the classic novel.
The newer prequels by Herbert's son and Kevin J. Anderson are but pale shadows. I shudder to think what they're going to do with Dune 7, especially after such a brilliant cliff-hanger in 'Charterhouse'.
-------------------- "Lotta people go through life doing things badly. Racing's important to men who do it well. When you're racing, it's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting."
-Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney, LeMans
Registered: Mar 1999
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Maybe I'm not into very mysterious weirdo type sci fi, but starting from God Emperor of Dune, I didn't quite like it anymore. It got too weird for my taste.
I rather liked the politicking and intrigue and blowing shit up in the first 3 dune books.
Maybe because I like military sci fi the best.
-------------------- Loyalty, Vigilance, Excellence -Motto of Imperial Space Marines
Registered: May 2003
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posted
I enjoyed the whole Dune series. Like the Reverend says, it picks up again after God Emperor. Chapterhouse made for a very open-ended ending - possibly because Herbert wanted to carry it on but death intervened - but then again, Herbert tends to have very open-ended endings,if you've read his other works.
It isn't kickass space opera by any means, but I find SF has always been a genre based on ideas - perhaps Herbert just kept his ideas a little closer to the surface.
I agree that the Dune prequels are pale shadows - if you've read the sort of thing the younger Herbert and of course his collaborator Anderson come out with on their own, I suppose it was a good career move for them to piggyback on Frank Herbert's vision and turn his masterpiece into yet another SF franchise. Bleah.
I also like Herbert's Pandora trilogy - The Jesus Incident, The Lazarus Effect and The Ascencion Factor. these were co-written with Bill Ransom who completed the last volme after Herbert's death, and they explore a world and a set f basic concepts/issues as fascinating as that of Dune, if less sweeping and epic.
Registered: Sep 2003
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Mountain Man
Ex-Member
posted
Can't say that I cared much for the books though the story was great. Just too many strange concepts I guess. One prequel was printed in part in a magazine. The one where Duncan Idaho was a child being hunted for sport by some perverted freak probably a Harkonen. Not bad, he kicked booty and fled, tough kid.
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quote: Can't say that I cared much for the books though the story was great. Just too many strange concepts I guess. One prequel was printed in part in a magazine. The one where Duncan Idaho was a child being hunted for sport by some perverted freak probably a Harkonen. Not bad, he kicked booty and fled, tough kid.
That would be The Beast Rabban (beefy red-headed bloke, homicidal maniac, can't miss him.)
For me the biggest let down in the prequels was the origin story for Gurney, I was expecting Leto to actually go and rescue him from the slave pits, not have him stow away with the Duke's new blue wall. It was a little weak.
For those of you who dislike the freaky weird type of Sci-Fi that the original Dune was, there are parts in the later books which are very much the 'classic' idea of what a Sci-Fi world should be. Robots, space battles, high-tech troops, cloaking devices that sort of thing.
posted
You know I may still have those books around here somewhere. Was the part about the Robot wars that they skimmed over at the first of the old movie ever fleshed out any where. I don't remember any details about it if it was.
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