I'm on the last chapter of the latest Dune installment. Everything happens that they keep aluding to in all the other books; so, its a must read! Have any of you been keeping up?
Sean
Sean
Sandworms of Dune
- Thread starter Touch Of Death
- Start date
I love the original book. I started to read the second and then I think I got to the beginning of the third... it was freaking me out a bit that Paul was turning into a giant worm... that ... is a little too much over my head or too far-out sci-fi for me. So I never got as far as liking anything except the first book.
It was part of my annual reading list. Which is to say it was one of the books that I would read at least once a year. Know it fairly well. I know that the last line in the book is spoken by Jessica (Paul's mother) to Chani (Paul's lover) ... "we maybe concubines but history will call us wives."
It was part of my annual reading list. Which is to say it was one of the books that I would read at least once a year. Know it fairly well. I know that the last line in the book is spoken by Jessica (Paul's mother) to Chani (Paul's lover) ... "we maybe concubines but history will call us wives."
The original trilogy was something I grew up on, so when God Emperor came out I bought it... but I didn't really like it. After that, I read a few of them at the library, but I could never get into them, and after the first 2 or 3 I gave up.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #4
OK, heres the deal... Screw the originals for now. Go pick up the ones being written by his son. They are written at a much lower reading level and every thing gets spelled out like you are a twelve year old. I have read everything they have written so far and I have yet to come away disturbed or confused. I read the old ones but only now understand half the stuff he was trying to say by these new books simply and logicly explaining the old books with fast paced and intriguing story lines.
Sean
It has nothing to do with confusion; I understood the originals just fine, and I originally read them in middle school... I just didn't like the story lines in the ones after the original trilogy, and for exactly the reasons you give - the lower reading level looks to me like hack writing; there was a long gap between the originals and God Emperor, and he wrote those books because fans demanded them - and it shows.
I read to escape my job - I want novels that grab my imagination and pull me in so deeply that I don't notice that hours have gone by, books that make me think - and these don't, not for me. And it's not the reading level, either - I read all of the last Harry Potter novel in a sitting... a 6 hour sitting, granted, but still, in one sitting - because I couldn't put it down. The Dune novels after the original 3 just don't do that for me. If they do for you - great! They must for a lot of people, since they sell well... I'm just not one of the people they work for.
Yes, the original one was brilliant--an eminently readable treatise on political economics--but my enjoyment of them dropped off rapidly with volume number.
I stopped reading them after the first couple
I just lose intrest with stories that seem to never end
I just lose intrest with stories that seem to never end
I seem to be in the same park as most of the above posters. I utterly concurr that the first book in particular was a brilliant delving into an other-worldy (well, duh 
!) existence with machievellian policing turned up to eleven .
I read the original trilogy but didn't enjoy anything more than the first book. Then the others started to come out ... I dipped in and read a couple but got the distinct impression that these were 'words for cash' rather than anything else.
I might try to read through the series again just to follow the story through, as long, that is, that there is an ending.
!) existence with machievellian policing turned up to eleven .I read the original trilogy but didn't enjoy anything more than the first book. Then the others started to come out ... I dipped in and read a couple but got the distinct impression that these were 'words for cash' rather than anything else.
I might try to read through the series again just to follow the story through, as long, that is, that there is an ending.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #9
Well it really wasn't words for cash but, I think, a bit of bad editing. The final books of the original did pick up the pace, in the last two, with what I thought was an exciting conclusion with a war between two different martial arts hybrids; however, that was only part of a broader outline picked up by the son. They gave the original a comprehensive beginning and end. The words for money thing you are all getting at is not what I got out of the series at all, but Frank Herbert did tend to ramble.I seem to be in the same park as most of the above posters. I utterly concurr that the first book in particular was a brilliant delving into an other-worldy (well, duh
I read the original trilogy but didn't enjoy anything more than the first book. Then the others started to come out ... I dipped in and read a couple but got the distinct impression that these were 'words for cash' rather than anything else.
I might try to read through the series again just to follow the story through, as long, that is, that there is an ending.
Sean
Yet, if you look at some of his other works, he was quite capable of belting out a darned good story in short order e.g. Dosadi Experiment, Eyes of Heisenberg or the Green Brain.
I loved the Jesus Incident but hated it's lack of resolution of character background, situation backstory etc - too much left to the readers imagination in that case.
I loved the Jesus Incident but hated it's lack of resolution of character background, situation backstory etc - too much left to the readers imagination in that case.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #11
I have only read, "Godmakers". I just don't do a whole lot of Sci-fi.
Sean
Okay I have read them all and found the origional Dune to be the best. Still I enjoyed the rest of the father's writings but less and less each book.
Now as to the new series by the son. Well let's just say that his skill as a writer leaves alot to be imagined. To much barbarity and graphic torture make you slightly sick. Well I agree that he does spell it out and writes at a much lower level the new series well leaves alot and I do mean alot to be desired.
If Frank Herberts Dune was a 9 or a 10 on the writing scale. Then the current works by the son are a 1 or lower at best. Just my 02.
Now as to the new series by the son. Well let's just say that his skill as a writer leaves alot to be imagined. To much barbarity and graphic torture make you slightly sick. Well I agree that he does spell it out and writes at a much lower level the new series well leaves alot and I do mean alot to be desired.
If Frank Herberts Dune was a 9 or a 10 on the writing scale. Then the current works by the son are a 1 or lower at best. Just my 02.
Langenschwert
Master Black Belt
I read the original series (up to Chapterhouse), and I loved it. What I liked about it is in the first book, the protagonists are VERY human. Now the series takes place over a huge span of time, in which the very nature of humanity changes to something that's really not like us at all psycologically. The fact that the series did that convincingly is one of the great achievements of SF literature, and I think that's the whole point of the original Dune series in the first place.
Best regards,
-Mark
Best regards,
-Mark
I read the original series (up to Chapterhouse), and I loved it. What I liked about it is in the first book, the protagonists are VERY human. Now the series takes place over a huge span of time, in which the very nature of humanity changes to something that's really not like us at all psycologically. The fact that the series did that convincingly is one of the great achievements of SF literature, and I think that's the whole point of the original Dune series in the first place.
Best regards,
-Mark
Absolutely. The dune series is speculative evolution.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #15
I think you are being a bit harsh but I will agree that if you are looking for Frank Herbert-esque you won't find it with the new books but they are good reads if you ask me.
Sean
I liked his book The White Plague. I think that's the only other book of his I've read.
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