I'm reading Dune ...

i couldn't finish the book. It was well writen, i tried to read it back in high school. Got like 100 pages and realized that i wasn't retaining any of the content because it just wasn't holding my intrest.

I'm embarrased to admit that. Dunno how that happened. Never opened it back up. Still own the book lol.

I only liked the first one, but I love it hugely. Genre-shaping is definitely the word.

"Fear is the mind killer". Love it. I also quite liked that he had strong female characters, which is something rather rare in SF from years ago.

I had a hard time slogging through the book. Loved the movie, but the writing style just wasn't my cup of tea.

Incidentally, I think that this thread is the appropriate place to share a particular "am I the ONLY geek in this room?" incident.

When I moved to Okinawa, my husband and I had to sit through ten hours of purgatory torture hell "island indoctrination" to fill us in on some of the idiosyncrasies of living here. One particular problem they're having is that there is an illegal drug here that is becoming a rather serious issue.

That drug is called...

...wait for it...

...spice.

So, I couldn't resist and yelled out (in a room of about 100 people), "SPICE MUST FLOW!!!"

And only three people laughed. *sigh*

Just thought I'd share.

Back to your regularly scheduled thread...

Isaac Espriu said:

However, the sequels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson? They're nothing more than glorified (but not very good) fanfic.

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Amen to THAT.

thethinker42 said:

That drug is called...

...wait for it...

...spice.

So, I couldn't resist and yelled out (in a room of about 100 people), "SPICE MUST FLOW!!!"

And only three people laughed. *sigh*

Just thought I'd share.

Back to your regularly scheduled thread...

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i would have fell out of my seat! Yeah i heard about spice too a few months ago. I knew about salvia though all the way back in 2003 Waaaaay before air force times picked up on it. When i heard about spice I had a Hmm moment as well.

I probably would have come back with, "She IS the quazat's Hadarak!"

It's been years since I've read them, but I loved the Dune series (up to the point Mr. Herbert died.)

I remember being surprised that I enjoyed it, because I couldn't imagine liking a story that spans thousands of years in a single book. I didn't think I could become as invested in a concept as I could stories of individuals. But I was wrong. Yay, me!

Marcus said:

i would have fell out of my seat! Yeah i heard about spice too a few months ago. I knew about salvia though all the way back in 2003 Waaaaay before air force times picked up on it. When i heard about spice I had a Hmm moment as well.

I probably would have come back with, "She IS the quazat's Hadarak!"

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HAHAHAH Geeks of the world, UNITE!

People may have also been afraid to laugh because I'd already heckled the chaplain (he deserved it) and the IG (he especially deserved it). They were probably afraid of guilt by association.

/Derail

I slogged. I quit. Though I have enough desire to read it that the PDF is on my flash drive on my keychain.

Love the movies but I too could not get through the book >_< I tried but it was like wading through very thick mud. Maybe if I tried again now that I'm older... I have no problem with the span of the storyline since I LOVE the Ender series (Orson Scott Card) and that's also over a few thousand years. If you haven't read Card's Ender and Shadow books, you're missing out, get thee to a bookstore!

Official lolcat of this thread:

I really liked Dune. (Although it was what put the final nail in the coffin for my dislike of The Wheel of Time series.)

And I read the next three but stopped with God Emperor of Dune. By that point the social/psychological/philosophical commentary disguised as narrative was just a little too thick. (Not that it isn't interesting but it was presented in a heavy-handed manner that, for me, detracted from the story.) And I couldn't easily get my hands on the other two.

I will probably read them again at some point, but not any time soon because they were (at least after the first two) kind of a thick read.

I read the first book back when I was a teen, or early twenties, I can't remember. Maybe I read more than one book, maybe just the first one. Still, the book sucked me in big time. I couldn't get enough of it. The movie was fun to watch, since at the time I had still retained some of the nuances of the book.

I figure if I can read Tolkien a dozen times in my lifetime, I can handle Herbert LOL!

Thanks for reminding me. I should pick up another copy and read it again. The world building was fantastic.

Dune and the sequels are terriffic reads. Some of my favorite sff of all time, actually. I haven't read Dune in about ten years, so I'm due a reread. Thanks for reminding me!

I started reading Frank Herbert in the 70s when I was in high school and became an instant fan. Whipping Star, Godmakers, White Plague, Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, The Dosadi Experiment, The Jesus Incident... so many good ones. I think Whipping Star is actually my favorite, though.

Loved Dune. Wife loved Dune. We both loved the Lynch version and the mini-series version they aired on Sci-Fi.

Still need to read Messiah and Children.

When I tried reading it in 5th grade, it was a bit over my head. Read it again in high school and loved it.

Like others, I also cheer the excellent worldbuilding.

Isaac Espriu said:

However, the sequels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson? They're nothing more than glorified (but not very good) fanfic.

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I was looking forward to checking them out but then read somewhere that they both considered the Dune Encyclopedia by McNelly to be non-canon. Now I understood the Encyclopedia to be based on the info in the original Herbert novels. Calling it non-canon just seemed silly so I passed on the new series.

Count me in the camp of I Freaking Love Dune Even Though There's No Explanation Why They Have Oxygen On A Desert Planet. The first book is magic, the second book was decent, and the other sequels were deathly and couldn't get through them all. I think Herbert's style is really dense and hard to read, which works in the high tension of the plot of Dune, but it fails in the others.

Isaac Espriu said:

It's one of my favorite SF books of all time. Genre-shaping in many ways that we don't even realize, i think.

However, the sequels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson? They're nothing more than glorified (but not very good) fanfic.

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Yeah, I actually saw KJ Anderson talking on a panel extensively about his Dune books and the massive amount of effort, passion, and Frank-Herbert-worship that he put into writing them, but I just can't bring myself to read them (thought I like Anderson's writing). Must all brilliant writers who die with sequel notes tucked away on their hard drive have those sequels written by other people? Talk about law of diminishing returns.

Kitty Pryde said:

Count me in the camp of I Freaking Love Dune Even Though There's No Explanation Why They Have Oxygen On A Desert Planet.

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I thought oxygen was created from the worms. Something about their metabolism or some such.

I think I read that somewhere. Let me see if I can find it...

Dune was the second sci-fi book I read, when I was a young and impressionable 14. Loved it, then, still reread it fairly often now.

The rest of the series I could take or leave, though I mostly enjoy Herbert.

I thought oxygen was created from the worms. Something about their metabolism or some such.

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Worm farts? They breathe worm farts? 0.0

*raises hand in embarrassment* I haven't read the book. It's one of those ones I always mean to get around to, but never quite do. Loved the film though.

AceTachyon said:

I thought oxygen was created from the worms. Something about their metabolism or some such.

I think I read that somewhere. Let me see if I can find it...

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If the worms make oxygen, that's awful biology! And there just aren't that many worms on Dune. But no, there was nothing about it in the first two books I think, but I wouldn't be shocked if he retconned something in later.

I LOVE Dune! I think I'll re-read it this summer since it's been awhile, but I enjoyed the depth Herbert put into the book.

Isaac Espriu said:

However, the sequels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson? They're nothing more than glorified (but not very good) fanfic.

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So true. I read the first two books of the Butlerian Jihad prequel trilogy: read the first because I was curious, slugged through the second hoping it would be better, never picked up the third.

I honestly wish their was a ban against writing anymore Dune prequels; it drags down the quality of the original series.

AceTachyon said:

I thought oxygen was created from the worms. Something about their metabolism or some such.

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I thought the worms created the 'spice' through their metabolism. If not, then I totally misunderstood.

I will quote dparteso except modified:

See post #13 in this thread, just to save me repeating myself:

DUNE, Revisited
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138288

Quick version: Didn't like it.

jst5150 said:

Not RE-reading. Reading. I've never read the book. I loved the movie in all its Kyle Maclaughlin-Patrick Stewart-Jurgen Prochnow-Sting goodness. However, for some reason, the book has alluded my eyeballs for a number of reasons that include a lying ex-wife and its scarcity in the middle of the Middle East.

So far, it's Bonzer.

Discuss.

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I read the book in high school. Loved it. Hated the movie when it finally came out.