Dune...

The Vault Dweller

always looking for water.
Ok...I just finished reading the book Dune by Frank Herbert yesterday. Needless to say like any great book thats very long I feel like Im on cloud 9 right now. Im just in awe of the whole book and everything represented in it.

The huge and complicated interweaving of politics, science, religion, and relationships is amazing yet easily believable. Its not unlike reading about the history of Earth at certain points. I especially love the deep scientific descriptions. Im pretty sure the author was either educated as a hobby or a proffessional since he chose to include so much about the environment of Dune and most importantly about all the interactions between its living and non-living elements. Like how Kynes was described as "single-mindedly" passionate and obsessed with understanding the cycle of Dune's life.

The ending left me feeling so uneasy, but under the circumstances it was proper. Paul...is he becoming a mystic fanatic? Has he lost his Atreides love...or is it just hidden under his harsh lessons on Arrakis?

I was dissapointed in only one insignificant way that could apply to me, but not to other readers. How Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen's character had so little to do from halfway through the story 'til the very end when he is killed in a rather simple un-explanatory manner. The thing is...when I read the description of his character he apparently looks almost exactly like me and acts with many of the same mannerisms. (except for being evil) He's described as being "furtively glancing" or "watching and thinking as though ready for action", but though he takes part in quite some violence he often carries himself in a peaceful, secluded manner. Like how he praised a slave for defeating him at a game of chess after which he had to kill him at Baron Vladimir's order.

Which reminds me. Was the Baron a homosexual? In the first scene with him and Feyd-Rautha it describes how Feyd looks by having the Baron look him over physically. At first I thought it was just admiration. Then later when Feyd sends a slave to kill the Baron, I initially thought the slave tried to kill the Baron outright, but according to him he was sliding his hand on his thing and just barely avoided the poison needle. After chastising Feyd for a failure he then has the guards bring him "Another male...and a young one at that!"

There are so many philosophical paragraphs and short excerpts in the book. I would write them down here, but I only remember them vaguely.

Anyone else read it?

Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller
 
I read it and loved it, but it's a long time ago so there are a lot of specifics I don't remember too clearly. The baron is definitely gay, though. And you don't have to wonder what happens to Paul, just go read The Prophet Of Dune and The Children Of Dune (although none of them are as good as the original IMO).

If you liked the fact that there are a lot of plots and politics in Dune, I'd recommend reading A Song Of Ice And Fire, by George R R Martin. It's a fantasy setting instead of SF, but in many ways it reminds me of Dune.
 
Yeah, I've read it. You get dissapointed a bit to the end. I couldn't finish the 5th book, as it seemed he'd just lost the plot. I'd also recommend some of the Dune books by his son, The 3 preludes and the 3 Bulerian Jihad books.
 
I loved the first book. It is, in my opinion, the best novel ever. However, I hated Dune Messiah and never really picked up the series. The intrigue and mystery kinda dies out at the end of the first one and nothing really reflected the same. Well, actually I read and enjoyed Dune: House Atreides, but that's by Brian Herbert and not Frank Herbert. Nowhere near as good as the original, but it beats the 2nd one easily.
 
Dune, the best novel ever? That is quite a stretch, even if you are just limiting it to just science-fiction (avoiding classics such as Moby Dick, The Brothers Karamazov, or Nostromo).

Don't read any other of the series, that is my firm recommendation. None of them compares to Dune, and they go downhill rather quickly.

Vault Dweller, may I recommend Snow Crash? The various threads tie together so wonderfully at the end, I can't help but think you would greatly enjoy it. Stephenson's other books are well worth a read as well.
 
I have read it and it is indeed a classic, Vault Dweller. Ill help answer a few questions (from my own knowledge):


Paul is a mystic who seeks to blend Atreides values with Freman values. To him with prescient vision, it is both inevitable and invaluable. The Imperium is in stasis for over 10,000 years...the jihad is the only thing that will rekindle human drive, ambition and courage.


Feyd Rautha is a foil to Paul. They (The BG) even make mention of him being the father of the Kwisatz Haderach. He is supposed to represent a potential, similar to Count Hasimir Fenring. Paul and him are supposed to be well, brothers really. After all, Paul IS of Harkonnen blood as well.

Yes, the Baron is homosexual. If you read the House series (House Atreides, House Harkonnen, House Corrino), it explains much more.

Summary: Ignore the sequels, buy the prequel books, they are amazing, culminating in Dune itself.

Hope that helps.
 
Fireblade said:
Summary: Ignore the sequels, buy the prequel books, they are amazing, culminating in Dune itself.

Hope that helps.

Basically what I was trying to say.
 
Some one is going to call me on this, but I also liked the Sci-Fi mini series on Dune, much better than Lynch's adaption.

But yeah, Dune. A mix of middle east with the politics of trading houses. (I had hoped to see more of this in the first episode of the Star Wars prequels).

Ekarderif said:
I read "classics" and personally I have not found one that I've liked.

That depends on your classics. IF you like a good, but smart, adventure- Try Dumas' Three Muskateers- what a fun book. Jack London's the Sea Wolf, also quite excellent. Conrad is a bit heavy for some but the Secret Agent is pretty good.
 
Thanks so much people. Im exceedingly lucky at this moment since I often read books in high school, but during my first two years in college I was too busy with work and college to read even one non-educational book. So finally I pick up Dune this year and it hasnt rekindled my love of reading fiction...its blazed into a bonfire!

I was suddenly finding myself thinking of buying more books and wondering what I should spend less on when out of the blue some relatives that missed Christmas with me finally got to see me last weekend and I got a very late gift. A $25 gift card to Waldenbooks. Now I have the money and the reason to buy some.

So the prequel books of Dune are nowhere near as good? I wonder if thats do to Dune's grand nature (the story cant get better) or if the writing goes downhill. Yet, I have a freind who's read all the books and sure enough he says the author's son write the better one's so I'll consider those...

Yet I have so many others I want to get. Here are some examples for you people to critique:

-The Riftwar Saga
-The Wheel of Time books
-The "Myth" series
-Snow Crash (see Kotario's comment)

Also Ive heard the movie "Dune" is not so good which doesnt surprise me at all, but Ive heard the mini-series on sci-fi, as Welsh says, gets the whole story without missing any details. I will probably buy them far in the future when their cheap.

Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller
 
The_Vault_Dweller said:
-The Wheel of Time books

ARGH! KILL!

If I want to read a soap series solidified into book-form I'll pick up Danielle Steele, thank you very much, there's no need to give it a fantasy-packaging either.

The Wheel of Time, like so many of its clones and colleagues, is nothing but cheap thrills on paper, cleverly whoring out the need of nerds for both a fantasy world plus cheap soap-style romance.

Sorry, had to vent. I HATE those books.

Dune, movie, yes. It kinda sucks, which is partially because of the insane director (Lynch), partially because of McLachlan (hate that guy), but mostly because it tries to stuff too much story into too little space. Nowadays they would just make a bit of a love story with one helluva big epic battle with CGI spaceships and thousands of CGI'ed little men running around shooting each other, but in those days people expected more from films than special effects and hot chicks. Lynch tried to do something with it and exactly because of that it is too much to do in such a short movie. Rumour has it the director's cut is better, but I've never seen it.

The miniseries is pretty good, as an adaptation of the book. Nothing really special. Kind of compare it to Lord of the Rings, it transport the setting from book to screen nicely, but doesn't do much with it. It's better at it than LotR, though
 
Dune is good. I should read it again sometime.
*jots down at the end of to-read list*
-The Wheel of Time books
They're......fun to read, for the first couple of books. And if you like them you can really continue on reading all the way to book 10 (and 11 soon, I hear). I don't share Kharn's aversion of these books, but really, they're just run of the mill fantasy/soap books like so many others. And the frustrating bit is where it just keeps on going and going and going and going and going like the Energizer bunny.

There are fantasy books that are a lot more fun, Pratchett's Discworld series to name an obvious one, I also always enjoyed the Belgiarad and its sequel series by David & Leigh Eddings, fun reads those.

If you want to try something a lot more involving and serious I suggest you try out some of the Russian classics. Tsjechov writes some delightful short stories (though by far not all of them are really good), Tolstoy has written two of the best novels of all time with 'Anna Karenina' and 'War and Peace', And Dostoevsky is an absolute master at the novels with a more psychological focus.
 
Kotario said:
Don't read any other of the series, that is my firm recommendation. None of them compares to Dune, and they go downhill rather quickly.

Vault Dweller, may I recommend Snow Crash? The various threads tie together so wonderfully at the end, I can't help but think you would greatly enjoy it. Stephenson's other books are well worth a read as well.

I agree with you about the rest of the books... I thought the ones after Dune sucked. The magic from Dune seemed to have vanished. As for Snow Crash, I read that a while back and while I enjoyed the whole virtual reality setting I thought the book on its own was really jumbled and not that great on a whole. Interesting? yes. Good? nah.
 
Riftwar Saga: Pretty good, I quite enjoyed that. It's definately worth looking at.

Wheel of time: Same as Kharns response, I really fkn hate it. He just doesn't stop writing when he should.

Myth series: If this is what I think it is, then this is pretty good too, though a bit short. Go for it.

Snow Crash: never heard of it.

Discworld series: Everyone has read discworld!

All David Eddings books: I used to like these, but the recurrence of so many of the crappy 13 year old jokes just gets to you. I can't stomach Belgariad/Mallorean anymore. Elenium/Tamuli is much better.

Go after the Riftwar saga. It's the most reader friendly.
 
Thanks guys. Ya Kharn if its that bad I wont get any of the "Wheel of Time" books...yet Sander I also hold to be intelligent, responsible and well-known. In fact before you came "back" (I first showed up after you left) I kinda looked to Sander for someone like you...so now Im split as to who to believe.

(or maybe I just want to start an flame fest :lol: )

Thanks for reminding me of Discworld Sander. Quiet Fanatic got me interested originally, but I had forgot about it up 'til now. Thanks for telling me just in time to go buy books.

So in a few days I'll go look for "The Riftwar Saga" plus Another Fine Myth (the first book in the series that my friend recommended who reads "Myth") and also some of this Discworld stuff.

:) ,
The Vault Dweller
 
Vault Dweller, go to a library or a bookstore and read some of the Wheel of Time. The best way, if you don't want to spend any money, would be to read the first book from a library and see if you want to continue, failing that, read the first section in the bookstore.

There are a large number of Discworld, though they are not absolutely continious. While some of the books follow a common group of characters (the University, the Watch, the Witches, and Death), and others stand alone, you can begin almost anywhere. I would recommend Mort or Guards! Guards! to begin with, they are both easy to start with and help set up Discworld for further reading. Of course my suggestions are just that, if you find a Discworld book that seems more interesting, go with it.

Hmm... I wonder if you would be interested in the Death Gate Cycle Vault Dweller.

I still firmly stand by my recommendation of Snow Crash, even if Diamond Age could be considered a tad better. It's chaotic, it's postmodern, it's also extremely good. Some of the best cyberpunk in existence.
 
You might like Ursula LeGuin's "Earthsea" trilogy. They are really good books for an afternoon sitting.

Orsen Scott Card "Speaker for the Dead" series is also great.


Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein is good
 
Wow thanks Kotario. Yeah I forgot to mention Im looking for Snow Crash too.

Quiet Fanatic said the same. The Discworld books are all discontinous and believe it or not that sounds like a good thing. It would seem they could all have different characters, but by having different settings in terms of location and time it can be kept fresh.

Wow...its been so long since Ive been addicted to reading.

8) ,
The Vault Dweller

P.S.

Actually right when I stopped reading was not only when I started college (and was more busy) , but also when I started belonging to online forums...maybe I just exchanged one form of literature for another.
 
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