THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => ENJOY => Topic started by: smophie on 03 Oct 2005, 22:35
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Seeing as I can tell that Jeph has a fondness for the old Frank Herbert classics, I was wondering what everyone else thought of them. Specially the "prequels" to the main Dune series and the previous histories written by Frank's son Brian and Kevin J. Henderson.
I think for having being written without any input from the old master, they've followed the plot threads pretty well, maintaining the characters and their motivations well. I enjoy reading them, but realise that they are not as good. But I still enjoy them.
What does everyone else think?
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I like the first book. Childredn and messiah were also good.
Everything since those three has basically smacked of flogging the money horse despite having killed it, beat it for a while, raised it as a zombie, flogged the zombie until it fell over again, and then carried on for good measure for a while longer so as to extract the maximum amount of money.
I have no clue as to their quality, but I just haven't bothered to read them purely because of the sheer volume, the lack of time, and the being told by people whose opinions I trust that they basically suck.
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This is probably heresy, but I wasn't particularly impressed. Sure, good story, good universe and all but fuck me, that book was so much longer than it needed to be. Or it might have been that I was 13 or 14 when I read it. Either way, it left a 'hmeh' impression on me.
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only the original dune, the rest got on my nerves as they got towards to looking like a serial series.
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I really love the first book, but I couldn't get into Children of Dune and I haven't read the rest. Maybe I should try again, since it's an awesome setting, even if the movie is shite.
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I read the series up until Heretics. Now, despite the fact that many frown upon God Emperor, I still rather liked it. Heretics I just kinda gave up on a quarter of the way through. When the only character still present is the hundreth or so clone of a minor character from the first book, things have gone awry IMHO.
But as for the first three, love the shit out of them.
What'd everyone think about the movie/miniseries versions?
David Lynch's is crap? (The Weirding Way is some sorta voice gun?? WTF??)
The Sci-Fi's awesome? (faithful to the books, and better SFX)
Or the opposite:
Lynch's had Sean Young, Sting, Brad Dourif and mutha fuckin' Patrick Stewart.
SciFi's had...um...William Hurt...and...uh...yeah.
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Chapterhouse: Dune is one of my all time favourites. The Bene Gesserit have always interested me and I loved how Herbert ended the series.
I actually enjoyed the David Lynch movie far more than the first mini-series. The movie was just fun sci/fi. I felt like the series was over conscious of Dune fans and really struggled to find its feet.
I’ve been really hesitant to pick up his son’s collaborative work. Perhaps this cold dark Winter I’ll journey to the last used book store in the city (bitches internally about big-box-book-sellers) and give it a go. Is the first one in the new series... House Atreides?
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Seeing as how all the Frank Herbert Dune books are old by now...
I don't like the ones his son does.
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I tried to get into Dune a few years ago, but it never did much for me. I think I wasn't mature enough, probably. It also didn't help that I had a short attention span as a preteen, I suppose. You guys and Jeph have inspired me to give it another go. I'll read it as soon as I'm more comfortable with my schoolwork, I guess.
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The first book is the only one worth reading, IMO. If you REALLY liked it you might enjoy the rest of the original series, but they can't compare to that glorious first book.
The "prequel" series is some of the worst tripe I have ever seen committed to written page. Jesus GOD are they awful. If I could beat up Brian Herbert I would.
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someone should go round to brian herberts place, burn all his paper, break his fingers and every pen and pencil in his house... but it should have happened before he could publish it.
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I prefer the miniseries. Everything about it is just so much better, I think
really wish I had the DVD's...
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I love the first book, enjoy the second, read the third, could never finish trhe fourth, and never bothered with the 5th and 6th.
Brian Herberts stuff is all crap.
David Lynch's version, while it is probably a pretty fun movie if you hae never read the book, butchers herberts original vision so badly that I can't stand to watch it. Never saw the Sci Fi mini.
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Anyone one read Herbert’s “Jesus Incident” and/or “The Lazarus Effect”?
F.H. had a very interesting mind.
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Jesus incident was a high quality novel to say the least.
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I agree. I think fucking “literature majors” (of which I am one) and pretentious “don’t talk to me about sci/fi and fantasy as real books” scags (of which I am not) who hammer down on “genre” writers should stfu and read Herbert. The man combined sociology, religion, economics, psychology, and other shit into his books like nobody else I’ve ever read.
I think it would have been interesting if Herbert and Asimov would have lived into The Internets phase of human existence. Both were deep thinkers who really took no shit.
Of course they probably would have despaired of humanity with all the dong chatter…
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I really enjoyed the first three, liked the 4-6 and haven't bothered with the prequels cause they look tripe.
You should all listen to Shai Hulud. Hardcore band. Not particularly related to Dune but they do have a couple of songs about it. See if you can find them.
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shihad was named after the butlerian jihad in dune, as they are kiwis and watched the movie and thought it was spelt shihad.
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Seeing as how all the Frank Herbert Dune books are old by now...
I don't like the ones his son does.
Yeah all his originals are what I was referring to as the old ones.. the new ones are his son's ones.
To whoever complained about the characters not staying the same, that was part of what I believed was Frank Herbert's vision. The characters don't stay the same because time moved on his universe, as it does in reality.
I'm actually just going through and re reading the old ones. But I don't think the ones his son did are bad, they stick to what they know about the old motivations and character qualities of the characters, plus integrate a few other storylines. I believe they don't have the same finesse of writing as the older ones, but they are still quite alright I think...