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[Aklyon]

So, Dune. Galaxy of weird religious zealots, sandworms, and shields that nuke you if you laser them.
Also Spice, of course.

It has 8 (6 +2) books. Discuss.

[Darvi]

I am the Kwisatz Haderach.

[Criptfeind]

I find the depictions of the fremen and the sak...Suk...Sop....Empirical legions not really realistic, or rather not realistic for the excuses he gives for their power, if he gave better reasons (even for the silly stuff he did with some of the other people that would be fine) then I would have enjoyed it more. Of course I have only read the first two books, but I have been told it gets even more bizarre as you go in.

[Aklyon]

I am the Kwisatz Haderach.

The first one, the worm one, or one of the ones in the 8th book?

[Criptfeind]

The one who killed itself in the second book (or rather was talked about in the second book) I am thinking.

[Lectorog]

I read the first book. It was enjoyable. I couldn't imagine enjoying a continuation of the series, though.

The spice was pretty cool; except, when it was explained (near the end), it made little sense.

Also, inspired, I had my D&D character ride a giant worm once. It didn't go well.

[Darvi]

The one who killed itself in the second book (or rather was talked about in the second book) I am thinking.

You mean Paul?

[Willfor]

Also known as one of the best PC adventure-ish game intros.

[Criptfeind]

Also, inspired, I had my D&D character ride a giant worm once. It didn't go well.

There is a class for that, paladin prestige class that is about using a purple worm as a mount. Although you need to take it's tail stinger poison glands out in a surgery.

The one who killed itself in the second book (or rather was talked about in the second book) I am thinking.

You mean Paul?

No.

[Phmcw]

I find the depictions of the fremen and the sak...Suk...Sop....Empirical legions not really realistic, or rather not realistic for the excuses he gives for their power, if he gave better reasons (even for the silly stuff he did with some of the other people that would be fine) then I would have enjoyed it more. Of course I have only read the first two books, but I have been told it gets even more bizarre as you go in.

You do realise that it's more or less what happened in Afghanistan, right? Only the Afghan has been subjected to much milder treatments, but when an entire population live in harsh condition, develop religious fanaticism and live a conflict since they are a child, they make damn good fighters.
When he speak about the freemen, he's actually quite inspired by the Touaregs and how they were pretty feared fighters.

The stuff that the Sardukars goes through is just an extrapolation of the doctrine of special forces training. (Well i can seems obvious now, but at the time, it was still quite new).

[Aklyon]

I'm pretty sure the only Kwisatz Haderach in the second book is Paul/Muad'dib, who is renamed later.

[nenjin]

Loved the first book. (And the original movie, on that I seem alone.)

Could. Not. Continue though. The first book reached the edges of what I can accept from a sci-fi world. Bizarre is the only way to describe what happens to the series after that. People aren't human in Frank Herbert's books, they are these drama machines with vaguely human emotions but zero human reactions. Maybe that's why I like the original movie so much, it puts a human face on these plastic, inhuman characters. It's not that they don't have depth. It's just the world and the beliefs and everything else going on in Dune gives them a perspective that's hard to relate to, to say the least. The one character you can really relate to, Leo Atredies, well....yeah.

That said, it's one of the greats and has some existentialism in it that one may or may not enjoy. Which I always did appreciate about it. It's not about the lasers and the spaceships all the time, it asks questions about the nature of humanity and human consciousness.

Still. All of that goes overboard in later books. To the point where I felt completely alienated. I remember when I read about the J-bomb, and what it did, I pretty much put the book down there. Mostly because:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It was a blatantly hand-crafted plot device to ensure Paul gets to play the role of the blind Prophet. The whole idea was just so absurd. If you can build a nuclear weapon that emits eyeball melting radiation, why not just build one that emits radiation that stops people's fucking hearts?! Who the hell hired the guys who developed this weapon, another pre-cog who looked 150 years into the future to know that Paul Muad'dib would only be vulnerable to having his eyes melted? FUCK.

Other stuff like:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Duncan Idaho (best name ever), coming back as a Gholam. I remember reading that and being profoundly confused why the hell he even went there, other than as an excuse to try an inject some emotional drama and "twisted loyalty" themes into it. Only now do I realize that it may have been a reference to Jewish mythology. Still, there are so many places in Dune where you feel the author's hand so heavily that it gets oppressive.

I think Dune is one of the books that really soured me on prophecy as a plot device. In the first book it was good, but at the end of Dune you get a sense that everything was just a prelude to the real show, this grand stage play spanning time, space, reality and everything else. Now I can't see most prophecies as anything but plot devices.

[Aklyon]

He's pretty much dragged through the rest of the series, nenjin. Duncan Idaho starts in the first book, dies in the first book. Hes then brought back as a ghola infinitely until the end of the series (and past the end of the series as well if you only count Frank's books).

[nenjin]

Jesus. The poor guy. His worst enemy was Frank Herbet.

[mainiac]

I liked the first book but couldn't finish the sequel or the first of the prequels when I tried them.  I still consider the first one the greatest standalone science fiction novel yet written.  He just had one good book in him IMHO.

I kinda wish though that he could have written that first book and then been cryogenicly frozen until the current day before he wrote the sequel.  Western perceptions of the arab and muslim world were obviously a source in the first book.  But it was written at a time when the arab world commanded very little attention in the western world.  It would be fascinating to see what Herbert could have done with a sequel if he could have seen the events of the past 20 years.  Not only in the ways that the arab world has changed but in the schizophrenic way that western perceptions of the arab world have changed.  That could make for some cool inspirational material.