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[Phmcw]

What I love in these books is the question that the writer ask and try to answer about religion, the human development, authority and government.
For instance, the Bene Gheserith is using religion as a tool of power, but it is also deeply religious in essence.
The Atreides are the good guys, but theirs means are deeply questionable, and the whole fable is about enlightened dictatorship.

The question of god is also omnipresent, but in an interesting perspective.

[nenjin]

Yeah. I dig the whole structure he created and its initial presentation. Just not what he thought to do with it. I should be a big boy though and go attempt the 2nd and other books. (Again)

[nenjin]

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.

He'd probably be called out as an islamo-fascist at some point.

There's, I dunno, this thread running through fantasy and sci-fi at that time. A book that I mentally pair with Dune is The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, another "must read" series that I couldn't stomach. It's rare these days for me to feel repulsed in some way by how an author writes or what an author writes about.....but whenever I read books from that era I get that sense. It's not that I don't like the writer per se or deny them their right to pursue an idea....but the ride is unpleasant either morally or structurally.

And whoops, double posted.

[mainiac]

The Atreides are the good guys, but theirs means are deeply questionable, and the whole fable is about enlightened dictatorship.

There was one point where either Duncan or Thufir reminds Leto that he is a beloved leader and Leto replies that he has the best propoganda department in the galaxy.  I loved that exchange.

He'd probably be called out as an islamo-fascist at some point.

Heh, probably.  It would be interesting though if he could skip through the entire 90's and naughts and just come back onto the scene around now.  The last election and the Arab spring have made the whole islamo fascist thing less of an issue at least for the present moment.  So it would be cool if he could get to draw on the events of the past 20 years but not have to go through the whole political climate that shaped all narratives about them.  Political climates can be death to artistic abilities (I'm looking at you, Orson Scott Card.)

[Virex]

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.

Looking directly at a nuke is going to fry your eyes one way or another, no need for special radiation for that.

[Vattic]

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

I enjoyed the film so you're not alone.

I really love the first novel and found the sequel passable. I've read a good distance into the rest,can't remember where I stopped, and I agree that they get more bizarre and less what I loved about the first.

[nenjin]

Looking directly at a nuke is going to fry your eyes one way or another, no need for special radiation for that.

It won't literally liquify your eyes. Yet that's exactly what this nuke was designed to do. He writes that it was devised as some sort of extra-punishment weapon, blinding people that aren't killed by the blast. But that's a pretty thin pre-text for the one time they actually use the weapon, and it's targeted "directly" at Paul.

[quinnr]

I remember playing a quite old RTS game called Dune with giant worms, it's the same series, correct? And I think there was a movie, too? (Fakeedit: It seems there is, looking at the previous posts.)

My Dad was a big Dune fan when I was...5 or 6 or something, I think, so I have floating memories of some of it. I'll have to read it some time.

[Aklyon]

Yep, Dune II is the same series. the first Dune game wasn't as much of an RTS.

[Bauglir]

Looking directly at a nuke is going to fry your eyes one way or another, no need for special radiation for that.

It won't literally liquify your eyes. Yet that's exactly what this nuke was designed to do. He writes that it was devised as some sort of extra-punishment weapon, blinding people that aren't killed by the blast. But that's a pretty thin pre-text for the one time they actually use the weapon, and it's targeted "directly" at Paul.

I thought they just tried to melt the house he was in, and he escaped before that happened but not early enough to avoid the irreparable eye damage, and they used that particular one to minimize collateral damage or something? I'm not sure on that, it's been years.

[Vattic]

Yep, Dune II is the same series. the first Dune game wasn't as much of an RTS.

I never really liked the first Dune RTS games but Emperor: Battle for Dune was surprisingly decent. Really fast paced.

[Il Palazzo]

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

What version is that? I've played the(or was it one of many?) PC release of Dune, and it was almost identical to the Amiga version, apart from having different art for Paul's face. And music, of course. It was a funny time in the history of computer games, when Amiga had much better sound capabilities than PCs.

Perhaps it's just my nostalgia speaking, but I find this (Amiga)version of the intro superior.

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

I enjoyed the film so you're not alone.

Hey, I'm on the same boat as you guys. Also, Sting as Feyd-Rautha was bloody amazing, if only for appearance and not really for acting.

I've read the books untill the Chapterhouse, and I wish I had stopped at God Emperor. The whole series requires not a small amount of disbelief suspension from the reader, but it simply went too far into the improbable after that.

The recent-ish miniseries "Frank Herbert's Dune" and "Frank Herbert's Children of Dune"(encompasing Dune Messiah as well) is not bad either. Children of Dune being the better of the two. Although I must say that some casting choices were odd - Stilgar being a short, slightly overweight guy, and Chani hardly "elf-like".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fJxR4x5l4s

One more thing worth checking out for fans of Dune is the mod for Civilization 4 called Dune Wars.
http://www.moddb.com/mods/dune-wars

[Aklyon]

That is a fun Civ IV mod, that.
Going past Chapterhouse does get rather ridiculous, I'd agree.

Spoiler: Srs Spoilers, ho! (click to show/hide)

The Honored Matre crazies turn out to be revived axlotl tanks brought back by rogue Bene Gesserits, Face Dancers planning to rule the universe (but fail), the thinking machines are dragged out from the prequels along with Norma Cenva to do something in the 8th book, more planet-nuking, apparently making sandworms who live in an ocean instead make the spice magnitudes better (which makes no sense, considering they went from very minute humidity to underwater without completly destroying the substance and somehow enhancing it in the process),and at least 4 Kwisatz Haderachs are in the last book, all gholas (Paul, Paolo (Paul, but raised by Baron Harkonnen's ghola), Leto II, and Duncan Idaho (because apparently his dozens and dozens of reincarnations have made him end up as The One somehow. )
Also, apparently the entire ecosystem of Dune can hide deep below the surface, because the whole thing, worms, sandtrout, and all, just burst through a ravine at the very end of the last book, even though Arrakis got Obliterator-bombed. :|

[Flying Dice]

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.

This is exactly how it was for me as well. The first was great, but I was so put off by Messiah that I never bothered with the rest of the series.

[KaelGotDwarves]

I read Dune as Gurkha/Sikh sci-fi fanfic and enjoyed it immensely.

Jai Mahakali, Ayo Gorkhali!

Jo Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal!