So I started reading Dune

[Phantasee]

sweet, so i'm doing okay then. crysknife is like, 'chris knife', right? like the name. and Fremen is like Free men?

[The Spartan]

sweet, so i'm doing okay then. crysknife is like, 'chris knife', right? like the name. and Fremen is like Free men?

Yes to the former, no to the latter.

Fremen is pronounced with a short 'e' not a long one. Freh-men.

[General Zod]

sweet, so i'm doing okay then. crysknife is like, 'chris knife', right? like the name. and Fremen is like Free men?

Crysknife is right, fremen is more like semen, but with a short e. Watching the movie really helps for figuring out how to pronounce things.

[Ghost Rider]

Moving to OSF.

Yeah, there's loads of shit Herbert made on the fly in terms of his technology, and the universe gets weirder and weirder. If you enjoy...continue. If the first book is making you go "So wait...what the flying fuck is doing what with who?!", then stop.

[Guardsman Bass]

If I remember correctly, most of the Houses are sitting on stockpiles of "atomics" (nukes), but using them is taboo, especially considering what happened to Salusa Secundus.

[Samuel]

If I remember correctly, most of the Houses are sitting on stockpiles of "atomics" (nukes), but using them is taboo, especially considering what happened to Salusa Secundus.

Yeah- Spoiler

Our hero uses them at the end, but justifies it as it was moving a physical obstruction and not people.

Of course, how they get atomics passed on generationally when the Plutonium degrades...

Moving to OSF.

Yeah, there's loads of shit Herbert made on the fly in terms of his technology, and the universe gets weirder and weirder. If you enjoy...continue. If the first book is making you go "So wait...what the flying fuck is doing what with who?!", then stop.

I only read the first- and Nepthus's review of the bottoming out. What weird stuff gets added?

[General Zod]

I only read the first- and Nepthus's review of the bottoming out. What weird stuff gets added?

Spoiler

Paul Atreides' son turns into a sandworm, rules the galaxy for centuries and clones Duncan Idaho repeatedly for his amusement. This was before KJA and Frank Herbert's son took over and fucked it all to hell.

[Ghost Rider]

Moving to OSF.

Yeah, there's loads of shit Herbert made on the fly in terms of his technology, and the universe gets weirder and weirder. If you enjoy...continue. If the first book is making you go "So wait...what the flying fuck is doing what with who?!", then stop.

I only read the first- and Nepthus's review of the bottoming out. What weird stuff gets added?

After the first book?

To give nothing away, a lot of material about precognition as a wait to mate two people in some weird attempt to free *humanity*. To say nothing of Herbert's bizarre fascination of using 9 year olds. There's boatloads more but it's hard to put in perspective given how much needs to be laid out. I will say it gets into some bizarre sexual fantasies and mind fuckery(literally minds getting fucked) that makes one wonder if people knew this shit would happen they'd put a bullet in the head of anyone thinking of trying down that path.

[Junghalli]

Of course, how they get atomics passed on generationally when the Plutonium degrades.

Probably they're futuristic direct fusion, not fission/fusion.

[Setzer]

it's also possible that they're simply passed down from generation to generation, each one of which provides maintainance, no different from an ancestral castle.

[Bilbo]

Quality wise you only want to read the Frank Herbert books. The ones written by his son and KJA really suck and should be not considered canon in the Dune universe.

With this in mind you should know that Frank died one year after releasing book 6 of his series which did end with cliffhangers that will irritate the hell out of you. Sure his son and KJA may write books that continue and explain these cliffhangers and unanswered questions. But not being the origional author, and not working from any notes he left (I do not know if Frank left any notes on what he planned) their solutions will never feel right because we will not know if they were what Frank intended.

[OsirisLord]

I only read the first- and Nepthus's review of the bottoming out. What weird stuff gets added?

Paul's son succeeds him as Emperor and rules the Imperium for thirty five thousand years by merging with a sandworm and the end result is a giant worm with a man's face sticking out of it's mouth. And that's just the tip. Suffice to say I barely got through Children of Dune and when I got into Emperor of Dune I had decided that I've had enough with Frank Herbert.

Also I'd just like to know. Which do you guys prefer more? The movie by David Lynch or the Sci-fi channel mini-series?

[General Zod]

I only read the first- and Nepthus's review of the bottoming out. What weird stuff gets added?

Spoiler

Paul's son succeeds him as Emperor and rules the Imperium for thirty five thousand years by merging with a sandworm and the end result is a giant worm with a man's face sticking out of it's mouth.

And that's just the tip. Suffice to say I barely got through Children of Dune and when I got into Emperor of Dune I had decided that I've had enough with Frank Herbert.

Uhm, yeah, I mentioned that up above. You have to click the spoiler tags for it.

[OsirisLord]

Uhm, yeah, I mentioned that up above. You have to click the spoiler tags for it.

Sorry didn't catch that.

[Themightytom]

I only read the first- and Nepthus's review of the bottoming out. What weird stuff gets added?

Paul's son succeeds him as Emperor and rules the Imperium for thirty five thousand years by merging with a sandworm and the end result is a giant worm with a man's face sticking out of it's mouth. And that's just the tip. Suffice to say I barely got through Children of Dune and when I got into Emperor of Dune I had decided that I've had enough with Frank Herbert.

Also I'd just like to know. Which do you guys prefer more? The movie by David Lynch or the Sci-fi channel mini-series?

The scifi channel one is MY preference and the soundtrack to the sequel rocks.

[Junghalli]

Also I'd just like to know. Which do you guys prefer more? The movie by David Lynch or the Sci-fi channel mini-series?

Miniseries. The Lynch movie was a pretentious incoherent mess (IMHO of course).

[Phantasee]

Funnily enough, I actually read God-Emperor of Dune first. I got it at a sale from my favourite book store (apparently, it was part of their 'going out of business' sale that they didn't actually advertise - they just sold off a lot of books and closed up shop).

I didn't make the thread in OSF because I assumed there were tons of Dune threads already.

[General Zod]

I didn't make the thread in OSF because I assumed there were tons of Dune threads already.

Dune's a great series, but given it's nowhere as prolific as certain other series it doesn't get brought up nearly as much.

[Lord Pounder]

Also I'd just like to know. Which do you guys prefer more? The movie by David Lynch or the Sci-fi channel mini-series?

Each has it strengths, I feel Lynch had the correct atmosphere and an excellent cast if you completely ignore weirding modules it's a pretty good transition. However the Miniseries was closer to to the actual story line, but had in my opinion a terrible cast and some of the sets and costumes where laughable, at parts it was almost like a high school production. All Hail Don Shaddam.

[Bounty]

I prefer the Lynch version as an experience. It's far from being a perfect movie - or, perhaps, a good one - but the art design and style are mesmerizing. It really manages to capture Dune-verse as a weird, disturbing future where you can make out tiny bits of out own history in a sea of bizarre developments.

[Darth Hoth]

Me, I always felt that Dune was completely disconnected from our reality, with perhaps as much of a common heritage with us as we would have with ancient Babylon. That connection came through the appendices in the novel, not the story itself, and thus it is completely absent in the film(s). The first book is somewhat readable, then it goes downwards fairly straightly as the stories become more . . . weird. Dune was actually impressive as tragic space-opera fantasy (Wow, hero got the princess and the kingdom and does not live happily ever after?), as was Dune Messiah, because they were still somewhat limited to something normal and recognisable, but then it jumped the shark.

[Vendetta]

No, the fact that it exists is not the problem, that's just magitech. The fact that you could get around the whole Tragic Betrayal! plot by simply sending out a guy with a raygun (by threatening to kill HIS family), or for the more human rights inclined lot, a timed device.

There are a couple of reasons why they didn't do that.

One is that the effect is too unpredictable. It might go off like a nuke, it might go phut and just disable the shield and kill the guy with the lasgun.

The other, and more important one, is that the Baron wanted to be looking Leto in the eye when he died, because there was a great deal of very personal hate between them, and he was a petty and vindictive man.

[JGregory32]

I've always liked the Dave Lynch movie version myself. The style of the movie and the atmosphere are really unique and draw you into the universe.
If we ever get a WH40K movie they should hire that art director.
EDIT: Actually add a few IMP Eagles and you could have a basic WH40K movie!!

[Jade Falcon]

I've always liked the Dave Lynch movie version myself. The style of the movie and the atmosphere are really unique and draw you into the universe.
If we ever get a WH40K movie they should hire that art director.
EDIT: Actually add a few IMP Eagles and you could have a basic WH40K movie!!

Well you're talking a Dino De Laurentis production which is usually pretty lavish. Consider they also did the Flash Gordon movie and it seems they like to do colourful and opulent productions.

[Stark]

I don't even think the first Dune book is a particularly good story; it seems to be to be a reasonably generic example of that era of science fiction. A couple of interesting ideas buried beneath social and technological hobby-horses and obfuscated by the narrative. The later books add absurdity and boredom to this mix.

Frankly, I think the Dune books are 'popular' simply because they're popular. They're a part of the short-list of books all nerds must read. The first book isn't terrible at all, it's charming in a 2001 clumsy kind of way, but it's a classic merely by virtue of it's age and popularity.