Dune by Frank Herbet

Turtle

Can anyone tell me what Dune is about please!

FZ+

Dune never struck me as being a particularly sciency book. Maybe this should be moved to general discussion, where it may get more attention...

Ok... my take:

Contains spoilers!













Some time in the future, there is a war called the Butlerian Jihad, of man against intelligent machines. Man won. The new order of the universe is based on navigators who use a drug called melange to find their way around hyperspace. Melange is found in only one place - Dune, and cannot be reproduced.

The political system of the galaxy is split up into various families. The ruling family seeks to play off the other two houses, the harkoneans and atreides off against each other to maintain it's hold on power.

Other group exist, including the bene gesserits, a group of women who conduct breeding experiments in the hope of producing a messiah. Paul - the main character is the product of the experiment.

Basically, the book is about paul's exploits when the harkoneans carry off a takeover of dune when the emperor grants the atreides management of the spice-harvests of dune. Eventually he realises his birthright - including ability to see the future, and pulls off a revolution that makes him the new emperor.

maximus

if you're thinking about reading it, do! it's really good.

Beren

I've read only the first book so far, how many are there in the series?

resa3535

There are 6 books by Frank Herbert in the series:
Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse: Dune. I've only read up to Children of Dune... well I started reading God Emperor of Dune but quickly lost interest because it was really weird. If anyone has read it please let me know how they liked it.

FZ+

Yep. The wierdness increases quadratically as the books progress. Still, many bits make it worthwhile, if you stick to it.

Beren

Does it get...more boring as it goes?

(remembers "Wheel of Time")

selfAdjoint

HeeHee. Am currently reading Goodkind's multology. He springs a new menace every dozen pages or so. This used to be called the Van Vogt theory of writing. Does anybody remember van Vogt? World of Null-A? Players of Null-A?

maximus

sadly, yes. it all goes downhill after DUNE. i read to children of dune and gave up. (though i hear if one sticks to it all the way to god emperor of dune it gets better.

JKLM

Yeah the series does go down hill after Dune I got through half of his second book Dune:Messiah before I tossed it and I couldn't bring myself to read anymore of his books. His son also wrote 5 or 6 books continuing the series. These books took place before the first Dune book and I found them very depressing. They were a bit better than Dune:Messiah. However, Dune the first was excellent and you should try a couple of the books before you make any desicions.

laserblue

Tell me about your homepage and I will tell you about the beaches of a great lake.

photon

Was that an insult on Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series? If it was, then you better take it back. [!:)]

SDNess

Weird in what way?

photon

The Weirding way!
[:D]

SDNess

Ah I get it...[:))]

seeker03

yeah, frank herbert wrote 6 out of the planned 7.
dune
dune mesiah
children of dune
god emperor of dune
heretics of dune
chapterhouse dune

his son wrote 2 trilogies of prequels
Buterlian Jihad
Machine Crusade
Battle of Corrin (planned for September 2004)

House Atreides
House harnoken
House Corrin

overall, the two prequel trilogies are really good. dune is amazing, but the sequels go downhill. it talks about reanimating people through cloning and other weird stuff. i read the whole series, and the last 2 are accually pretty good.
hope this helps

Evo

I LOVE Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. I hate waiting for the next book to come out.

If you enjoy Jordan, you will love these.

Raymond Feist is an author I highly recommend, beginning with Magician:Apprentice. Anything of his is worth reading. The Riftwar novels are excellent

Also, Daughter of the Empire - Janny Wurtz and Raymond Feist are great together. A continuation on the other side of the rift.

Have you read "The Belgariad" by David Eddings? Anything in that series is good (except I don't care about the later writings on Polgara)