Which First: FH Books or the New Ones?

[Omphalos]

I started with the originals. I think BH was still on the outs with his pop when I started reading the books, and I suppose KJA was busy fucking something else up.

[Freakzilla]

I started reading the originals just before the movie and quickly caught up with FH, I think it was around GEoD.

I think it ruined all other sci-fi for me.

[GamePlayer]

I haven't finished any of the "series." I've read Dune several times and I've read Dune Messiah and Children of Dune once long ago before dropping out of the series. I'm sad to say I didn't enjoy the sequels all that much, but since getting back into Dune again when I joined DNBBS, I've had a strong urge to re-read them and see if I appreciate them more as an adult.

[Omphalos]

GEoD is now my favorite, after discussing it so much on line in the last few years. Dune used to be my favorite, but now its a close second. You should give that one a try, GamePlayer.

[Mandy]

I've never read the new crap, besides some of the excerpts online. Those chapter excerpts were enough for me to know not to waste my money or my time.

I started reading Dune back in the 80s.. I read the first four books countless times before I realized there were two more books out there (I didn't have the internet ) I reread all of them at least once a year.. been doing that for about 5 years now.

[Himachil]

GEoD is now my favorite, ... Dune used to be my favorite, but now its a close second.

I used to agree with you - GEOD is brilliant, along with all the other FH sequels. But the original Dune is simply in a different league - it is 605 pages of genius sandwiched between two bits of card with pictures on. GEOD is still amazing though...

[Star Dust]

GEoD is the one that a lot of people like the least, lack of action, etc. Personally I LOVE the head games that FH depicts so well. Reading Leto's passages makes me feel like a student in the presence of a great master - and that's a good thing.

[GamePlayer]

GEoD is now my favorite, after discussing it so much on line in the last few years. Dune used to be my favorite, but now its a close second. You should give that one a try, GamePlayer.

Well, I really do have to read them in order. I should be able to find them cheap in used book stores too.

[Anthony19]

I started with the original. Then went out to buy a new copy of COD and
saw the kja and bh books all in paperback bought them and wished I didn't.

[Freakzilla]

GEoD is now my favorite, after discussing it so much on line in the last few years. Dune used to be my favorite, but now its a close second. You should give that one a try, GamePlayer.

Well, I really do have to read them in order. I should be able to find them cheap in used book stores too.

Can you read a PDF?

[GamePlayer]

Yessum

[Freakzilla]

Children of Dune is my favorite.

[Omphalos]

Children of Dune is my favorite.

I really like that entire book too, but IMHO it does not get phenomenal until the end, where Farad'n and Leto are negotiating. That last part of the book is really amazing.

[SimonH]

Found the entire FH series and the house series in a rental house that I had while living in London... Since I was spending 2+hrs a day on the tube (underground), I got through the entire lot in a month or two.

Picked up "Dune" and followed the series as described in the front cover. Didn't notice the house series as the originals were all the 80s NEL covers and looked a nice set.

Found the house series later and enjoyed it, but felt left with a hollow feeling by the end. Felt like I new more about the characters from the first book, but have agreed with a lot of the criticisms that i've read online

don't even want to speak about the rest

[Omphalos]

Found the entire FH series and the house series in a rental house that I had while living in London... Since I was spending 2+hrs a day on the tube (underground), I got through the entire lot in a month or two.

Picked up "Dune" and followed the series as described in the front cover. Didn't notice the house series as the originals were all the 80s NEL covers and looked a nice set.

Found the house series later and enjoyed it, but felt left with a hollow feeling by the end. Felt like I new more about the characters from the first book, but have agreed with a lot of the criticisms that i've read online

don't even want to speak about the rest

Ahhhhh. A song Ive heard before. Play it again, Sam. Play it again.

[micah]

I read Messiah first,then the original. GEoD is my personal favorite. I find the idea of multiple Duncans getting squashed over millenia COMEDIC GOLD!

[tanzeelat]

Why would anyone with two brain cells to rub together want to read any of the BH/KJA books?

[Star Dust]

That is a question for greater minds than our own to ponder - if such minds
even exist - and if they do, there's no guarantee they'll even consider the
question.

[Nekhrun]

Why would anyone with two brain cells to rub together want to read any of the BH/KJA books?

Now that I know how bad the writing is, I read them just so I can spread the love of what's inside.

[Tleilax Master B]

I started reading them in the 80s and have pretty much consistently read the whole series about once every year or two. I'm pretty torn over a favorite really, but its either Heretics or GEoD. Love 'em all really. THAT is how you become a "Dune scholar".

[SandChigger]

I've posted my story several times here and there...but here it goes again.

I honestly can't remember when I read Dune the first time, but it was in high school. My geometry teacher my sophomore year was big on ensuring that those of us in the college prep track had a firm grounding in literature as well as math, so she gave some of us a list of the great books that we should try to read before heading off to uni. Dune was on the list. There was a pharmacy cum bookstore downtown where my mother got her prescriptions filled and I'd always raid the scifi section paperbacks while waiting for her. Got the first three books there. I distinctly remember beginning Messiah one afternoon waiting in the car for her while she was in seeing the doctor. (I think when I told this over on DN, I wrote that I had driven her, but I'm not so sure about that now; I may have just gone along for the ride.)

While in high school I joined the Science Fiction Book Club and remained a member through my college years. I got God Emperor as one of their monthly selections, IIRC. I realized a while back that that was probably the last of the books I read until '88, when already over here in Japan. I was in the uni bookstore with a friend from San Francisco and we found the whole series in the New English Library paperbacks. Since she hadn't read them we snapped them up, splitting the cost. She read them first and then I reread (the first four), and I kept them when she returned to the States. (I think we might have rented the movie as well.)

Other than her and a crazy guy from New Zealand who was at Tsukuba for a few years (the one I used to exchange drunken quotes of movie dialog with at a friend's pub), I hadn't had much interaction with other Dune fans before getting involved with you lot online.

[Sparafucile]

I started with Dune when I was just a wee lad, probably just entering junior high school. I tried it and didn't get past the first few chapters. The writing style was way to strange and complicated for me to pick up.

I picked it up again years later when I was I think half way finished my degree. I found it interesting, and I read through Messiah, which blew me away (the scene where Duncan regains his memories... OMG!) and read Children (the scene where Duncan dies... DOUBLE OMG!), and I was hooked! Course, the writing style is such that I often don't understand what FH is meaning, but it's fun to think about it.

Then I read the last three books... somehow they were better than the originals! Especially GEoD... so awesome.

I never read the prequels. My friend had bought them and read them and he would tell me about what happens in them, and I'd just sit there laughing and be like 'wtf? That's retarded'. Seriously, Piter being a ghola... artificial melange... no-chambers! Gawd.

Those opinions of the prequels combined with what I've read of the sequels make me a proud lurking OH

[tanzeelat]

I was at prep school (a British prep school is different to a US one), when I saw a lad in the year above me reading Dune. That would be in 1978 or 1979. Up to that point, all I'd read was Heinlein, Asimov and EE 'Doc' Smith. He told me it was very good. A year or two later, I got the first three books for Christmas... and have loved them ever since.

[Mr. Teg]

Back in college, while recovering from an accident at work. As I worked my way across the books on the shelf, I stumbled upon some science fiction books someone had left for me. Ever since then I've reread the originals every one or two years (I never felt the last one ended on a "cliff hanger"). Messiah and God Emperor are my favorites asides from Dune.

I never heard of KJA before the new books and looked forward to reading them since they were suppose to be based on the notes, but I didn't like House Atreides and by legends doubted there were even notes or at best they found 'some paper' with 'hand writing' by Frank Herbert.

Finally, started checking the net and started with the House Atreides site and the rest is history...

[Godgirl]

My dad named his kids Chani and Alia--where do you think I started?!

[Robspierre]

One of the residents of the Ranger Station where my dad worked loaned me all six original books the summer of 88, I've been fraked ever since


Rob

[Omphalos]

My dad named his kids Chani and Alia--where do you think I started?!

[GamePlayer]

Gawd, I remember seeing that book at a used book store in Calgary several years ago. Reminded me of those Star Wars story books that I had in my youth.

[Serkanner]

The first time I read Dune was in 1984 and by 1987 I had finished the six novels.

Out of curiosity ( and perhaps some hope ) I also read the House and Jihad series. That was enough to decide to never-ever read any book by KJA anymore.

[SandChigger]

(My, what a big avatar you have. )

[GamePlayer]

Dude, your avatar is WAY too big. It's messing up the board format.

[Omphalos]

I dropped him a note. If he doesnt get to it today or tomorrow, Ill shirnk it for him.

[Serkanner]

I am sorry about that

I checked the size of the image, but forgot that the one I checked was re-sized while I linked the original.

[GamePlayer]

We should really have a limit set. There isn't need for anything beyond 180 x 180 pixels.

[Omphalos]

We do. But the limits are not used for avatars that are hosted off this site. It s not a big problem. Ive spoken to him already. Hes going to fix it. If he forgets, Ill take it down tonight.

[SandChigger]

(Didn't mean to cause a fuss!)

I also read the House and Jihad series. That was enough to decide to never-ever read any book by KJA anymore.

Got that. But sacrificing the time and a bit of your sanity does have its compensations.

I didn't have time to read the copy of Hidden...Somethin' er other he sent me while back home last fall, but I plan to do it this year.

Partly the "staring at car crashes" thang, partly evil desire to mock the shite online.

[GamePlayer]

We do. But the limits are not used for avatars that are hosted off this site. It s not a big problem. Ive spoken to him already. Hes going to fix it. If he forgets, Ill take it down tonight.

Oh yeah. Sorry, I forgot about that.

[Serkanner]

(Didn't mean to cause a fuss!)

I also read the House and Jihad series. That was enough to decide to never-ever read any book by KJA anymore.

Got that. But sacrificing the time and a bit of your sanity does have its compensations.

I didn't have time to read the copy of Hidden...Somethin' er other he sent me while back home last fall, but I plan to do it this year.

Partly the "staring at car crashes" thang, partly evil desire to mock the shite online.

I bet you are looking forward to reading that as much as I look forward to visit funerals. There is no amount of money large enough to get me to read another one of his piles of shit.

[SandChigger]

Money, huh?

Hmmm....

Nah, I'm a hoor, BUY ME KEVIN!!!

I'll read 'em, take his money, and still bitch about how bad they are!

[Freakzilla]

Money, huh?

Hmmm....

Nah, I'm a hoor, BUY ME KEVIN!!!

I'll read 'em, take his money, and still bitch about how bad they are!

You should be a "test reader".

[SandChigger]

They don't have the balls.

But if they ever ask for volunteers...I'm putting your name in.

[Omphalos]

We ought to send him a note telling him he should consider our very own James.

[GamePlayer]

Test Readers = The literary equivalent of "This movie was not pre-screened for critics"