Which First: FH Books or the New Ones?
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- Alien Overlord
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Which First: FH Books or the New Ones?
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.
Something is about to happen, Hal. Something wonderful!
-James C. Harwood, Science Fiction Writer, Straight (March 5, 1956 - May 25, 2010)
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-James C. Harwood, Science Fiction Writer, Straight (March 5, 1956 - May 25, 2010)
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- Freakzilla
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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.
I think it ruined all other sci-fi for me.
They were destroyed because they lied pretentiously. Have no fear that my wrath
will fall upon you because of your innocent mistakes.
~Leto II, God Emperor
will fall upon you because of your innocent mistakes.
~Leto II, God Emperor
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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.
"What are we to call him, this Player of Games?"
"The books of Kevin J Anderson and Brian Herbert lie in a realm of uncertainty between self-conscious absurdity and genuine failure"
"The books of Kevin J Anderson and Brian Herbert lie in a realm of uncertainty between self-conscious absurdity and genuine failure"
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- Alien Overlord
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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.
Something is about to happen, Hal. Something wonderful!
-James C. Harwood, Science Fiction Writer, Straight (March 5, 1956 - May 25, 2010)
The Omphalos Umbrella Page
-James C. Harwood, Science Fiction Writer, Straight (March 5, 1956 - May 25, 2010)
The Omphalos Umbrella Page
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.
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.
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...Omphalos wrote:GEoD is now my favorite, ... Dune used to be my favorite, but now its a close second.
And that, children, is how the little bunny rabbit got his fluffy white tail.
As a minimum, we must demand from SF that it be wiser than the world it speaks to.
--Darko Suvin; On the Poetics of the Science Fiction Genre
As a minimum, we must demand from SF that it be wiser than the world it speaks to.
--Darko Suvin; On the Poetics of the Science Fiction Genre
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Well, I really do have to read them in order. I should be able to find them cheap in used book stores too.Omphalos wrote: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.
"What are we to call him, this Player of Games?"
"The books of Kevin J Anderson and Brian Herbert lie in a realm of uncertainty between self-conscious absurdity and genuine failure"
"The books of Kevin J Anderson and Brian Herbert lie in a realm of uncertainty between self-conscious absurdity and genuine failure"
- Freakzilla
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Can you read a PDF?GamePlayer wrote:Well, I really do have to read them in order. I should be able to find them cheap in used book stores too.Omphalos wrote: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.
They were destroyed because they lied pretentiously. Have no fear that my wrath
will fall upon you because of your innocent mistakes.
~Leto II, God Emperor
will fall upon you because of your innocent mistakes.
~Leto II, God Emperor
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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.Freakzilla wrote:Children of Dune is my favorite.
Something is about to happen, Hal. Something wonderful!
-James C. Harwood, Science Fiction Writer, Straight (March 5, 1956 - May 25, 2010)
The Omphalos Umbrella Page
-James C. Harwood, Science Fiction Writer, Straight (March 5, 1956 - May 25, 2010)
The Omphalos Umbrella Page
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
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
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Ahhhhh. A song Ive heard before. Play it again, Sam. Play it again.SimonH wrote: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
Something is about to happen, Hal. Something wonderful!
-James C. Harwood, Science Fiction Writer, Straight (March 5, 1956 - May 25, 2010)
The Omphalos Umbrella Page
-James C. Harwood, Science Fiction Writer, Straight (March 5, 1956 - May 25, 2010)
The Omphalos Umbrella Page
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- SandChigger
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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.
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.
"Chancho...sometimes when you are a man...you wear stretchy pants...in your room...alone."
"Politics is never simple, like the sand chigger of Arrakis, one is rarely truly free of its bite."
Arrakeen is an unawakened ghola.
"Politics is never simple, like the sand chigger of Arrakis, one is rarely truly free of its bite."
Arrakeen is an unawakened ghola.
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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
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
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.
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...
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...
Narf!
Combine Herbert Ober Anderson Mercantile
Combine Herbert Ober Anderson Mercantile
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- Alien Overlord
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Godgirl wrote:My dad named his kids Chani and Alia--where do you think I started?!
Something is about to happen, Hal. Something wonderful!
-James C. Harwood, Science Fiction Writer, Straight (March 5, 1956 - May 25, 2010)
The Omphalos Umbrella Page
-James C. Harwood, Science Fiction Writer, Straight (March 5, 1956 - May 25, 2010)
The Omphalos Umbrella Page
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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.
"What are we to call him, this Player of Games?"
"The books of Kevin J Anderson and Brian Herbert lie in a realm of uncertainty between self-conscious absurdity and genuine failure"
"The books of Kevin J Anderson and Brian Herbert lie in a realm of uncertainty between self-conscious absurdity and genuine failure"
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- Alien Overlord
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I dropped him a note. If he doesnt get to it today or tomorrow, Ill shirnk it for him.
Something is about to happen, Hal. Something wonderful!
-James C. Harwood, Science Fiction Writer, Straight (March 5, 1956 - May 25, 2010)
The Omphalos Umbrella Page
-James C. Harwood, Science Fiction Writer, Straight (March 5, 1956 - May 25, 2010)
The Omphalos Umbrella Page
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- Alien Overlord
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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.
Something is about to happen, Hal. Something wonderful!
-James C. Harwood, Science Fiction Writer, Straight (March 5, 1956 - May 25, 2010)
The Omphalos Umbrella Page
-James C. Harwood, Science Fiction Writer, Straight (March 5, 1956 - May 25, 2010)
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- SandChigger
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(Didn't mean to cause a fuss!)
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.
Got that. But sacrificing the time and a bit of your sanity does have its compensations.Serkanner wrote: I also read the House and Jihad series. That was enough to decide to never-ever read any book by KJA anymore.
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.
"Chancho...sometimes when you are a man...you wear stretchy pants...in your room...alone."
"Politics is never simple, like the sand chigger of Arrakis, one is rarely truly free of its bite."
Arrakeen is an unawakened ghola.
"Politics is never simple, like the sand chigger of Arrakis, one is rarely truly free of its bite."
Arrakeen is an unawakened ghola.
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Oh yeah. Sorry, I forgot about that.Omphalos wrote: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.
"What are we to call him, this Player of Games?"
"The books of Kevin J Anderson and Brian Herbert lie in a realm of uncertainty between self-conscious absurdity and genuine failure"
"The books of Kevin J Anderson and Brian Herbert lie in a realm of uncertainty between self-conscious absurdity and genuine failure"
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 wrote:(Didn't mean to cause a fuss!)
Got that. But sacrificing the time and a bit of your sanity does have its compensations.Serkanner wrote: I also read the House and Jihad series. That was enough to decide to never-ever read any book by KJA anymore.
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.
- SandChigger
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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!
Hmmm....
Nah, I'm a hoor, BUY ME KEVIN!!!
I'll read 'em, take his money, and still bitch about how bad they are!
"Chancho...sometimes when you are a man...you wear stretchy pants...in your room...alone."
"Politics is never simple, like the sand chigger of Arrakis, one is rarely truly free of its bite."
Arrakeen is an unawakened ghola.
"Politics is never simple, like the sand chigger of Arrakis, one is rarely truly free of its bite."
Arrakeen is an unawakened ghola.
- Freakzilla
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You should be a "test reader".SandChigger wrote: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!
They were destroyed because they lied pretentiously. Have no fear that my wrath
will fall upon you because of your innocent mistakes.
~Leto II, God Emperor
will fall upon you because of your innocent mistakes.
~Leto II, God Emperor
- SandChigger
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They don't have the balls.
But if they ever ask for volunteers...I'm putting your name in.
But if they ever ask for volunteers...I'm putting your name in.
"Chancho...sometimes when you are a man...you wear stretchy pants...in your room...alone."
"Politics is never simple, like the sand chigger of Arrakis, one is rarely truly free of its bite."
Arrakeen is an unawakened ghola.
"Politics is never simple, like the sand chigger of Arrakis, one is rarely truly free of its bite."
Arrakeen is an unawakened ghola.
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We ought to send him a note telling him he should consider our very own James.
Something is about to happen, Hal. Something wonderful!
-James C. Harwood, Science Fiction Writer, Straight (March 5, 1956 - May 25, 2010)
The Omphalos Umbrella Page
-James C. Harwood, Science Fiction Writer, Straight (March 5, 1956 - May 25, 2010)
The Omphalos Umbrella Page
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