Thank goodness..
Posted: 17 Sep 2009 15:28
..so I posted in the Wind of Dunes-non event thread, and it was suggested I introduce myself here..
I first encountered the evil of KJA when i was a freshmen in high school.... A little book called "Jedi Academy: Jedi Search"..At the time the concept of expanding the Star Wars universe was still fairly fresh and new to pretty much everyone i think.. I was a Star Wars nerd and relished at the idea of seeing more adventures from the characters i'd grown up with in the films...
Even then, as a relative teenage goofball with no modicum of taste i could tell that there was something amiss with this KJA guy...I couldn't put my finger on it at the time (i suppose it was my sense of enjoyment for anything above a 4th grade level starting to materialize?) but even i could recognize the lack of talent in this dope... I was a glutton for punishment, though, and i actually wound up reading 4 of his Star Wars books before finally walking away from them (to be fair, it wasn't just KJA that stank.. I can now admit that the SW books in general were terrible. However i'm pretty sure there's a special place in hell reserved for KJA and what he wrought.)
In my senior year of high school, i discovered "Dune"... (actually, when i was in grade 6 i tried starting DUNE, but it was obviously WAY over my head at that point..) .. Could not believe a story of such richness and depth existed.. At the time it was the greatest literary experience of my life.. It still is, really, with only 2 books approaching that level..
Of course I devoured the entire series, and like many was left saddened by the seemingly cliffhanger-type ending of "Chapterhouse" but still felt that, in a way, that was the best way for the books to end..
Then....i got wind that there was potentially a Dune revival set to occur...Some notes from Frank's vault outlining his plans for where the storyline was headed!This was incredible news to me!
Then.....the next announcement.. That Kevin JackRabbit Anderson would be involved...I have to admit that from the word go my expectations were low on this..The man who had made me hate STAR WARS was now going to try to tackle DUNE???
I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, especially seeing that he was co-writing with Frank's Son..I tried to go in with an open mind...
And you know what? "House Atreides" was not bad... I had a slight issue with Duncan's origin tale, but otherwise it was a page-turner...
"House Harkonnenen" was where you could tell that any notes used from Frank had obviously run out... The absolute high point had to be how the dynamic duo managed to completely confuse the origins of Gurney and Duncan.. Did these guys even read the books? KJA and BH concocted a pile of steaming vile that was worse then even i could have imagined..
From there it was a downward spiral terrible technical writing prowess mixed with ludicrous plotlines and outright contradictions of established continuity...
I tried to stick it out thru all the Spice Coffee drinking of House Corrino, through the standard cliches of the Buterlian Jihad, telling myself "But it'll be worth it cause you'll get to see where he was going with CHAPTERHOUSE!" Could i have been more wrong?
After the conclusion of "Dune 7" i swore to never give these 2 clowns another cent of my cash..
I did read PoD, but it was loaned from the library, and that's how i plan to read any future contributions from these guys.
I kept struggling to find others who felt this way.. "Surely they're out there? Surely i'm not the only one?" However i never had much luck.....
Until now.
It's wonderful to find a board where the shills of the production company don't post 5 star review after 5 star review for this dreck.
Great to meet you all
I first encountered the evil of KJA when i was a freshmen in high school.... A little book called "Jedi Academy: Jedi Search"..At the time the concept of expanding the Star Wars universe was still fairly fresh and new to pretty much everyone i think.. I was a Star Wars nerd and relished at the idea of seeing more adventures from the characters i'd grown up with in the films...
Even then, as a relative teenage goofball with no modicum of taste i could tell that there was something amiss with this KJA guy...I couldn't put my finger on it at the time (i suppose it was my sense of enjoyment for anything above a 4th grade level starting to materialize?) but even i could recognize the lack of talent in this dope... I was a glutton for punishment, though, and i actually wound up reading 4 of his Star Wars books before finally walking away from them (to be fair, it wasn't just KJA that stank.. I can now admit that the SW books in general were terrible. However i'm pretty sure there's a special place in hell reserved for KJA and what he wrought.)
In my senior year of high school, i discovered "Dune"... (actually, when i was in grade 6 i tried starting DUNE, but it was obviously WAY over my head at that point..) .. Could not believe a story of such richness and depth existed.. At the time it was the greatest literary experience of my life.. It still is, really, with only 2 books approaching that level..
Of course I devoured the entire series, and like many was left saddened by the seemingly cliffhanger-type ending of "Chapterhouse" but still felt that, in a way, that was the best way for the books to end..
Then....i got wind that there was potentially a Dune revival set to occur...Some notes from Frank's vault outlining his plans for where the storyline was headed!This was incredible news to me!
Then.....the next announcement.. That Kevin JackRabbit Anderson would be involved...I have to admit that from the word go my expectations were low on this..The man who had made me hate STAR WARS was now going to try to tackle DUNE???
I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, especially seeing that he was co-writing with Frank's Son..I tried to go in with an open mind...
And you know what? "House Atreides" was not bad... I had a slight issue with Duncan's origin tale, but otherwise it was a page-turner...
"House Harkonnenen" was where you could tell that any notes used from Frank had obviously run out... The absolute high point had to be how the dynamic duo managed to completely confuse the origins of Gurney and Duncan.. Did these guys even read the books? KJA and BH concocted a pile of steaming vile that was worse then even i could have imagined..
From there it was a downward spiral terrible technical writing prowess mixed with ludicrous plotlines and outright contradictions of established continuity...
I tried to stick it out thru all the Spice Coffee drinking of House Corrino, through the standard cliches of the Buterlian Jihad, telling myself "But it'll be worth it cause you'll get to see where he was going with CHAPTERHOUSE!" Could i have been more wrong?
After the conclusion of "Dune 7" i swore to never give these 2 clowns another cent of my cash..
I did read PoD, but it was loaned from the library, and that's how i plan to read any future contributions from these guys.
I kept struggling to find others who felt this way.. "Surely they're out there? Surely i'm not the only one?" However i never had much luck.....
Until now.
It's wonderful to find a board where the shills of the production company don't post 5 star review after 5 star review for this dreck.
Great to meet you all
