A secret report within The Guild
Posted: 20 Oct 2012 11:45
Let's see here, my Dune story....
Introduced to this wonderful universe courtesy of my father, after he bought a VHS copy of 1984 Dune, which ironically enough was released in theaters one year to the day before I was born, Dec 14 1984 vs 1985. I didn't really get it then, wasn't quite old enough to understand. All I remember is my parents saying it's a "weird" movie. I watched bits and pieces, but was mainly fascinated with the opening scene, the visit from The Guild on the Emperor. (Gee, what was your first hint?
)
A short while longer, I found out the book series existed, and was curious to learn more. Only being in the 6th grade, I still wasn't familiar with the concept of a series of books as a chronology, so I picked up Dune Messiah first, quickly realizing it obviously takes place after the movie.
Eventually I did pick up a copy of original Dune (it grew legs and crawled off somewhere though....meh, good excuse to get a new copy) and greatly enjoyed it. I especially liked the appendices at the end, as I've always been a sucker for extra fluff info, like technical manuals and the like. This is why I absolutely ADORE the Dune Encyclopedia.
I will admit that yes, I have read the prequels. Both the House series and the Legends series. I view them for what they are though....fan-fiction. They were an attempt to expand on the bits and pieces that we are given in the main series of books, however I'm sure we'll all agree that it more or less failed. They did the one thing that FH didn't do, and that was write to the lowest common denominator. There's no underlying message in these new books like there is in the originals, and that's what makes the originals so great...they mess with your head!
As for the sequels, I have not read them, and don't really plan to, unless from the perspective of alternate-timeline fanfic. While I have not read Heritics or CD (For the record I've read Dune, DM, most of CoD and a fair amount of GEoD), based on the summaries on Wikipedia, I HIGHLY disagree with how Daniel and Marty are portrayed in HoD and SoD. They are supposed to be Face-Dancers, it's not that hard to figure out. But NOOOO, KJA and BH have to bring their fanfic back into it to attempt yet again to tie it all together. Still fails though.
In addition to my readings, I also used to be a member of Dreamers of Dune as The Spacing Guild, and I currently play on Quest for Arrakis as Steersman Soreth. I have played Dune 2000 and Emperor of Dune, but my all-time favorite has to be Dune by Cryo. I got it for Christmas that first year when I had learned about the Duniverse for SegaCD, and absolutely loved it. A couple of years later I managed to get past parts that had held me back before and finally beat the game. It was quite well done in terms of integrating story into its gameplay I feel, and the inclusion of the Dune book certainly added to it...even moreso with the CD version that included movie clips.
For my non-Dune exploits, I am a new father of a cute little girl, and am a volunteer firefighter, Freemason, and a Civil Air Patrol member and USCG AUX member. I dispatch for my state highway patrol, and also am a ham radio operator (KJ4VKC). Plus on top of that I am a member of the 501st Legion Star Wars charity costuming group.
Yea I'm busy, haha!
Introduced to this wonderful universe courtesy of my father, after he bought a VHS copy of 1984 Dune, which ironically enough was released in theaters one year to the day before I was born, Dec 14 1984 vs 1985. I didn't really get it then, wasn't quite old enough to understand. All I remember is my parents saying it's a "weird" movie. I watched bits and pieces, but was mainly fascinated with the opening scene, the visit from The Guild on the Emperor. (Gee, what was your first hint?
)A short while longer, I found out the book series existed, and was curious to learn more. Only being in the 6th grade, I still wasn't familiar with the concept of a series of books as a chronology, so I picked up Dune Messiah first, quickly realizing it obviously takes place after the movie.
Eventually I did pick up a copy of original Dune (it grew legs and crawled off somewhere though....meh, good excuse to get a new copy) and greatly enjoyed it. I especially liked the appendices at the end, as I've always been a sucker for extra fluff info, like technical manuals and the like. This is why I absolutely ADORE the Dune Encyclopedia.
I will admit that yes, I have read the prequels. Both the House series and the Legends series. I view them for what they are though....fan-fiction. They were an attempt to expand on the bits and pieces that we are given in the main series of books, however I'm sure we'll all agree that it more or less failed. They did the one thing that FH didn't do, and that was write to the lowest common denominator. There's no underlying message in these new books like there is in the originals, and that's what makes the originals so great...they mess with your head!
As for the sequels, I have not read them, and don't really plan to, unless from the perspective of alternate-timeline fanfic. While I have not read Heritics or CD (For the record I've read Dune, DM, most of CoD and a fair amount of GEoD), based on the summaries on Wikipedia, I HIGHLY disagree with how Daniel and Marty are portrayed in HoD and SoD. They are supposed to be Face-Dancers, it's not that hard to figure out. But NOOOO, KJA and BH have to bring their fanfic back into it to attempt yet again to tie it all together. Still fails though.
In addition to my readings, I also used to be a member of Dreamers of Dune as The Spacing Guild, and I currently play on Quest for Arrakis as Steersman Soreth. I have played Dune 2000 and Emperor of Dune, but my all-time favorite has to be Dune by Cryo. I got it for Christmas that first year when I had learned about the Duniverse for SegaCD, and absolutely loved it. A couple of years later I managed to get past parts that had held me back before and finally beat the game. It was quite well done in terms of integrating story into its gameplay I feel, and the inclusion of the Dune book certainly added to it...even moreso with the CD version that included movie clips.
For my non-Dune exploits, I am a new father of a cute little girl, and am a volunteer firefighter, Freemason, and a Civil Air Patrol member and USCG AUX member. I dispatch for my state highway patrol, and also am a ham radio operator (KJ4VKC). Plus on top of that I am a member of the 501st Legion Star Wars charity costuming group.
Yea I'm busy, haha!
