Omphalos' Review of Dune, by Frank Herbert

[Omphalos]

"Dune is the greatest SF novel ever written." Those are the generally the first words out of my mouth whenever someone asks me about this book. I know of some places on-line where I can find a few thousand people who will readily agree with me, but if I looked a bit harder, I'm sure that I could find millions. Dune is one of those very few SF books that has enormous appeal outside of the genre. Just look around at the book blogs on the internet; you will find hundreds of bloggers who say things like "I don't really read SF, but Dune was fantastic!" Dune has also garnered in its 40+ year history some serious critical praise as well. This big book has been deconstructed and analyzed by the best of them, so I'll just repeat briefly what we all know, and then get into my ideas about this book. It is the story of Paul Atreides, the unintended end-product of a genetic breeding program, as he became a man. It is the start of Herbert's rally cry against the appearance of charismatic leaders whom the masses always seem to embrace in times of trouble, although that particular theme does not get the attention it truly deserves until the next two books. , more so than Dune Messiah and Children of Dune is rooted more in the adventure-focused camp of tales, though it has an incredible amount of wisdom to impart on its reader. It is a story of political intrigue, in which an emperor and a royal House plot against a rival house, defeat it in a sneak attack the ferocity and size of which took the target completely off guard, and drove its scion and his mother out into the wilderness where they encountered a race of men who were waiting for their Messiah, which the boy pretends to be to great effect. It is the story of how Paul Atreides took advantage of his genetic heritage, became a superman who was viewed by most as a god, and created a future that changed the entire galaxy...Please click here, or on the book cover above, to be taken to the complete review..

[Sole Man]

Hurm...too much reading...I go read WAR & PEACE now.

[Seraphan]

There's a gramatical error in the litany agaisnt fear.
Brilliant review Omphalos *sounds of applause* five stars

[SandRider]

Omph, I don't mean to dirty up your review thread, but I just noticed that 40th Anniversary Edition
cover says "new afterword by the wetbrain" - anything of value (term used loosely) there ?
I've not read that .....and if someone will tell me about it, I'll not have to.

[Omphalos]

There's a gramatical error in the litany agaisnt fear.
Brilliant review Omphalos *sounds of applause* five stars

Thanks. Didnt you read that was my redneck Litany?

Omph, I don't mean to dirty up your review thread, but I just noticed that 40th Anniversary Edition
cover says "new afterword by the wetbrain" - anything of value (term used loosely) there ?
I've not read that .....and if someone will tell me about it, I'll not have to.

Actually, I hate that too. But until I can get in there and fix it, I have to use the available pictures from amazon UK. Its on the list though, and when I can, I'll grab a still of the original cover and put that up.

EDIT: There. Better?

And no. I did not read what the moron wrote.

[SandRider]

Okay, but I'm still wondering what Brian had to blabber about ...

[SandChigger]

I can't imagine that he had much to say of interest.

That someone else hasn't said better before.


But seriously, who is Brian Herbert in the literary world, that his opinion about anything, much less Frank Herbert's works, should command any interest at all?

[SandRider]

not interest, per se, but perhaps material for ridicule.

or evidence for the record ....

that sort of thing ...


besides, like it or not, this afterword is attached to the book ...

[Sole Man]

Is that going to be your excuse for reading it?

what a Shwine.

[SandRider]

I've not read that .....and if someone will tell me about it, I'll not have to.

[Seraphan]

Now that's a cool book cover

[Robspierre]

There's a gramatical error in the litany agaisnt fear.
Brilliant review Omphalos *sounds of applause* five stars

Thanks. Didnt you read that was my redneck Litany?

Omph, I don't mean to dirty up your review thread, but I just noticed that 40th Anniversary Edition
cover says "new afterword by the wetbrain" - anything of value (term used loosely) there ?
I've not read that .....and if someone will tell me about it, I'll not have to

And no. I did not read what the moron wrote.

I went into the bookstore today and took a look at the afterword, in it Brian states that Frank was ahead of his time by predicting the dangers of machine intelligence long before Arnold and the Terminator movies.

Looks like that bright idea comes from his brain.

Rob




EDIT (Omph): Fixed the tags.

[SandRider]

there you go ! that's the kinda BULLshit I'm talking about !
Planting pretard propaganda in Frank's books !

[Omphalos]

There's a gramatical error in the litany agaisnt fear.
Brilliant review Omphalos *sounds of applause* five stars

Thanks. Didnt you read that was my redneck Litany?

Omph, I don't mean to dirty up your review thread, but I just noticed that 40th Anniversary Edition
cover says "new afterword by the wetbrain" - anything of value (term used loosely) there ?
I've not read that .....and if someone will tell me about it, I'll not have to

And no. I did not read what the moron wrote.

I went into the bookstore today and took a look at the afterword, in it Brian states that Frank was ahead of his time by predicting the dangers of machine intelligence long before Arnold and the Terminator movies.

Looks like that bright idea comes from his brain.

Rob

Ugh! That is so disgusting to even hear.

Guess all those long conversations getting to know his dad really worked out well, huh?

[Omphalos]

there you go ! that's the kinda BULLshit I'm talking about !
Planting pretard propaganda in Frank's books !

Trust me. It'll get worse once these clowns are done with their books and they can begin putting out "re-edited Masterpiece Editions" of Frank's books. Mark my words. Its gonna happen.

[SandRider]

I don't doubt that they will try - once.
That may prove to be Keith's downfall.

I just can't see the real academic literary community going for it.
They can ignore his bullshit - it's kiddie bullshit, just like Star Wars -
but there are people on university staffs that take Frank seriously.

[Seraphan]

there you go ! that's the kinda BULLshit I'm talking about !
Planting pretard propaganda in Frank's books !

Trust me. It'll get worse once these clowns are done with their books and they can begin putting out "re-edited Masterpiece Editions" of Frank's books. Mark my words. Its gonna happen.

Or editions with a bunch of notes from the Hacks warping and twisting every meaning in the book for their advantage. But it would rain fire the moment they'd release that crap.

[SandRider]

Wow. Now that kinda bullshit never crossed my mind, but goodl-rd,
can I see it. Lots of little footnotes and cross-indexed crap linking ideas in
Frank's books with outrageous explanations as to how it relates to Keith's.
Damn.

Then again, maybe something like that would just underscore the errors ....

[SandChigger]

I don't see it happening, really.

Putting together an annotated edition would be a lot of work, even if they were just connecting the dots with their bullshit.

For all his proclaimed "work" ethic, Kevin doesn't seem to do too much of the hard stuff like real research. He's more an ideas man; he wants to be doing something active, getting those creative juices flowing.

[SandRider]

point taken.

say now, you've read his trash, and I know your bent towards real
science in science fiction -

given Keith's alleged University of Wisconsin-Madison degree in physics
and astronomy, have you ever compiled a list of his factual errors ?
{you'll have to read all the Star Wars & X-files bullshit, too, to make the
list complete}

[SandChigger]

No. I tried reading one of his Saggy Son books, but it's just so bad that I couldn't imagine reading all seven of them.

Most of his ideas in the book (and series) have been lifted from the works of better writers, anyway.

[Robspierre]

Thanks for the edit Omph, I posted from work when I had a brief free moment.

Chig, I dunno if Kevin is the sole idea man, Brian seems to be the source of the Butlerian Jihad Terminator viewpoint, to me it seems more like both of them are limited in the creativity department.

Rob

[Sole Man]

I could point something out in the post above me, but I think I'll let someone else have the fun for once.

Anyway, Brain has sex with stragne becuase he has Serious daddy issues.

Bu the nagain, Why so serious?

[TheDukester]

Most of his ideas in the book (and series) have been lifted from the works of better writers, anyway.

Kevin J. Anderson's "creativity."

1. Lift plots, ideas, themes, characters, and devices from every well-known SF franchise of the last 100 years;

2. When it doubt, make it bigger ... super-this and ultra-that.

3. There is no 3. Return to 1.

[SandRider]

close. I agree with Chig that Brian Herbert is not long for this world.
I think Keith will figger out a way to keep 'em churnin' for awhile.

I think That Asshole will end up in charge in 20 years or so, and
having seen the fiasco of trying to shove new books down the reading
public throats, will opt to publish "the notes" and all that unpublished
stuff Omph says is locked in the archive at Fullerton.

Maybe he'll take my advice, see Jesus on the Road to Damascus, repent,
and spend the last days of his life trying to repair Frank's Legacy.

By that time, Frank's great-children ought to have figured out a way to
turn on the milk machine for themselves.