Dune

[Chrono]

Has anybody else here read any of the Dune books? Just started rereading the first one (bloody impossible to pick up any of the others if you've not read the first) and it's more awesome than I remember.

Infact, what about science fiction in general? I've only really read Dune and Philip K Dick, don't know if you can really count Jules Verne...

[Idioteque]

I've read the first one, but I am incredibly intimidated by the sequels. I am one of those that HAS to finish the whole series, and there is like 5 sequels and 6 prequels with 1000 pages each :wail:

Plus, I am unsure of how impressed I was by the first. I read it a while ago and at the end I was "Meh." Maybe I will take another read.

[Android]

I have read every book in the Dune series including the titles written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. The Dune series is hands down the best I've ever read. The first book in the series is quite wordy and hard to follow, but the rest of the series makes no sense unless you have the background provided in the first. The other Frank Herbert books were excellent, but I really enjoyed the Machine Crusade series based off of his notes and written by his son and Anderson.

The series takes palce some 10,000 years before the first Dune book. The books have robots, space battles, cymeks, computer everminds, a sadistic robot called Erasmus hell bent on understanding humans by ripping them apart, and it also contains the roots of the major houses, conflicts and other organizations likes (Harkonnen, Corrino, Atreides, the Bene Gesserit, and Fremen) in the later Dune books.
I've read the first one, but I am incredibly intimidated by the sequels. I am one of those that HAS to finish the whole series, and there is like 5 sequels and 6 prequels with 1000 pages each :wail:

Plus, I am unsure of how impressed I was by the first. I read it a while ago and at the end I was "Meh." Maybe I will take another read.

Trust me the series gets much better and the books go by really fast. I read Sandworms of Dune (the final book) in a little under a week, and I am by no means a fast reader. The first book is necessary because it sets up the foundations for the rest of the series. None of it would make sense without the first.

If you are looking for other good sci-fi, I would recommend I, Robot and The Foundation (series) by Isaac Asimnov. Foundation tells the story of a group of scientists who seek to preserve knowledge as the civilizations around them begin to regress. I, Robot is a superb book that got shit all over by the Hollywood remake.

A stand alone sci-fi book is The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. It is the study of a man completely lacking in imagination or ambition, Gulliver Foyle. Fate transforms "Gully" Foyle in an instant; shipwrecked in space, then abandoned by a passing luxury liner, Foyle becomes a monomaniacal and sophisticated monster bent upon revenge. Wearing many masks, learning many skills, this "worthless" man pursues his goals relentlessly; no price is too high to pay. He only wrote a handful of sci-fi books, but what he did write was amazing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stars_My_Destination

Another more tongue and cheek book is Jennifer Government by Max Berry. It's about the future where corporations pretty much control everything and the government is more or less weak. People employed by corporations take the company name for their last name.

As part of a scheme hatched by the ambitious marketing executive John Nike, a lower-level merchandising worker named Hack Nike is unwittingly contracted to kill at least ten teenagers and steal their new Nike Mercury sneakers priced at $2,500 a pair (and costing 85 cents to manufacture) in an effort to improve the "street cred" of the shoe and send demand for them through the roof. Unable to bring himself to perform the hit himself, he subcontracts to the Police who themselves subcontract it to the NRA and the plan goes awry. The parents of one of the victims, a schoolgirl named Hayley McDonald's, are willing to pay for the retributive investigation headed by Jennifer Government, a Government agent with a barcode tattoo under her left eye and fueled by a personal score to settle. It's got action, adventure, sci fi, and a little bit of satire which come together to form an interesting take on the future.

I read a lot of sci fi, so if you ever wanna chat about it send me a PM or ask about it over IM.

[FA5TeddyFEL5ON]

I think the most amazing part of the books is how the author wrote them in like the early sixties (the first one at least), and look at how even today we look at so much of the technologies he refers to as still possible. But definitely my favorite series ever. Something I have read over and over again, and never gets old. But Jules Verne is also one of my favorite authors, he can defanitly be classified as sci fi. He wrote about submarines years before they were conseptualized, washing mashines, flying cars. Even space travel and lunar landings...

[Evan7Evan]

uhhh...great movie? cant say I have read the books, but yes the most vivid part of that movie is explaining how that sand suit works, sanitizing your urine into drinking water....mmmm.

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[Gilligan]

The books are absolutely fucking brilliant.
I just wish I had the time to reread them.
The books by his son aren't the same though.

[tesssss]

Yeah Dune is great, but i got kinda sick of it after having to write so many essays on it for English. Try Left hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin.

[Gilligan]

The education system can ruin any good book. :facts:

[Water-Sheerie]

I've read the Dune series, just the original ones. I could only get through part of one of the newer books, it was just so horrible. The ones by Frank Herbert are awesome, but it's my personal opinion that his son ruined the books. Brian Herbert focuses too much on 'cool space battles and fighting big robots.' His father was more concerned about the religious and philosophical aspects of his creation.

Not to say that cool space battles and fighting robots are a bad thing, but that's just not what Dune is about.

[CrowbarDoom]

I've read the original Dune, but none of the sequels.

I tried to watch the movie, but it just goes on forever.

[BassBastard]

I have read 5 of the dune books. It has been about 7 years since I read them so it is about time to do it again. I enjoyed the first 3 more than the last 2 but I think it is a good read. The first book will always stand out as one of my favorite books of all time.

The movie is good. I have seen it about 4 times and I love the visuals. I would like to have it remastered and Maynard James Keenan score it. It would fit nicely with the Geiger designed sets. I will catch hell for that I am sure.

I give it 3 thumbs up.

[timbot]

I've never read much sci-fi--a little Bradbury, Slaughterhouse-Five (if that even really counts), and 3 of the Dune books. I reccomend them to anyone who reads sci-fi or likes Star Wars, though. I really enjoyed the first one and wanted more, but the second I couldn't get into right away. I had to put it down and then pick it up again because I just really wanted to know what happened. The third didn't give me that trouble to begin with, but by the end it was getting odd. I can't remember now if I tried to read the 4th or if I'd just given up by then.
I'm surprised to see that people were saying they got more into it as the series went along. I had just the opposite feeling. But, still, the first definitely gets my stamp of approval, and the next two, while not as good, are worth checking out at least. Certainly some people will like them more than I did.
Now I really want to read the first one again.

[Vir]

Yeah Dune is kick ass, but the sequels got kinda out of control. The emphasis on visions and prophecies and people going insane and stuff just make them not as interesting in my opinion, there's nothing to relate to.
As for suggestions; Starship Troopers is a great book with a lot of not so oblique social commentary and great action chapters. If you saw the movie its nothing like the book so don't give me shit for how stupid it is. And if you liked the movie, don't read the book, though you're probably so retarded you can't read anyways.