Children Of Dune Tonight

JQuazar writes "Time to get to that Tivo and select 'pick programs to record,' Children of Dune starts Sunday on the SciFi channel!" Waiting...patiently...

Comments

Oh yeah, dune

[thesilverbail]

This was were the series started getting slightly wierd

IIRC, at the end of Dune 2, Paul had run away into the dessert leaving his children at the mercy of the Bene Gesserit etc. Lot of people were dissapointed with the fact that Paul turned out to be a sissy after all.

Now, Leto and Chani have grown up sharing every memory; The abomination has gripped St Alia-of-the- knife. Everything now hinges on the awesome sacrifice Leto has to make. (Some sacrifice: he covers himself with sandtrout and becomes a human-worm meld that lives a thousand years as the God-emperor.) Someone refresh my memory : What else happens?

most of God-emperor was totally over my head, but Heretics and Chapterhouse were amazing. And now to ask the perennial question: who were the old couple at the end of CH:D?

Re:Oh yeah, dune

[Pike65]

IIRC, at the end of Dune 2, Paul had run away into the dessert leaving his children at the mercy of the Bene Gesserit etc. Lot of people were dissapointed with the fact that Paul turned out to be a sissy after all.

I must protest!

Paul Maud'dib was living the Fremen way! If you're blind (as Paul was) you're a burden to your people and you go into the desert to die. It was either that or live in hypocrasy. I thought it was a shame at first, but in the end I decided it's better to burn out than to fade away. After all, Paul bailed as the series got lame . . .

Like you said, the books got really freaky after the second one. God Emperor was just too weird for me, and I gave up on the last two because I thought the series was in a death spiral.

But if you reckon they were worth it, I may go back and give them a go. What does everyone else think?

Re:Oh yeah, dune

[twilight30]

I think they are worth it. I read them every five years or so. Some of the dialogue in the later books pisses me off, to be honest with you, but on the whole it's a rich universe to think about.

One thing I particularly like about it is that it's science fiction written with an emphasis on the psychological and philosophical, as opposed to the 'Hard SF' (technologically-based) and fantasy stuff (wizards, goblins, whatever, I couldn't give a fuck, really). There are themes in all 6 books that you don't really find in other science fiction, certainly not as developed anyways.

Tim O'Reilly in an interview with Herbert discovered that a lot of the first 3 books were meant as a riposte to Asimov's Foundation series -- there's a sense in Foundation that 'the wise men of science will save us', whereas Herbert felt quite strongly that trusting in any single group of people was a failure of intellect. (This has elements related to the Hard SF mentioned above, but I digress)

One thing I found interesting about the Bene Gesserit was that they were sketched initially as a female version of the Jesuits.

Enough of this. Read them, they're worth the effort. Really.

Re:Oh yeah, dune

[metlin]

But if you reckon they were worth it, I may go back and give them a go. What does everyone else think?

Spoiler Warning!

After Dune, just about everything is depressing. God Emperor of Dune was weird enough, but wait until you come to Heretics of Dune.

Herbert builds up a belief system, where he just shows everything that you knew and respected fade away. And things that you loved to despise, or did not quite like of, like say the BG, turn out to be almost the nice guys!

And then you will realize why Leto-II was good to the BG in the God Emperor series! He knew that the BG had a much much bigger role to play.

Now Dune:Chapterhouse. Thats another very very weird book. Its almost like telling you, everything you knew, or thought that you knew, is false. And you hardly got to see the tip of the iceberg.

He leaves it on a very weird note - either he was planning to write more or did not want to, or knew that he'd not live to write more. Coming to Marty and Daniel, read this article. The ending of the Dune series is just as weird as the ending to Asimov's foundation - just about anything could happen, and you're left with infinite possibilities, and infinite questions :-)

So on the whole, the whole series has a little sad note, and a very weird feeling, but you come away satisfied, although with lots of questions!

Now my question is, what really happened to Ix? Because in House Atreides by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson, he discusses some very weird things about the Atreides and the Ix houses, and some weird characters and the like. Any ideas? I would also like to read more about the Butlerian Jihad, guess Brian is writing a book on that?

Also Airing Tonight...

[Paersona]

For those who think that the Dune books provided diminishing returns, there's at least one other geek-friendly choice for your viewing pleasure tonight. Game Show Network is airing "Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal", also at 9 ET. It's the story of Michael Larson, an out of work ice cream truck driver from Ohio, who managed to beat the system on a network game show. He realized that the "random" prize board actually followed a few basic patterns, including two spaces which would continually give him more spins on the board. He then memorized the patterns, got onto the show, and set the earnings record for TV gameshows before Millionare came on. It's a fun story. GSN is airing a documentary about his plan and both episodes of his original appearance tonight.

Don't Expect Nice Neat Endings

[N8F8]

I've seen it, in a word: Awesome. More polished and better effects than the first series. The space guild character CGI is pretty sweet. If I had to pick a real standout performance it would have to be James McAvoy who plays Leto II.

I've never read the series though I hav read tons of sci-fi books. I saw the origional movie before I joined the Navy out of HS and started reading Sci-Fi. This is still the first half of the Frank Herbert Dune timeline. Its looking like one or two more mini-series' are in order (God Emperor of Dune,Heretics of Dune, Chapterhouse: Dune). Let's hope this series makes a bundle so they keep making them.

Re:Actually, start a little sooner...

[Patrick13]

Ironically, I would consider myself diehard fan of Blade Runner.

I can only say that I don't really consider the movie to be based on the book, more like, "inspired" by it. I know that is a weak distinction, but if you have read Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, I think you'd find that my viewpoint withstands scrutiny.