If you stick your hand in this box, I'll show you my gom jabbar.

[Orrex]

Go on. You know you want to.

[gratuitous]

1. Lordy, did you read that disappointing dreck, too?

I have a few goms I'd like to jabbar on Frank Herbert's pointy little head.

[Orrex]

2. I found the first two books incredibly hard to get through

In fact, after reading Dune, I couldn't even bring myself to approach the others for more than a year.

However, Children of Dune is substantially better IMO, though still flawed. Right now I'm in the middle of God-Emperor of Dune, and it's kind of a mixed bag. We'll see...

[Dr. Strange]

4. Mixed bag?

A mixed bag of awesome!

[Orrex]

8. Uh...

For one thing, Herbert gives us the negation of any value that Ghani might have had in Children of Dune, such that her offhanded dismissal in the current book makes it clear how irrelevant her character really was in the previous book. Sure, she's been dead for 3500 years by the time of God-Emperor, but she's diminished in Herbert's tried-and-true of method of eliminating important characters and plot-points with only a brief "by the way" sort of mention. Considering how important Ghani was claimed to be in Children, with Herbert going so far as to describe her as the only one who could understand Leto, her sudden and retroactive demotion to "incidental player" is a very clumsy bit of writing.

For another, we're supposed to believe that Leto is this transcendent, superhuman figure only incidentally affected by human emotions or concerns. And then, the very first time he meets a woman (on camera) who isn't a Bene Gesserit or a Fish Speaker, he immediately gets a de facto chubby and questions his 3,500 years of divine supremacy.

:wtf:

Of the four books I've read so far in the series, Children of Dune is the best, but it's still not great, and I can only give the series as a whole a rating of "not bad." Aside from its socio-ecological commentary, I'm baffled as to why the Dune series is revered so widely. Certainly not for the writing or the characterizations.

Again, :wtf:

[TZ]

7. Dreck?

You realize that most in the science fiction genre think Dune may be the greatest sci-fi novel ever, no exaggeration? I'm not exaggerating. I'm talking about critics and other authors..

[MiddleFingerMom]

3. Was a VORACIOUS reader growing up...

.
...sometimes reading a novel a DAY!!
.
Dune, while a fascinatingly complex construct, was painfully hard for me
to read. It took FOREVER and I felt like I was waist-deep in muck and each
step was fairly exhausting.
.
Pushed myself to read the whole thing about 40 years ago. Have never and
WILL never put myself through that again.
.
Don't even MENTION the movie.
.

[nuxvomica]

5. Ah, the gom jabbar. It will answer this musical question...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIZdjT1472Y

[Swede]

6. Why does this interloper offer the test of pain?

Perhaps he is an agent of the emperor,or worse the dreaded Harkonnens?