Ack wrote:I read Dune for the first time in 2010, and I thought it was a masterpiece.
Read it immediately.
I hated Dune and found it to be a 412 page slog. There are things that Frank Herbert does well like action, scenery, and politics, but it all falls apart because none of the characters were likable. Paul, Jessica, Alia, Chani, and many others were just boring, artificial drones issuing exposition and vaguely emulating emotion. The only characters I liked were Duke Leto and Feyd-Rautha as they were the only ones that acted like characters.
I ended up finding copies of The Howling and The Howling II on the cheap. Finished the original & am about 100 pages into the sequel.
Cool stories, I always like different authors take on fantasy creatures & their background/lore.
Only complaint, way too often he gets a little too far into the lust/love trance they can have over another. I feel like a 40 year old woman reading a romance novel in those parts :/...
Ack wrote:I read Dune for the first time in 2010, and I thought it was a masterpiece.
Read it immediately.
I hated Dune and found it to be a 412 page slog. There are things that Frank Herbert does well like action, scenery, and politics, but it all falls apart because none of the characters were likable. Paul, Jessica, Alia, Chani, and many others were just boring, artificial drones issuing exposition and vaguely emulating emotion. The only characters I liked were Duke Leto and Feyd-Rautha as they were the only ones that acted like characters.
So I lied and did not go back to Sapkowski's works, I took a primer in H. Beam Pipers work. Cosmic Computer, done. Space Viking, will be done this week. Four-Day Planet should be done next week.
Piper's works I have read are all space opera, before it was space opera. It also uses a unique mix of ideas from the 50s Atomic scares and the early 60s space race. Some parts are silly, like giant tape based pcs, but his concepts on the people condition are very interesting. He had a knack for writing characters that you can imagine and relate to, but sadly he commit suicide before he could explore his world more.
I really loved Cosmic Computer, but Four Day Planet is space whalers tale.
Ack wrote:I read Dune for the first time in 2010, and I thought it was a masterpiece.
Read it immediately.
I hated Dune and found it to be a 412 page slog. There are things that Frank Herbert does well like action, scenery, and politics, but it all falls apart because none of the characters were likable. Paul, Jessica, Alia, Chani, and many others were just boring, artificial drones issuing exposition and vaguely emulating emotion. The only characters I liked were Duke Leto and Feyd-Rautha as they were the only ones that acted like characters.
jp1 wrote:They turned Dune into a book?
That's actually what makes it a good book. No, character is perfect and has many flaws. But there are plenty with personality: Liet-Kynes, Piter de Vries, Gurney Hallek, the Baron and if you keep reading the series (which few do) Duncan Idaho becomes more of a fleshed out leading character. And Paul become more likable in Children of Dune.
BoringSupreez wrote:Dune is awesome.
Reading it makes me feel like a pre-2000s LotR fan though. No good movies based off an extremely rich fantasy world. Some talented director really needs to try taking Dune on again.
The Syfy channel mini series of Dune was pretty faithful. Not the best special effects, too many dumb hats, and Paul is a little whiney and old but I enjoyed it. The sequel covers Dune Messiah and Children of Dune.
It's not intended to be funny, but strap in as you will laugh. A lot. At least you should.
Definitely a bathroom or lazy day read as you won't be flipping pages with passion, Or maybe you will as this is a story of a "hard gangster" who found love through dogs. The over is also Death Row Esque. The tag line is (yes, this book has a tag line) How an abandoned dog named Bruno turned this Mobster's life around.
There is more useless foul language than there is in a poetry slam. At least a year's worth of poetry slams from around the united States.
Stepped into thread to mention that I am trying to read Dune again for the first time since I was a kid. Noticed that last large conversation was about said book. This place is good and lovely.
I am one hundred pages into Blood of Elves, simply stunning. So I was mistaken in the past, I have not read Blood, I read Sword of Destiny. But this is a savage fantasy world. No pomp or circumstance this is gritty. If I had only read the short stories, I would not have thought about making a game about the world, but this. This is spellbinding. Sapkowski's descriptions are the best Ive ever read.
This is a fierce counter to Pipers works that I have been reading and the first time since I read Murder on the Orient Express a couple years ago that I am forcing myself not to think about it when I am not reading it. I want no mystery uncovered out of turn.
I'm currently about 140 pages into Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's The Cabinet of Curiosities. Previously I read Relic and enjoyed it, so I thought I would sit down with another of their works.
Unfortunately I find I'm not enjoying this one nearly as much. I have a few issues: First, there are several plot lines that don't seem to be related at all, and I don't care for a couple of them. I expect they will be tied together at some point, and I'm curious how, but I find I don't care for courtroom scenes and journalistic investigation in books. And two, I don't care much for Special Agent Pendergast. He is simply too perfect for me to see him as a believable character.
I actually just finished Dune for the 2nd time. Still one of my absolute favorites.
I also just picked up Infinite Jest and A Confederacy of Dunces - both recommended to me by a good bookworm friend who loves this tragicomedy stuff. Haven't started them yet, I don't know which one to read first.
I'm still not sure whether I'm a kid or a squid now.
