Lit MACLUNKY -- The Lit Forum Maclunky Thread, v3

I just learned KJA is co-producing the Dune prequel series. He sure has come a long way since his Jedi Academy days.

Has anyone here read his Dune prequel novels? Are they any good? I gave them a pass when they came out because I was still attached to the Jehanne Butler storyline from the old Dune Encyclopedia; but now with all the hype I might just reconsider...

 

Honestly, Dune fans think they are a horrible abomination, from what I gather, and wish he had never written in Dune.

 

Dune, one of those things I feel like I should check out because if it’s relationship to Star Wars but never had the time for

 

I have no idea if the Dune prequels are any good or not, but in fairness to KJA, I suspect a contingent of the fandom would be complaining regardless of who wrote the prequels or if they were any good. I say just grab one from the library, read the first five or six chapters, and see if it holds your interest. Worst case scenario, you've sacrificed an hour or two and satisfied your curiosity, right?

 

If your going to read Dune, I would recommend starting with the six books Frank Herbert wrote. It's a good entry point to the series.

 

The first few Dune novels were good, though they’re a bit dry and very dense.

 

Dune, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune are great. I havent ever managed to finish God Emperor of Dune.

I tried The Butlerian Jihad, one of KJA's works with Brian Herbert, and thought it was terrible. The hardcover literally became a prop for an A/C window unit for a long time. It's water damaged and in bad shape. I never tried any of the others since.

I have considered giving Paul of Dune a chance, as that is set between Dune and Dune Messiah.


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I mean... KJA is KJA. They're not too different from the JAT or anything else he's written. I actually kind of love that he took his fairly superficial whizz-bang approach to something as self-consciously "literary sci-fi" as Dune, tho.

 

I get the distinct impression that the Dune prequels are like the Star Wars prequels. Fans hate them because they are different but when looked at on their own the worst you can say is "Eh, it's okay."

Maybe that's inaccurate, but it's the vibe I get. *shrugs*

 

It's not just that they are different.... the last 3 of the OG Dune by Frank Herbert are *different.* it doesn't get much weirder than turning a human into a giant worm deity.

The problem with the KJA/Brian Herbert stuff is that the writing really isn't up to snuff and there's some stuff in there that people find dubiously claimed to originate in Frank Herbert's notes.



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No. It's not by the same creator. Not the same kind of writing. Not the same deep meaning. It's like saying Family Guy is the sequel to the Great Gatsby. Lots of superficial action.

 

I guess agree to disagree then.

 

Yeah, sometimes not having the same creator is a good thing. Because sometimes someone else can do it better.

 

So then...Frank's last three are the equivalent of the SW prequels...and the KJA/Brian stuff is the sequel trilogy?

 

Guess that means KJA made the better story

 

I like the Butlerian Jihad trilogy and the House trilogy, but the Sequel books to the FH 6 books was a let down.
There was a trilogy about the rise of the Space Guild, Bene Geseret and Mentat Orders but never finished that.

 

It can be.

But not in this case.

 

So, He-Man Revlations came out

Spoiler

Loved it

Loved the focus on Teela which is super interesting.

Love the fact that they actually changed the status quo.

Oh and they NAILED Skeletor...He may not be in much but man did they NAIL him.

Oh and Evil-Lyn...Finally Evil-Lyn got the spotlight she so rightfully deserved.

 

Quite honestly, if you want non-Star Wars space operas there's so many to choose from - you don't have to go to now decades old classic.

I've a couple to read from the last decade, which I neglected so have only just found out about and am catching up on - which I think you would likely enjoy more Jid. Dune will, by its nature, reflect the era it was written in, which is also true for newer material.

 

Dune is particularly interesting to me because of all the Islamic influences Herbert drew upon. The Fremen have a strange mix of influences, but the one that jumps out to me most is the Ismaili assassins. He uses a lot of technical jargon from Islamic mysticism and philosophy, which makes the glossary in the appendices almost the most fascinating part of Dune for me.

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It’s very proto-ASOIAF/Game of Thrones too with the courtly intrigue and debauchery, which is interesting considering it came out in the 60s.

 

A friend of mine, disappointed in the apparent lack of weirdness in the new movie trailer, said(I think accurately) that Dune is about sex, drugs and religion.

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That’s pretty spot on.

 

Admittedly I had to stop reading the books sometime into the fourth one because the religious cult manslug thing was getting too weird for me. And the jihad-disaster-recovery-angst-jihad cycle was getting old, no matter how many times the heroes meld with some nonhuman thing they shouldn't.

I will say this: Herbert is very good at aphorisms. Even in the main text, he drops these occasional one-liners that are just like "huh, that's a really good quotable quote." They're usually meant for one of the cults but they actually work perfectly fine outside the context of the books.

 

I remember the drugs and the religion but not that sex had any big/notable role