Chapterhouse: Dune

In case you were wondering, that last post had absolutely no reason for existing except that I like the word accoutrements. Heh.

And now for my first post not full of trivia and mediocrity:

Yesterday, I finished the last book in Frank Herbert's classic Dune series, Chapterhouse: Dune. For some reason, I'd managed to escape reading these six books for years. I can't imagine why I did that.

These books were exquisitely crafted. Each is written differently, with a unique point - yet all have an overarching feel of, well, "Dune-ness" that leaves you breathless. Should I ever need an example of the word "epic", this will top my list. These books don't astonish the reader with their scale; rather, as one learns more about the universe in which he writes, it dawns on you that he's discussing no less than the evolution of humanity in the vastness of the universe. More importantly, it discusses people attempting to control said evolution.

This is the sort of book that you can read fairly quickly, merely picking up the story line as you go... yet you'll wake up in the middle of the night and ask yourself, "Now what did he mean by that?" I cannot recommend these books highly enough. I can't say I agree with all of Herbert's views on how people and society work. Yet his analysis is superb and intriguing.

What saddens me is that he could only write six books; I feel much of the story is left untold, and there's a rich panolpy of possibilities that I will never see realized. This is hardly enough to get me to read the "new Dune" novels that his son has written in collaboration with Kevin J. Anderson, any more than I'll read the new Foundation Trilogy or the "extra" Oz books. In the words of my hero Tycho Brahe (heh, the one who's still alive, silly, not the astronomer), "They are fucking his corpse."

Ahem. Excuse my French. But it really does feel like these authors would throw a tantrum if they actually saw what people did with their work posthumously. Then again, at least these books are supposed to be based on Herbert's notes, so they aren't complete bullshit. To be fair, my mother has read most of the new Dune novels, and has reported they are "interesting" if not outright "good". Not only does this mean my mother's damn cool for reading Dune books, but I'm willing to trust her reading assessments, within limits.

Much more importantly, completing this series means I must now rent Children of Dune and watch it obsessively. I'm told that the SciFi channel did a good job with them, surprisingly. I also should watch the old Dune movies once more, if only for laughs. *sighs* So many inexplicably good movies that have been based on awesome books, lately... one would think that someone in the movie industry is beggining to figure something out.

Oh, wait. Never mind. Isaac Asimov is turning in his grave. At least some good has come out of the travesty that is that movie. I haven't even seen it yet, and I know I'll want to commit murder by the end.

Well, folks, that's all for now. Ta-ta!