Dune

I'm reading Dune, and it is pretty good. Though I feel the author overhypes the Atreides too much, and the Harknonnens feel like cartoon characters, they're so mustache-twirling. The constant Gratuitous Arabic feels a little silly too, but I guess it adds flavor. But actual Arabs are nothing like the Fremen, and neither are the Tuareg, and am I sensing a Mighty Whitey here?

greatest sci-fi book ever
i love the use of the religious principles of islam and the conflicts in the middle east
putting it in SPACE
i just loved it

Keep reading. You don't get a particularly good sense of where Herbert's going with the Atreides or the Fremen for at least three books.

While you're keeping track of the tropes, make another list of all the things in Dune that wound up in Star Wars.

Wow, a person approaching Dune as a layman. Read up, chances are you'll like it.

If Mighty Whitey is on your mind, try reading Dune Messiah.

Messiah is one of my favorite scifi books for that very reason.

Dune is one of the greatest books ever written, in my opinion. Enjoy it.

I'm reading the page for Doom and while the stuff revealed is incredibly predictable and foreshadowed ad nauseam, it's still chock full of unspoilered stuff.

Guys, this may ruin the story for you, but, if you will, try to read Dune with the notion that Spice isn't meant to represent oil, but coffee.

The coffee must flow

I totally LOL at that.

Although coffee really is a better fit, it's not like humans actually ingest oil.

edited 28th Oct '13 4:48:48 PM by shiro_okami

It enhances the mind, but once you've taken it you can never abandon it and feel like yourself again!

Obligatory:

By caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. By the beans of Java do thoughts acquire speed, hands acquire shakes, the shakes becomes a warning. By caffeine alone do I set my mind in motion.

[edit] Alternately, for the middle sentence to map a little closer to the original quote (was it in the novel, or was that a movie invention? I've not seen either in like forever): "[...] teeth acquire stains, the stains becomes a warning."

edited 28th Oct '13 5:10:13 PM by Nohbody

That was awesome.

Wish I could claim credit for it, but I just found it somewhere on teh intertubez.

Eh, you get credit for posting it here anyways, so have a free internetz cookie.

om nom nom

(Unfortunately, as it's been over a decade since I've read the book, I can't really contribute anything on-topic for it. )

It's not a very smart book, actually. I've seen much better, where the super-smarts were not an Informed Ability and the natives weren't magically super-resilient.

Highly creative stuff, but as the books chugged along, the plots became a huge Gambit Pileup among scheming factions whom the reader has an increasingly hard time keeping straight or caring about. This is partly because, talented though Herbert was, he was fairly humorless: his sense of the ridiculous failed to kick in at crucial points in the convoluted plotlines. Also, as a language nerd, I was badly distracted by the series' ham-handed abuse of Artistic License – Linguistics.

Dune is my favourite book ever. The sequels? Not so much, is all I'll say.

I re-read the first one back in the summer, and being more aware of all the philosophical ideas behind it has made it a much better experience.

Don't think that you can make a statement like that and get away with it without listing a few examples. Not that I disagree with you, but rather I might actually be interested in reading those books.

Worm.

I still have to wonder if any part of Mcdune was part of any plan for the seventh book, asuming the notes were a fabrication by the authors, which is very likely.