|
Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 13, 2017 20:24:08 GMT -5
Yeah, I got behind on it then got kinda overwhelmed. I'll work on that
|
|
|
Post by berkley on Jul 13, 2017 20:37:59 GMT -5
I summon sci-fi's most overrated epic! Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they say. Confessor, Dune is like the Moby Dick of science-fiction. Its reputation precedes it, and nowadays it's impossible to just pick it up as we would any old SF novel, but it is absolutely worth reading. At its core, it's a straight story of personal revenge, a vendetta led by the sole surviving members of a great family. If it were just that, it would already be pretty good. But it is also so much more! Dune is a sociological SF novel. It deals not so much with individuals (although they do drive the plot), but rather with how societies evolve, interact, and can be molded. It is fascinating to see the rise of a backwater religion that turns into a jihad; it is scary to see how relatively easily a charismatic leader becomes a messiah, even if it is partly unwillingly. We humans are so eager to find a strong individual who will show us the way... Without indulging in the info-dump that is the plague of too many of today's "extended universes", Herbert's Dune drops hints of a stupendously rich universe where, as in Edward Gibbon's decline and fall of the Roman empire, historical considerations and political agendas all weave a complex web of events that seem to lead ineluctably to a juggernaut-like conclusion. Be it the Jesuit-like shenanigans of the Bene Gesserit, the ecology of the planet Arrakis, the commercial dealings of the CHOAM business conglomerate, the political weight of the Guild of navigators, who physically hold the monopoly on space travel, the strict and quasi-religious ban on computers since the Butlerian jihad, the use of mentats, human calculators, the customs of the desert-dwelling Fremen, the cycle of the spice... Man, there's a TON of stuff in that book! As a Star Wars fan, you will quickly notice how liberally Lucas pilfered from it, be it the context of an imperial structure, the concept of disciplines that allows adepts to attain apparently superhuman abilities, or the uprising against an apparently unbeatable military machine. But those are just cosmetic things; more than simple details, more than the desert planet and the Jedi mind tricks, what makes the original Star Wars feel sort of similar to Dune is the epic sweep, the sense of exhilarating adventure happening on other worlds that feel absolutely real. Dune is a rare instance of a novel that I reread regularly. Each time I am surprised by how actually good the novel is, and not only the idea of the novel. Each time I go in thinking "I must read this hallowed tome with a reverent mindset" and end up thinking "da#%, but this is cool!" Well said, RR. I haven't re-read Dune since the 70s and I've been guilty myself of downplaying it in my weaker moments the last few years, but reading your post reminds me of its very real strengths. It's really a novel of ideas - and I think very important ideas, in a practical, real-world sense - disguised as an adventure story. And yet it's still a great, epic adventure story too, once you get into it. Maybe Slam and Cei-U were turned off by the quasi-scholarly/historical tone that I can see might come across as ponderous and pedantic to some readers? Not to me, mind you: I loved that very aspect of it. I don't know. I'm trying to recall where the story was by the 100 page mark: it's been too long for me to have any idea, but I suspect the full tapestry had barely begun to unfold. To Confessor I'd say: yes, read it and decide for yourself. It is an unusual book for such a popular classic, but give it a shot.
|
|
Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,591
|
Post by Confessor on Jul 14, 2017 4:14:13 GMT -5
Yeah, I got behind on it then got kinda overwhelmed. I'll work on that Cool. If you need any help, just let me know.
|
|
|
Post by LovesGilKane on Jul 14, 2017 5:25:10 GMT -5
i loved Dune when I first read it, at age 11. it was so expansive, yet rich with metaphysical nuance. Baron Harkonnen was SO disgusting, Feyd Feyd-Rautha so pathetic, the Guild Navigators so creepy-yet-tragic.
it left such an impression that i never felt the need to read it again, as I felt after finishing Jonathan Livingston Seagull, though for different reasons.
here's hoping allred never 'adapts' Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
|
|
|
Post by adamwarlock2099 on Jul 14, 2017 11:50:47 GMT -5
I neither liked or disliked Dune. I read it maybe 5-6 years ago, and unlike other well liked science fiction novels, Dune was just okay. I can't find any real complaint to make about it, nor much to complement about it. It felt like sitting through a handful of episodes of a sitcom, that's not making you laugh, but it's also not making you change the channel.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2017 20:03:34 GMT -5
Dune is easily my favorite novel. I even wrote my senior thesis on it.
It's been a few years since I last read it but there was a number of years in row where I read it each year.
|
|
|
Post by Paste Pot Paul on Jul 14, 2017 20:22:11 GMT -5
Dune is even good upside down here at the bottom of the world.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2017 19:23:29 GMT -5
A further follow up question on Dune adaptations...Matt Fraction linked a picture of this illustrated version of Dune from 1978... anyone here have that edition? If so, is it spot illustrations? Color Plates? Is it an illustrated novel (kind of a proto-comic) or just the novel with some illustrations added here and there (what I suspect it is)? -M
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2017 19:42:32 GMT -5
On a related sci-fi note...anyone have any good resources about the European comic mags Pilote and Metal Hurlant? Indexes, typical pricing, etc. I may want to hunt some of these down, but I have little to know info on these, GCD has little to nothing and Lonestar has nothing on pricing, so I am looking for a little foundational knowledge to start with. Also, has anyone seen issues of these at cons or shops?
-M
|
|
|
Post by hondobrode on Jul 18, 2017 22:48:41 GMT -5
You probably already know, but some of the original material from those mags has been reprinted later.
I know some of Richard Corben's work was collected as Den and Jean "Moebius" Giraud's Blueberry by Marvel/Epic.
Otherwise, it's hard to find. Even the Heavy Metal stuff is hard to find, which is so weird, as some of that top level stuff like Druillet as timeless.
As far as Dune, I've tried three different times to get through that original movie, and fall asleep at the same part every time. I'm just not getting it. Almost anyone else I know who's read the books loves them.
|
|
|
Post by LovesGilKane on Jul 19, 2017 1:17:29 GMT -5
I still wanna know why the inks on Kirby's pencils in 1959 sucked compared to the 1st 2 Fantastic Four issues, as apart from pre-press/printing problems, the art should have been as good as Kirby's work on Challenger's of the Unknown.
Sadly everyone who might be able to answer this would be deceased.
|
|
|
Post by Cei-U! on Jul 19, 2017 7:42:31 GMT -5
I still wanna know why the inks on Kirby's pencils in 1959 sucked compared to the 1st 2 Fantastic Four issues, as apart from pre-press/printing problems, the art should have been as good as Kirby's work on Challenger's of the Unknown. Sadly everyone who might be able to answer this would be deceased. Are you referring to his Archie work (The Fly, Double Life of Private Strong)? Kirby, with help from his wife, inked his own pencils on those books (as he had earlier on his Green Arrow run), a task he always hated. Those first two FFs, on the other hand, were inked by George Klein. That, presumably, is the reason for the difference. Cei-U! Not sure why you thought nobody knew this!
|
|
|
Post by Reptisaurus! on Jul 19, 2017 9:29:18 GMT -5
I still wanna know why the inks on Kirby's pencils in 1959 sucked compared to the 1st 2 Fantastic Four issues, as apart from pre-press/printing problems, the art should have been as good as Kirby's work on Challenger's of the Unknown. Sadly everyone who might be able to answer this would be deceased. Are you referring to his Archie work (The Fly, Double Life of Private Strong)? Kirby, with help from his wife, inked his own pencils on those books (as he had earlier on his Green Arrow run), a task he always hated. Those first two FFs, on the other hand, were inked by George Klein. That, presumably, is the reason for the difference. Cei-U! Not sure why you thought nobody knew this! Was Kirby was working for (what would become) Marvel that early? I know he did the cover to Tales to Astonish # 1, which should have been 1959-ish or so.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2017 11:35:54 GMT -5
You probably already know, but some of the original material from those mags has been reprinted later. I know some of Richard Corben's work was collected as Den and Jean "Moebius" Giraud's Blueberry by Marvel/Epic. Otherwise, it's hard to find. Even the Heavy Metal stuff is hard to find, which is so weird, as some of that top level stuff like Druillet as timeless. As far as Dune, I've tried three different times to get through that original movie, and fall asleep at the same part every time. I'm just not getting it. Almost anyone else I know who's read the books loves them. Yes a lot of material has been collected in other formats, even some of it translated to English, but there's a lot of stuff that hasn't and I am interested in the original mags as a snapshot of what kind of material was there at the gestation of some of these more familiar works, what stuff has been overlooked by mainstream American audiences, etc. I like anthologies not just for the headliner material but for the stuff that fills the other pages and sometimes gets overlooked. And these French anthologies or likely rife with stuff I haven't seen before. -M
|
|
|
Post by samurai32 on Jul 19, 2017 13:55:21 GMT -5
I just bought bought a bunch of Marvel Conan in digital format from Dark Horse Comics compilations. The material covers the first 100 issues of the monthly Conan the Barbarian title and the first 40 or so issues of Savage Sword of Conan. While I read most of this when it first came out in the order that it was published, I think it would be cool to try to read the stories in chronological order. Obviously, this comes into play primarily with the Savage Sword stories, which skip all over Conan's life. Does anyone know if there is a list that shows these Marvel stories (all from the Roy Thomas era) in chronological order?
|
|