Havard Wrote:The Zahn novels are great, I agree. I may have to reread those one of these days.

I am also a big fan of the Dune novels, especially Dune and God Emperor.

-Havard

finarvyn Wrote:Apologies for the huge OT here. This would probably make a great thread of its own. :lol:

Havard Wrote:I am also a big fan of the Dune novels, especially Dune and God Emperor.

Dune frustrates me. I really love the first book and have read it many times, but the second book seemed only around half as good as the first and the third only half as good as the second. I never got around to 4-6.

Then Brian Herbert started doing books in the Dune universe. I like the "House" trilogy but not so much the "Machine" trilogy and have gotten to the point where I quit buying the books.

Wikipedia lists the following novels as being in the "Dune Franchise" (note that I didn't include any short stories in my list)
01. The Butlerian Jihad
02. The Machine Crusade
03. The Battle of Corrin
04. Sisterhood of Dune
05. Mentats of Dune
06. House Atreides
07. House Harkonnen
08. House Corrino
09a. Paul of Dune (Parts II, IV & VI)
10a. The Winds of Dune (Part II)
11. Dune
09b. Paul of Dune (Parts I, III, V & VII)
10b. The Winds of Dune (Part IV)
12. Dune Messiah
10c. The Winds of Dune (Parts I, III, & V)
13. Children of Dune
14. Leto of Dune
15. God Emperor of Dune
16. Heretics of Dune
17. Chapterhouse: Dune
18. Hunters of Dune

That's just too darned many books. My brain hits overload so I've been trying to decide what constitutes for me "core Dune" and have a couple of options.

Option 1:
1. Dune 8)

Option 2:
1. House Atreides
2. House Harkonnen
3. House Corinno
4. Dune
5. Paul of Dune
6. Dune Messiah
(7. Children of Dune)

What Option 2 does for me is to contain "my" Dune to the main characters of the original book, and the events immediatly before and after the original. It would have Paul in the last three books and Paul's father Leto in the first three.

I'm torn about Children of Dune but I think I'd include it in "my" Dune because (1) it was part of the original trilogy, and (2) I also have the SciFi miniseries on DVD.

As you drift farther in either direction from the original I have this sense that it's "not Dune" anymore because the characters are all different. I have the same feeling for Star Wars prequels that go back 1000 years to look at the early Jedi. Yawn. Give me Luke and the events right around where he was significant.

Just my two coppers.

Raphael Pinthus Wrote:Reread, as in, in a cultish, regular way? None.

Reread, as in, done so in the past, probably going to do so, again? - A couple.

Namely, anything by Camus, Poe, and a German poet called Heym. Genre books, well, the Osten Ard novels by Tad Williams about every few years.
Up there, "The First King of Shannara", which is probably my favorite fantasy novel of all time. Also, the ENTIRETY of the Foster Prince Valiant run, whenever I have a flu that doesn't go away after a day, or so.

RobJN Wrote:Every now and then, I get a hankering for the old Endless Quest books, and I make a few runs through Return to Brookmere, Dungeon of Dread, or, from the later series, The Fireseed. Great X1/X8 atmosphere in that one.

Semi-Retired Gamer Wrote:Have you read Road to Dune? I found it very interesting when compared to the movies. It really makes me want to read the Dune novels.

finarvyn Wrote:

Semi-Retired Gamer Wrote:Have you read Road to Dune? I found it very interesting when compared to the movies. It really makes me want to read the Dune novels.

I have it and it's a great book. It just doesn't really fit into the sequence, which is why I didn't include it on my absurdly long Dune booklist. :lol:

I'm not certain if I've read the whole book or not, but I've read "Spice Planet" a couple of times. For those who don't know about this, "Spice Planet" is essentially a proto-Dune. It's an early draft of what later became the original Dune novel. Very cool. 8)

Semi-Retired Gamer Wrote:I just looked up Pillars of the Earth and it sounds like an interesting read.

Raphael Pinthus Wrote:I can add Mario Puzzo's "The Godfather" to the books I read every few years. The blueprint for Godfather I and II, the novel is sometimes 60-ish cheesy, and even outright racist by today's standards. But overall, it's still a fine, balanced story that illustrates many aspects of the movies more diligently than the actors could.