AeonGrey

My ideal alternate Dune 7 would be an ACTUAL Dune 7, which would consist of an edited volume of everything Brian actually knew about what his father WANTED for Dune 7, if anything. Seriously, Christopher Tolkien had no problem doing this for his father's material and it became a lucrative multi-volume series without spewing diarrhea all over his father's work.

Before you take it too seriously, think about what day it is...though I don't know if it has as much signifigance in Italy.

If it is, I'm going to sue the hell out of BH and KJA.

From an inside source I know over at Dunenovels.com, I've heard that Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson are planning a new series of books that explore the supposed mythological roots of house Atreides. It is rumored that the novels will take place during the Trojan war, and will follow the life of a little-known son of Agamemnon, Paulus Atreideus, a commander in the Greek army at Troy. It is rumored that it will explain the very beginnings of the fighting style which came to be known as the Weirding Way. Brian Herbert had this to say: "Right now we're looking at a series of around 7 books, probably in the range of 800-900 pages each. We're also toying with the idea of maybe sending some thinking machines from the era of the Butlerian Jihad to try to assassinate Paulus. The main thing that drew us to the idea of taking the series this far back was the idea that there are about 22,000 years between the Trojan War and the time of the original Dune, so it gives us the opportunity to explore the history of the Atreides family and write as many series as we feel like. Right now Kevin is kicking around the idea of writing something that takes place during World War 2, and he's even suggested a cross-over series in which thinking machines from the Butlerian Jihad travel back a long time ago, to a galaxy far far away, and end up founding the Empire from the Star Wars series." There are also even fainter rumors of the possibility of a "Servants of Dune" series which follows the history of Shadout Mapes.

Duke Leto I - Viggo Mortensen Jessica Atreides - Kristin Scott Thomas Paul Atreides - Daniel Radcliffe (he's a good actor and he looks the part...) Gurney Halleck - Brendan Gleeson Duncan Idaho - Eric Bana Thufir Hawat - Rutger Hauer Dr Wellington Yueh - Gary Oldman / John Hurt Stilgar - Ray Winstone Irulan - Rebecca Hall Chani - ??? Shaddam Corrino IV - Alex Angulo (Spanish actor) Hasimir Fenring - Steve Buscemi Baron Vladmir Harkonnen - Robbie Coltrane Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen - The kid who played Malfoy...why not. Liet Kynes - ??

whahhh??? What is this the Cockney circus version of Dune? I like Stephen Fry but...I don't think he's right for Leto. You could never convince me, for example that he was descended from a Greek family or that he knows how to fight....

I think we should get together and try to buy up ALL the gummy worms we can find and send them back to Brian with a note that just says "no thanks".

I picked up a copy of this when I was killing time at a bookstore waiting to meet some friends, I flipped to a random page and read 1 paragraph. I'm pretty sure that it was narrating events in DUNE, as in the first Dune book. I think it was during their trip from Caladan to Arrakis. If I was correct, then this is atrocious on a level I didn't think even BH and KJA could stoop to. While I do think it is cheap to write all these stupid, long "in-between" books and prequels and stuff, at least they're filling in spaces that FH didn't originally directly narrate. But to narrate an event FROM DUNE amounts to basically attempting to re-write what FH did...which, why anyone would want to do that...is beyond me.

Yay! I can't wait until they release the "bathrooms of Dune" series. I've always wanted to know what happened in the moments between chapters in all the Dune books. Hopefully they will be able to somehow stretch it out into a 6-book series with about 650 pages per book. Then, I can't wait to read the "Chefs of Dune" series, which gets into what went on behind the scenes in the kitchens of Dune! I heard they were working Gordon Ramsay on this one. /sarcasm

A neat piece of trivia for those of us from the 80s. The guy who plays Jamis in the extended version is the same guy who played Mickey (the criminal guy) in PeeWee's Big Adventure. What's also funny is the reason he's "running" in Peewee's Big Adventure is because he cut one of those tags off a mattress with a knife...maybe it was a crysknife?

I dunno man....I think they're really gonna just keep the books coming. Pretty soon we'll be reading the "Paul goes to Kindergarten" series of Easy Readers for kids. I know it's the typical cynical view for a guy like me on this, but I really think these two are going to keep this up until they either can't, or people stop buying them, which they won't. We should start taking bets to see if we can predict what next piece of junk they'll think up to write.

What I don't get is, where are the fans who are demanding all this junk? I mean, I realize there are probably a small amount of people even on this board who are "ok" with the new books and will read them because they're "Dune", but good lord! When you take into account the house books...the butlerian jihad books and this new "______ of Dune" crap, that's 10 books! 7 of Which are already out and have been released in a span of 8 years. I suppose I'm looking at it wrong though...it doesn't matter what "fans" demand it...if they can keep turning them out like RL Stine books and people keep hoovering them up with their money I guess that's all that matters. Personally, I thought the books were so bad that I stopped after Butlerian Jihad. I'll never understand the desire of people to always just have MORE! "MORE!!!! Wait! What about this thing that is hinted at in this book? I want to know about this character or about this thing that is mentioned here! No! I want a whole series about it! No a series of series! Split it up into as many 600-page books as you can! More more more! I want a spinoff of every single part of every single character's life...I want EVERY detail filled in and I don't care if it is written like a crappy Star Wars novel." :-( Makes me sad. I'm aware that it's a tired topic, but why couldn't they have gone the Christopher Tolkien route?

Edric, I'm going to try to keep from Dawkinsing out on you, but...this is exactly what I find so frustrating about discussions about the existence of god. If god, by his very nature, is completely undetectable in ...well, apparently EVERY empirical way, then...gah, I dunno. I've been reading crap all day for school, so my brain is mush. I'll try again later. I just find it ridiculous to posit the existence of a being and then define it as completely 100% unprovable. But then maybe that's why I am what I am.

Here's mine. http://img89.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pcgraphpngphpic3.png I'm not surprised. About where I thought I'd be.

Yeah...I thin I pretty much feel about it like you guys do. I'm an atheist personally, but it isn't some phase or rebellious thing...I'm an adult. I was raised Christian and it didn't traumatize me or anything...I simply grew up to reject the religious claims that were presented to me during my upbringing...just couldn't, as a person who cares about being honest with himself, accept the claims...I saw and still see no evidence to accept the claim that the universe is controlled by a deity (certainly NOT a benevolent one).

I was reading some atheist blog earlier today and as always, the discussion in the comments section, once a a religious person interjected, turned into the same usual debate about whether or not there's god, etc. One thing that I keep seeing come up again and again and again is this idea that atheists have faith TOO, just...faith that there isn't a god. Seems simple enough, but it really frustrates me. I wanted to see what other people thought before I interject my FULL opinion here...do people who don't believe in god have to defend themselves by somehow providing proof that god doesn't exist? As I'm sure you've guessed from my non-capitalized 'god's, I'm not religious.

Nice..... "11 commandments....get the fuck outta here!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXhLT9mpDzc I'm not really into break dancing or hiphop at all, but this guy's physical abilities are f*cking amazing. "I will bend like a reed in the wind." Makes you wonder what he could do with the weirding way or something, heheh....

Well said. And just who counts as a "founding father"? Someone who helped draft the constitution? Someone who signed it? One of the early presidents? And why does every single thing they've ever been documented as saying have to be canon? Isn't that why they chose to outline everything in a constitution? So this kind of of misinterpretation of their words wouldn't really matter?

Check out this page. I don't know what to think about the "ten commandments" after seeing this. I actually noticed this when reading some Bible passages for a Western Civ class. I dunno about the rest of you, but I see darn near 40 commandments there. And how on earth are we supposed to argue that the one about not making idols has any link to morality or modern US law? And where does this fabled list of "10" commandments exist in the Bible? Who decided which ten were "the" ten. I realize a lot of those in that Wikipedia link are rewordings of each other, but even then, it seems very ambiguous. Seems like a good deal of Christians in the US have sort of a "what they told me in Sunday school" kind of idea about the commandments...ridiculous.

I don't think it has, honestly. And it probably won't except for in the Conservative press. I'm sure Fox news will mention it. As far as doing something to please their constituents...yes and no. I mean yeah, it is ass-kissing in a way, but does it actually get anything important done? I mean...the bill itself says that people have been celebrating this already anyway. I realize it doesn't infringe on my rights or break the separation of church and state really...I'm just afraid the people who advance this "We're a Christian nation with laws based on the Ten Commandments" argument are going to see this as some sort of a...vindication or cite it as evidence in the future that we are indeed a "Christian nation" or whatever....

Hey good point....maybe I should try to lobby for "Jesus Appreciation Week" during the week of my birthday. Wouldn't mind not having to work then.

Well, we have Memorial Day which is typical at the end of May. Sounds like it might be similar to what you're talking about. This is actually why I posted about it. I put a more lengthy rant on my blog, which is here. I don't really see it as against the US Constitution or anything, but I'm just getting tired of hearing the argument the Ten Commandments are the ONLY foundation of every moral ever. I just wanted to see what other people thought. It strikes me as slightly troubling and, but on the other hand nothing more than cheap political posturing so that Sam Brownback can kiss the religious asses of his constituents.

Eep, sorry. My webspace was having problems a minute ago. The file should DEFINITELY be there now.

Alright, a new url to my web space is posted in my original post. Enjoy.