freeman

I'd be really interested to see what a Dune army circa Paul Atreides time looked like swordsman, spearmen, maybe even axemen[?], slow-projectile squads maybe? wouldn't conventional shields still be useful for trapping the opponent's weapon?

Duke Leto: Liam Neeson, Christian Bale as second choice (Bale is a bit too young) Jessica: Lena Headey or Cate Blanchett Duncan Idaho: Gerard Butler Gurney Halleck: Ray Winstone Dr. Yueh: Gary OIdman Stilgar: Ghassan Massoud Chani: not sure Paul: James McAvoy The Baron: Ian McNeice Piter DeVries: John Malkovich, Alan Cumming, Robert Carlyle[?] Feyd : Ben Foster, maybe Rabban: not sure Mohiam: Sigourney Weaver Shaddam: Ken Watanabe Irulan: not sure Fenring: Willem Defoe

Just to clear things up, is it the force/energy of the object or simply its velocity? because if it were the energy rather than just the velocity, the shield wouldn't have a speed setting it would have an energy setting in that case less massive objects could pass through at greater maximum speeds than heavier objects, but in the books it seems that the shields only take speed into account also I thought that, against a shield, the tip is more effective than the edge because a slow thrust is more effective than a slow chop you can gently press the point into someone but that doesn't really work with the edge

I thought the exact same although historically there are straight and slightly curved kindjals (both double-edged), I think in the Dune appendix, the kindjal is described as having a slightly curved blade around 20cm long (this probably fits the description most closely) I also thought that most of the weapons in Dune had to be shorter stabbing blades, but then again Duncan said something to the effect of "there is no art in killing with the tip" (or something like that) and if I recall correctly Paul used a rapier against Gurney but yes, penetrating the shield with a knife or shortsword in a fight would be much easier than say penetrating it with a 7 foot spear killing with the edge would also be really difficult against a shield fast hacking and chopping blows would be deflected, so I suppose a slower slitting attack would be the only way to use the edge effectively, but then why not just a slower, more efficient thrust?

One of the signature features of the Dune universe was the use of personal shields and old-fashioned blade weapons in a highly futuristic setting. Kindjals seem to be a popular weapon in the series. The swords are never described in detail, but rapiers are mentioned. What types of blade design do you think would be appropriate for the new Dune movie? I've included some pictures of kindjals, japanese shortswords/knives, roman swords, and rapiers I personally think the kindjals and the roman swords are more fitting for the Dune universe than fancy rapiers and asian swords but what do you guys think? On a side note I also liked some of designs in the Dune miniseries. The Sardarukar knives and the one (can't find a picture) Gurney Halleck used looked pretty good. I still however haven't seen a crysknife that does the descriptions in the book justice though. 1 2 3 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

I can't find it at the moment, but somewhere in this article http://dune2k.com/Community/Articles/Warfare I could have sworn I read something to the effect that shields repulse each other when they come too close together

on a related note i'm assuming that the shield does not envelope the blade held in the wearer's hand since if it did the shield around the blade would be repulsed by the opponent's shield so I don't see why a shield would cover the gun

I came across these interesting tidbits in an article on Dune warfare featured on this site: http://dune2k.com/Community/Articles/Warfare A shield can be modified to provide only partial protection to its wearer...this shows that shield configurations are flexible and can be shaped to a particular task. Conversely, fast moving missile weapons cannot be fired from within a shield. This causes a shield inversion and the resultant impact radiation cooks the shield wearer very quickly. A second limitation on shield use is the exhausting effects on the wearer when deprived of sufficient oxygen for any significant length of time. If all this were true, couldn't shields be configured to provide close to full protection while allowing the wearer to breath with more ease or to fire guns? (for example a shield that has a few small wholes in it for air and leaves one of the wearer's hands exposed)

a lot of Dune fan fiction is quite good...I know how hard it is to pull off decent fan fiction, I've tried albeit not Dune-related, so kudos to those who can do so in as rich a universe as Dune what I was saying is that the books by BH and KJA, professional writers with editors at their disposal, are being outdone by casual RPG threads, not even actual stories...come on that's embarrassing lol, I was going through some of those in the fanfiction section and by the third or fourth sentences it was already more engaging than any chapter from Butlerian Jihad

I didn't read Sandworms (thanks the lord) but I hope to god that BH and his buddy didn't actually used the word "bad" to describe how Sheanna felt...

Erasmus was a semi-interesting character, but in the end I believe BH and KJA wasted Erasmus's potential to develop into a truly original and engaging character, I think the sad fact is that BH and KJA aren't talented enough to engage the reader, and as was mentioned, a semi-interesting character in their writing is the exception not the norm with a bunch of bland, faceless characters like vorian, xavier, abulurd, serena, iblis, agamemnon, norma, aurelius etc, etc

yes but a little entertainment is better than nothing, which is what I got out of the man v. machine series related to Dune only in name

I just dug out my copies of the LoD trilogy and all I can say is it's the ultimate example of bland, lazy, "churn one out every year" writing I browsed the fan fiction section of this forum and some of the RPG threads were more engaging than BH's writing...it's that bad, it really is, AND I just found out by reading Amazon reviews that BH and KJA attempt to pass off the originals as inaccurate in-universe texts written by Irulan, so now they're pretty much free to rewrite whatever they want, that is seriously the last straw

my friend you have accomplished in a few paragraphs what Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson could not in a full-blown trilogy

Yes, the Battle of Corrin proved to me definitively that BH and KJA either can't write or are just too lazy to put in an effort when they can just coast on the Dune name. It was a stupid idea for them to interpret the Butlerian Jihad as a literal war between humans and thinking machines (although that's how it was portrayed in the Lynch film). Machine v. human wars are more the domain of hard sci-fi writers who have the knowledge necessary to adequately handle the details in an intelligent, plausible, realistic manner...the most advanced AI thousands of years in the future can be destroyed by blowing up a few buildings in which it has conveniently housed itself...I mean come on! Let's hope the 2010 movie will give us something to look forward to.

the only thing I remember about the Harkonnen dude is that his first name started with an X (which is rare) and was more interesting than his personality we're gluttons for punishment aren't we

you gotta be fu cking kiddin me right...they might as well rewrite the whole series I would agree with you that the House series was entertaining in a "Star Wars-ish" way, but the Butlerian Jihad trilogy was just plain lame, I couldn't even get simple entertainment from reading it

I've read all of the original Dune novels as well as the House and Legends trilogies. The original Dune is of course the best and most popular of the lot by far, an excellent example of soft science fiction. The subsequent FH sequels were still good though God Emperor was an absolute chore to get through. I treated the House series as the reader's version of popcorn entertainment. Suffice to say I was just happy to get back into the Dune universe. I didn't have high expectations so I was never hugely disappointed. Indeed, I expected the quality to improve in the future as BH and KJA settled into writing in the "duniverse" Then the Legends trilogy came along. Now, when I picked up Butlerian Jihad I tried to look on the bright side because pretty early on it became apparent that the style had not improved at all. I said to myself "well there's a fair bit of action and there's robots, yes, robots...they're always fun" Well, as you grow older you grow wiser, and now I see the Legends series for what it is, a pile of shit. I was at least able to derive some enjoyment from reading the House series because it dealt with memorable characters already established by FH. But now in a series populated solely by the "creativity" of BH and KJA, even that was gone. In the entire series there was not one interesting character. The characterization was ridiculously flat. The human characters were made of cardboard. Erasmus had potential that was never fully tapped and the supreme AI Omnius was, well, kinda stupid. I hardly remember anything memorable in the entire series which must have been over 1500 pages. I'm convinced that if it had not been for the "Dune" on the covers, the series would have never seen the light of day. I didn't even bother getting Hunters and Sandworms, and when I learned that the finale involved the spirit of Norma Cenva's teleportation of Omnius to "another dimension" I'm pretty glad I saved my money. Well, I'm done with BH and KJA and unless something miraculous happens to their writing ability I'm staying far from Paul of Dune or the Lady Jessica book (what is it? Winds of Dune of something like that) they have planned. Just had to get that off my chest.

have any of you guys ever read the "Saga of Seven Suns" by KJA? is he any good on his own?

why did Brian Herbert choose to collaborate with Kevin J Anderson for the Dune prequels? Isn't that like asking Paul W.S. Anderson (seriously are the two Andersons related cuz they both suck) to do the Dune movie. BTW Paul W.S. Anderson is the guy who gave us "gold" such as AVP, Soldier, Resident Evil...

wow, found an awesome picture of Shai-Hulud :O http://web.inf.tu-dresden.de/~oj853436/pics/dune-sandwurm.jpg

damn, any idea where you found them online? :'(

Oh yeah, here's an awesome article on warfare in dune on this very site http://dune2k.com/?page=community-articles&show=warfare and here are some pics of the Fremen :) i can't seem to find to many pics of the Fremen so if you could share some that would be great. http://www.thedune.ru/emperor/fremen/fremen_warrior.jpg http://campagnes-sc.chez-alice.fr/dune/images/fremenicon2.jpg (wish I could find a bigger version of this pic!) I really didn't like the Fremen in Lynch's movie with their exposed heads and rubber still suits (at least throw on a few desert robes!) http://www.thedune.ru/lynch/gallery/97_fremen.jpg

Hey there thanks for the reply fellow Dune fan! Another thing is that in the Dune series, entire cities are sometimes protected with shields and I'm sure that an invading force would not want to destroy the city outright with a las beam. The invaders would probably want to capture the city in order to utilize its resources. I think Herbert described the tactic of dropping extremely massive objects from orbit to crush a city's defensive shields however this would probably result in huge damage to the city (although it would be nothing compared to the complete obliteration caused by a shield/las-beam interaction).