Winds of Dune- Review Thread

[Andrew]

Someone should make an infographic linking references in all the new books. A bunch of quotes with arrows pointing all over the place. :D

[Mahdi]

Someone should make an infographic linking references in all the new books. A bunch of quotes with arrows pointing all over the place. :D

That would be one hell of a chart.

[Dante]

I remember Leto mentioning that he was in contact with his ancestors, one of whom was Agamemnon. The exact identity of this ancestor is left nebulous, he's refered to only as a warrior. It's unfortunate that this same vagueness enabled the prequel authors to pretend that Agamemnon the cymek was the character, rather than a quasi-legendary figure who might have been from a place we recognise. Keyword being might.

[SandChigger]

Ah, well, I'm sure KJA thought he had silenced all possible future complaints by rendering the original books in-universe texts in PoD, so there was no need to attack further. (Silly hack is silly!) Instead he just went hawg-wild with Bronso & the Jongleurs circus romp & guilt-caster BS. (Have you encountered the psychic weather disturbances yet? ;D )

Wait until The Throne of Dune and he takes a stab at Paul's transformation into The Preacher. I'm sure there'll be lots of lovely crap slung at the Iduali and Jacurutu; the urge will be too powerful for him to resist. I'm actually looking forward to him showing how petty he is by inserting his personal agenda into the books. Again. ;)

[MrFlibble]

Have you encountered the psychic weather disturbances yet? ;D

I can't get off that feeling this one's a rip-off from Starcraft, the story of the pre-exile Dark Templar-to-be who unwillingly unleashed uncontrolled psionic storms over Aiur when Adun tried to teach them how to use psychic powers.

[SandChigger]

Oh, Jeez. ::)

Well, KJA seems to have no qualms about where he "gets" his ideas!

But I thought it had been fairly well established by the quality of that one PoS Starcraft book he & wifey Rebecca wrote that he's almost as clueless about that universe as he is about the Duniverse. ??

(I'm not familiar with it at all.)

[MrFlibble]

To be fair, Starcraft universe is much easier to understand and borrow from - besides, there are plenty of allusions or reference to Star Wars in it. Since I haven't read "Gabriel Mesta"'s Xel'Naga book, and only read quite a few very negative reviews, its failure was mostly because of exceptionally bad, unimaginative writing, black-and-white characters, some canon inaccuracies (of course, what else?), and a plot that did not have any particular effect on the universe, not to mention the book ended with a cheesy "happily ever after" happy end (several major characters having been brought back to life via deus ex machina), which is very uncharacteristic for the generally darker, grittier mood of Starcraft.

But you're probably right, KJA's "inspiration" came from Star Wars, I guess. He's a pro EU writer, after all :P

[Mahdi]

I just finished it.  I don't have anything to add to what I said before - it's a dumb, meaningless, vacant book.  Utterly worthless and forgetable. 

[SandChigger]

I just finished it.  I don't have anything to add to what I said before - it's a dumb, meaningless, vacant book.  Utterly worthless and forgetable.

The only rational, intelligent conclusion possible. :)

[ErasOmnius]

So, Bronso is alone... His father [Rhombur] was just assassinated, his mother is in a coma and has been taken to Wallach IX by the Bene Gesserit. All he has left is his 'best friend' Paul, and Paul's parents.

But his father asks him [bronso], "Is Paul safe...?"; and Rhombur dies. So Bronso won't talk to any of the Atreides for the next 12 years?

This is book authorship?

[SandChigger]

Actually, no, it's more along the lines of what goes on in an ultra-dairy...

MILKIN' the cashcow! :D

[ErasOmnius]

With that one chapter, it changed...

I was thinking that Kevin would have a big adventure.

I knew Bronso was alive in 10,187 AG; and in 10,207 AG.

So I was thinking. Cryogenics for 20 years? Secret House Harkonnen prison cell for 20 years? Stranded on an asteroid?

But to reduce it to being angry because his father asked a caring question at his own assassination.

Suddenly Paul of Dune was not an in-depth look at the concept of historicity of characters by a caring son like Brian Herbert, but maybe just a cash-generating re-writing machine.

Maybe, Sandworms isn't a bold attempt to shift the Universe's Chosen One from nobility [the Atreides], to a commoner [Duncan Idaho]. Maybe it's just a slot machine.

[Eliyyahu]

There is no point in taking anything KJA and BH as a continuation of Frank's work, because it is clear from their own interviews that they made up the entire thing.  If they had really read Frank's books they would have realized that Marty and Daniel (whom all of those ridiculous pre-Dune books were written to "set up" being Omnius and Erasmus) are explicitly revealed as Face Dancers.

[ErasOmnius]

There is no point in taking anything KJA and BH as a continuation of Frank's work, because it is clear from their own interviews that they made up the entire thing.  If they had really read Frank's books they would have realized that Marty and Daniel (whom all of those ridiculous pre-Dune books were written to "set up" being Omnius and Erasmus) are explicitly revealed as Face Dancers.

I just gave them the benefit of the doubt -- that there was a higher purpose. But there may not be.