They are very poorly written and paced IMHO. That said I still bought and read every single one of them.
In terms of the prequels, the retconning is absolutely terrible.
In terms of the sequels, they jar with the later Frank books rather than flow from them into a congruent narrative.
I guess they have sold all the same if the books have continued through the years - so somebody must be enjoying them?
What was retconned out of curiosity?
I wonder if the HBO series will lift from those books then if it's also set in the past as a prequel. Presumably quality aside these events are "canon" to the lore...
Well there is the link anyway.
I know it's not canon but my Duniverse is shaped far more by the Dune Encyclopedia than it is anything that Brian has had a hand in.
There is a compendium that includes a few short stories and the novella that was expanded into Dune, called IIRC the Road to Dune that is worth a read IMO, a whisper of Caladan seas is one of the stories that's stuck in my mind from that. I'd rather that story as the best of the Brian & Kevin collabs.
" the Bene Gesserrit (sp) and their machinations"
Would have more sex scenes than Pornhub.
I'd be surprised if it is cos I'd have to imagine it got delayed by the Strike; apparently now called Dune: Prophecy.
Well I looked it up and there is a series coming in the Autumn. Unfortunately I can still not post links 😞 .
The immaculately executed visuals and sound are the highlight of this movie, the fact that they do a good job of the narrative is a bonus.
How would that translate to a miniseries ?
Awe very good. Sounds cool. Will have a look see if I can find anything on it.
I'm too lazy to check its status but there IS supposed to be a HBO series coming set centuries back and focusing on the Bene Gesserrit (sp) and their machinations.
Seen this twice in the Cinema and loved it both times.
I would really live to see a Dune series. That could be epic.
I'm fairly positive he knows that Duncan is part of the wider Dune Saga. He'll be back. Probably in the initial contract too.
("fairly positive... probably", yes, just to make clear - totally my opinion)
The plot is fairly solid though and full of court intrigue and murder; even an atomic bomb or two. There's no reason why a little judicious writing couldn't make it more action packed. Maybe have the jihad still be going when the movie starts, the last holdouts still fighting the Fremen. The plot would somewhat hinge on getting Jason Momoa back mind you.
Watched the first with my wife to prepare for the second yesterday. Saw the second and to be honest it was faultless and epic.
The only thing that didnt ring true to the book was stilgars fawning devotion to Paul but I suppose that was a devise to gloss over all the politics of the fremen.
Left open for third film, which given the fact that the war isn't even touch on in that, it's hard to see how you could make a compelling movie out a fairly turgid book. Hope they don't.
I watched the first one twice and it took a second viewing to realise I loved it, haven't seen this new effort yet
I hated Arrival
Indeed, we're all very lucky that they didn't push out books like those. Always astonished that they didn't make a fourth Indiana Jones movie, or continue making Star Wars movies after the third one....
If these hypothetical books existed, they'd be bad because they'd be very poorly written (with co-writer Kevin J. Anderson). Cash-ins to mine Dune stories that previously had an air of mystery but now are rendered bland and boring.
Fortunately no such books exist to set my teeth grinding.
Finally managed to extract the digit and fire off a complaint to Odeon about the painful sound level, distortion and buzzing driver.
I loved Bardem in this, very comedic and also profoundly sad performance of a leader so invested in "the prophecy" that he's abandoning all else he believes in. It's a real contrast to his presence in Part One.
And his hammy "Lisan al Gaib" shouts every time Paul did basically anything were both fitting and funny.
Quick question for those that have read more of the books than me BTW: I hear a lot of saltiness towards Brian Herbert's follow-up books; what was/is it about those books that are so bad? Is it just that the son's a bad writer in his own right, or did it just upend the "canon" and universe in bad ways? Always curious about the spin-offs but have seen so much negativity aimed at their writers I've stayed clear.
haven't seen Dune 2 yet, but you are telling me there is no War Pug ? what were they thinking
I know that, Dune is my favourite series of all time apart from The Prince of Nothing but 10-20 of them got massacred anyway (and looked like they didnt expect the thopters to shoot them while they were doing it for some reason?), it just seemed a bit pointless running down there. Also the laser wasnt on for longer than 3 seconds before it had burned out both harvesters.
Shields didnt come into it btw, shields on the sand make the worms crazy. Harvesters are unshielded. If it had been a case that they had to go down there to disable the shields first then that would have made some sense.
I'd rather Dennis Waterman's Minded😯
That enhances the weirding effect, it is not just for show...
And a war pug.
They should have given the Fremen some cool weapons... like a weirding module...
:)
The Lazer thing doesn't have much of an explanation in the book other than it being "science wiency sci-fi stuff"
Basically Herbert said it was just a plot device to not make the book a big sci-fi shootout.
This was what I mentioned earlier. I think there's a million unanswered questions that nearly all have perfectly reasonable answers in the books but are just glossed over by the film and can be seen to create plot holes, illogical moments or inconsistencies.
A friend explained the worm riding to me as portrayed in the books and it makes sense but it's weird that the film didn't address this at all, even if just by having a character explain it as an answer to an obvious question.
This is one of those things that's somewhat explained in the books, with a laser hitting a shield resulting in a nuclear (or at least, very large) explosion both at the point of contact and at the laser source.
Why this isn't exploited as a military tactic is never really explained either, not beyond "that's not how we do things" or "the houses wouldn't like it".
With a book like Dune, there's always going to be a limit to the amount of history and world building you can get across and still make an enjoyable movie, so this is just one of those things that the director expects you to just brush over. I personally am totally ok with it when the rest of the movie is off a good standard, and this is a great movie, IMO.
But then just blast it with lasers from miles away on a random dune anyway? It made no sense.
Because if they didn't shoot down the copters first, as soon as they fired the lasers those Fremen would have been shot at by the aircraft. The lasers are concentrated beams so you'd be exposed while firing it - unless the harvesters' cover was destroyed first.
I didnt understand the Fremen attack strategy on the first spice harvester either, run down to it and crawl around under it in order to shoot down the thopters? But then just blast it with lasers from miles away on a random dune anyway? It made no sense.
Also the power of the Sardukar and the reverend mothers did not come across at all.
Christopher Walken absolutely abysmal.
Enjoyed it though, think that was my first time in the cinema since Top Gun, used to be a 1-2 times a week thing for me. Sad times.
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