Two Romance Readers and One Sci-Fi Nerd read Dune

@KokoN at least you are reading the book! I lost my way a little. But it's not good you're getting bored. I'll try to get back on target and see what you mean in your above post.

 

Yay! I can post my last Dune Related thingy. I is a little happier now.
Whoo! Dune Rocks!

 

@KokoN - you have begun experiencing the boredom that slowly sank into me as I progressed in the reading of Dune It's a lot of dialogue, and seriously, quite honestly, nothing happens. When things happen, Herbert has a tendency to swing the camera away and only pan back when it's over. It's like the guy is afraid of writing action scenes.

Wait till you get to Kynes' chapter where he hallucinates the ghost of his father. Shameless, boring, badly-worked-in infodump if ever there was one. It's Herbert dumping in his own philosophical views for the sake of preaching. Oh, and thanks to this, what happens at the end of the chapter has zero emotional impact, too.

Personally, I think Dune is just hyped up and a lot of wasted potential.

@LinnyV - the Baron may not have shoes perhaps because he moves on suspensers, so the makers of the action figures thought he didn't need shoes, that he is ever so slightly levitated? although that adds a whole new layer of hilarity to the Baron. He's supposed to be a comical figure, I've realised, evil and with poor judgement.

 

What? Huh?

And why am I laughing at your explanation?

I think this is a side effect of all my stop and start and getting distracted Dune reading habits.

If I'm reading you correctly, I must have read 'suspenders', the things that keep your pants up, instead of suspensers. I didn't imagine this grossly obese man was being levitated off the ground such that he doesn't even have to walk! Guess it would make sense he doesn't need shoes. I'll keep a closer eye on his movement next time.

 

I just reread my own explanation and I chuckled too so it's not just you. How're you and life and the kids, by the way?

We should find each other on Facebook, if you have it...

 

Life and kids are well.

I would try to find you on Facebook as well - if I had an account I actually used! I'm anti-facebook...

For you, I suppose I can make up a fake account. I'll have all of one friend, but I don't need much.

 

@Mckk Well that's a bummer. Maybe I'll speed read the rest of the book just to get it over with. Do you guys want to pick another book after this one? Maybe a shorter one, lol.

@LinnyV Have you read any further? How far are you?

 

I admit it. I got bored with it. I thought I liked Dune but that must have been the movie. Reading it with a more critical eye had me finding plot holes and silliness everywhere.

 

It's interesting that the consensus among us is we don't like it anymore. Interested to see @Commandante Lemming 's response to the book since he is the only sci-fi reader here, if maybe his reaction would be different?

@KokoN you wanna do another book? The thread has certainly been fun. I am up for it any ideas for the next book? @LinnyV ? @Wreybies ? @Cave Troll ?

What about something in fantasy or romance? I have never read paranormal. As long as it's not horror, I'm in is here a book someone here has always wanted to read?

 

Fantasy would be fun, I haven't read a ton of that. Not sure how I feel about paranormal haha but I'd give it a shot! I agree with the not being horror part, lol. Would anyone be interested in reading a mystery genre novel? I used to love reading mystery novels and would enjoy introducing others to the genre, unless you guys have already read in that genre. I like the idea of choosing something that's new to most of us.

 

Give me an example of a mystery novel. I'm not sure if i have read the genre or not because i used to read a lot of crime - love the genre - and often mystery is kinda part of the package.

 

@Mckk - There's different types of mystery, some are more intense and others are called "cozy mysteries" which are less scary and tend to come in series. My favorite mysteries were by Agatha Christie who is famous as the "Queen of Crime" for her novels. I read some cozy mysteries as well but most of them weren't that great. I enjoyed the "Cat Who" series by Lillian Jackson Braun for a while but other than that most are not super well-written. Mysteries focus on who the murderer/bad guy is and you find out at the end, sometimes called a "whodunit." I'm not sure if crime novels are the same or different.

 

Hi Y'all,
If I am not being presumptuous, may I make a suggestion for your next book?

For fantasy I'd recommend Stephen Lawhead's trilogy, The Song of Albion, which starts with two college roommates looking for adventure. It is actually a retelling--sort of--of some old Celtic myths. It is not, in my opinion, Lawhead's best work, but it's a neat fantastic world that is hinged on our own. I think he does a really good job of keeping the fantasy world coherent and in line with the Celtic myth. Also, he does a good job of making his characters real. Their motives lie at the base of the tale. (The other fantasy novel I'd suggest is Wicked, but I'm sure y'all have read it.)

If you have never read Hound of the Baskervilles then that would be my suggestion for mystery/crime novel. Doyle did tell a good tale. And you could compare writing styles and audience expectations of the Victorian era and today.

I do hope you can enjoy the end of Dune. A friend told me that he thinks my understanding of the book is due to 1. I enjoy politics & 2. I read the sequels. So much of the politics/etc. is explained in the sequels. I am beginning to want to read it again. Maybe this summer...?

 

Yeah I forgot about Sherlock Holmes, that would be a good suggestion for mystery although I am biased towards Christie's books because I liked them better personally. Both would be worthy choices for the mystery genre though.

 

I think a good horror novel read is in order. Voting for something by Clive Barker(all the evil)

 

The Haunting of Hill House, or Glen Duncan's The Last Werewolf if you want to go more modern, visceral, yet retain a certain degree of literary character.

 

Don't make me bust out Bet Me, then you will know the true meaning of horror.

I have never heard of either of those. Are they scary?

 

I would love to, but the reason I faded from the DUNE thread, despite trying to keep up with the reading is that I get stonkingly swamped with work. There's a ginormous case that I've been attached to for a while that suddenly picked up speed and spawned paperwork in need of translation like a warren of horny rabbit. - - -

 

Perhaps we should read an Erotica, and not a horribly crazy one. Tenderiser has that base covered on another thread.

 

I think he was joking suggesting horror since @Mckk and I were just saying we don't want to read horror, but maybe not.

I wouldn't read either horror or erotica, but I would enjoy reading your comments on either of those genres even if I wasn't reading the book along with you. (Much as I did while you were reading the romance one! That was hilarious.)

 

If you like literature, you'd like The Haunting of Hill House. The other not so much, unless you're a horror fan.

 

Believe it or not, I've actually never read Sherlock Holmes. Nor Agatha Christie.

Well, I did read 2/3rds of a standalone novel by Christie but found it immensely dull...

From your description, @KokoN , mystery and crime seem quite closely linked, perhaps simply with different emphasis on different aspects. Mystery focuses more on having the reader guess who did it (so I suppose the suspect must be one of the characters) and if it's anything like British crime dramas then it'd be very, very slow-pace, because the tension is in the guessing, not in the action. Whereas crime novels is about how a detective catches the criminal and the dangers he faces. It's far less about who-dunnit - half the time the criminal isn't a character you know and therefore there's no way you could have guessed, and other times the criminal is introduced to the reader but only the detective doesn't know who it is.

I'm not really into slow books, but I'm willing to give mystery a go.

Otherwise fantasy is fine by me too. I write fantasy but don't read the genre much, weirdly enough, but it's certainly a genre that captures my interest. I've been meaning to read Sanderson's Mistborn since like forever, and would be happy to read that. Or something else if you have a book in mind.

@Uisdean 's suggestion the Song of Albion sounds cool too, from his description.

So, choices so far:

1. Sherlock Holmes
2. Song of Albion
3. Mistborn
4. add your own

Does any of the above catch anyone's fancy, or do you have other suggestions?

If anyone feels some incredible urge to read The Lord of the Rings, you might be able to persuade me. It's one of those books I've tried and failed to read but always meant to.

 

That sounds like an accurate description of mystery vs. crime novels. I don't find mysteries slow per say but they do perhaps focus more on characterization and small details rather than big action scenes. Do you remember which Agatha Christie book you read? For me, trying to figure out who did it is the most fun part of a mystery so that's why I don't find them slow probably. Agatha Christie is crazy good at making you never figure it out until the very end when you say "oh duh how did I miss that."

I like any of those suggestions. I'd love to read Lord of the Rings too for the same reason. I started reading the first in the trilogy and got kind of bogged down because apparently it is slow before it picks up speed. However it's on my list of books to finish some day.

 

I believe it was "Endless Night"

 

I looked it up and I'm not sure if I've read that one, but it does not sound like its her typical work. I could probably recommend better ones of hers to try, although it's been a while. I enjoyed so many of her books it would take me a while to narrow it down and also remember which ones were the best.