Dune / Frank Herbert

Dune

by Frank Herbert

science fiction

copyright 1965

read (yet again) in October 2017

rated 9/10: really, really good... but...

Dune. What can I say? One of the great science fiction sagas? Action, intrigue, heroism and deepest betrayal. Entire conversations conveyed in the raising of an eyebrow or the humming of a dandy.

It's the sort of book which needs to be read in its entirety, to follow the moods and complexities of the plot. Then read again, to figure out what all that was about. And yes, I have read Dune at least three times. And this time I may have understood most of it.

I have also read, in 2006, Dune Messiah. And it is rubbish. As I remember... a solid lump of predestination. The hero may be blind but he sees the future so clearly that he can move freely. And he's bulletproof. When I read Messiah I thought, Rubbish. Still, the series continued, so what would I know :-)

Dune, however, is really, really good. But...

The hero is supported by "death commandos", mad killers who will throw themselves on the enemies' knives just so the commando behind can get a clear shot. Men, women and children happily charge to their own deaths so that the fighters behind can get closer to the action.

Oh, wait, no. Women and children -- who are vicious fighters -- will sacrifice themselves so that the men -- the really serious vicious fighters -- can get closer to the action. There are strong signs of separate roles for men and women. The book was published in 1965, after all.

These vicious fighters are clearly based on desert-dwelling Arabs. They wear flowing robes, live in the desert, pop out of the desert just long enough to slaughter, without mercy, anyone that the desert-dwellers have decided is an enemy. They have carried their hatred-of-everyone-else for centuries.

For some reason this stereotype in no longer as enjoyable as it was in 1965.

Then there's the galactic empire. Ruled by an emperor with absolute power. Broken into "houses", each ruled over by someone with absolute power within their own house. Violence, torture, sadism, slavery, all part of the lifestyle.

The Dune hero sees a future of absolute chaos, with his own death commandos likely to storm forth to bring fear, chaos and destruction across the entire empire. All in the hero's name -- whether he's dead or alive. The hero dedicates himself to preventing this chaos.

The hero also has the means to utterly destroy all inter-planetary travel. He uses that as a threat but manages to not use it.

Well, sorry, but why? Or why not?

What I mean is: The Dune empire is -- as far as I can tell -- evil. Destroy it? Who would miss it. Other than the sadistic, murdering, slave-owning masters, that is. Cut off one planet from another? What an excellent idea. Central dictatorship is not working. Why not let each planet develop -- freely -- its own culture? It may be better... or worse... But no, it's hard to imagine that any planetary culture could be worse than the galactic empire on Dune.

Dune is a great story. Very enjoyable. I just wish that the hero was fighting for something better than a slightly improved version of his current, vicious dystopia.

23feb24: Actually... having just re-read the book...

Everyone *else* wants Paul to lead the murderous Fremen to Jihad, to pillage, slaughter and rape across the universe. This will remove the threat of human stagnation...

And Paul does everything he can do to *not* start the jihad. So, good on him. He's a true hero.

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Dune

by Frank Herbert

science fiction (fantasy), dystopia

copyright 1966

re-read December 2021

rated 7/10: well worth reading

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I've read this book before. Years ago. Several times...

Which means that this time it almost made sense :-) So, from my latest reading, some points:

A Dune movie has just been released. It's probably spectacular. I can't imagine that it covers even a fraction of the book.

For one thing: there is a lot of internal dialogue and explanation.

Then there are the Fremen: obviously based on desert-dwelling Arabs. The Fremen are homicidal maniacs. Would the director dare link these maniacs to Arabs? Oh no, says the director, today's Arabs are just like "us"... Problem avoided, book "re-imagined". I wonder if the Fremen still live in a desert?!

So, the book:

It is dystopian. It presents a future world of violence, cruelty and abuse of power. It makes for a good book. It would make for a terrible reality.

There is an organisation which has spent hundreds of years practising eugenics. Their aim is to breed a single person who will... after these centuries of careful breeding... who will start a universal war. With the sole aim of forcing an uncontrolled and random mixing of human genes.

I wonder why they didn't just let humanity do its own mixing.

Not to worry... it's a good book... set in a miserable dystopia.

The Fremen, for example, hate everyone who is not Fremen.

Every day they take time to chant their standard litany of hatred. "They" forced us away from wherever, "they" drove us away from..., "they used us as slaves... and so on.

The suffering was on a series of planets. "They" are not named... the daily litany is simply a reminder to hate everyone. With implications of revenge... against everyone. It's a miserable life and someone (else) is going to pay for it.

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The book ends well. With loose ends tied up and plenty of opportunity for further books...

I read the next Dune book and it was nonsense. The hero's superpowers were ridiculous...

Speaking of which: The hero gains access to racial memories of the past. This -- plus the ability to calculate probabilities -- allows him to see the future... eh? He even sees his sister, who has planted herself in his internal vision of the future... Good grief!

It all makes for an enjoyable book. Science fiction. Edging into fantasy, in a dystopian universe.

It's complicated in the book. I expect that a lot was glossed over in the movie :-)

I hope to see the movie. I avoid the books which continue the Dune story.

Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper

...        Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved

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Sons of Titan / David Annandale

Sons of Titan

(Warhammer 40,000 / Grey Knights)

by David Annandale

military science fiction

copyright 2015

read in October 2017

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

The style screams "space opera" but it is not. Not the way that I like to understand space opera. There is no sudden crisis to be met by sudden scientific development, no rapid expansion of threat to be met by heroic development of defensive (or offensive) weaponry.

The weaponry starts at an incredible peak -- and stays there.

Interestingly, though, the weapons are a mix of super-steel and ultra-rays -- and morals. These "grey knights" are paladins, holy knights. Paladins of the far, far future. Where demons are real and the emperor is a god. Far-fetched? Of course!

The book is made up of three sequential stories. The first story is a standard battle scene, with dead bodies piled high enough to hide buildings. The bodies do not, however, hide the plot.

The second story has less bodies -- and less plot. It is a battle -- partly physical and partly an internal, moral battle described, well, pretty much as any other battle with hand-held super-weapons. A plague demon fights for the soul of a holy soldier.

The external battleground is a spaceship. There is also a major battle within the spaceship but this is merely mentioned in passing.

btw: I do like a spaceship which has a marble and timber internal structure. It seems to be metal spaceship on the outside, medieval palace on the inside. Except for the control room, which is built to reflect the relative power of each member of the crew. Think, Captain Kirk on his slightly raised chair, other crew seated at lower chairs. Then extend than thinking -- many, many times -- and apply the differences at every level of crew hierarchy.

 Interesting. It's a while since I read it but I just don't remember any *controls* in the control room!?

And speaking of, It's a while... I stopped reading at the end of the second story. And have no urge to finish the book.

It's fun. It's over the top -- seriously. It's part of a series set within a well-defined universe.

The concept is interesting. I'm just not interested. It helped to pass some time. That's it. For me.

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved
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"Give a man an inch and he'll think he's a ruler" … Agent 86

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The Fear Institute / Jonathan L Howard

The Fear Institute

(Johannes Cabal 3)

by Jonathan L Howard

fantasy, humour

copyright 2011

read in October 2017

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

There is no way this book can get a fair review. Not from me, not today.

I post from either a desktop PC -- preferred -- or a tablet. Both run off the same internet connection. That internet connection -- Telstra, in case you are wondering -- has been dead all morning. So neither PC nor tablet is worth a pinch of internet shit.

I tried a mobile hotspot which I had recharged for a short stay away from home. Of course it had expired -- 99.9% unused -- a week ago.

Now the desktop PC still has no internet connection. Yet the tablet is working fine! yes, it's bloody magic. Oh, Windows 10 on the PC, in case you are wondering. In case Windows 10 is the pile of crap which randomly kills the internet connection. Who knows. In the past I have spent hhours on the phone to Telstra. And hours on the internet -- when it works -- reading idiotic wild guesses by self-professed experts as to why Windows 10 could be a pile of shit. And still, both -- or one -- or some weird combination -- will randomly kill the internet connection.

So... while the tablet at least appears to be working:

I think that 6 out of 10 is fair for this book. I didn't really enjoy it.

The humour is clever, some is quite funny. Lots of it is overdone.

The hero is awful. I dislike him. For a short while I thought, okay, this is book three, he's about to gain some humanity. But he did not.

The end was of the form, Oh, so it's *you* Who is behind all this! At least, I think that was the point. Unfortunately I have no idea who  the mysterious "you" really is. And -- because I don't really like the book or the characters -- I'm not interested in finding out. Though at a guess -- and this may even be a spoiler -- if I were to guess, I would guess that the hero just saved himself. Twice in a row, probably. By cunning use of loops in  time.

Which is a pile of rubbish, really.

When characters can go anywhere -- anywhen -- in time and space, why don't they do it more effectively?

Oh, and of the very few Lovecraft books and stories that I have read... my opinion is... that they are absolute rubbish. Which does make it difficult for me to appreciate what may well be an homage to Lovecraft.

If you like Lovecraft. If you like nasty, sarcastic, self-centred main characters whose only redeeming feature is intelligence. Read the book. Apart from the ridiculous "I'll save myself by looping back in time" ending, the plot is quite logical. Pointless, perhaps, but logical.

I wouldn't bother.

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"Philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it." ... Karl Marx

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Skitter / Ezekiel Boone

Skitter

(Spiders #2)

by Ezekiel Boone

horror, disaster

copyright 2017

read in October 2017

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

This is a book which is written to be a blockbuster... Not too heavy, not too light. Plenty of action, plenty of destruction, plenty of human interest...

Human interest? A cast of thousands! And yes, I just mean the humans.

Do you like these characters? No? Well, not to worry, I have plenty more... Do you -- the reader -- need a character to "identify with" ? Somewhere in this huge cast will be just the right person... Which is annoying, really.

Good point: the characters are distinct enough to tell apart. There is no confusion. Bad point: there are a dozen on more parallel stories -- it's hard to really care about any one of them. Though perhaps that's the point?

This is a story of world-wide disaster. It is told through the eyes and actions of a relatively small number of characters. (Yes, dozens of named characters. But there are millions more -- named and unnamed -- being killed.) The characters are there as examples of the range and variety of the disaster.

The characters also provide a variety of approaches to battling the disaster...

Remember when disasters such as alien invasions or massive attacks of the common cold were solved by a very small group of characters? Usually it was the brilliant old scientist, his attractive granddaughter and the capable young man.

In Skitter there seem to be ten different parts of "the solution" coming from ten different groups of people. More realistic, perhaps. Though I'm surprised by the number of people who live in remote communities yet have ready access to powerful people in key government positions...

In fact, come to think of it... No, no need to think about it: From the word go this book is unbelievable! But still enjoyable :-)

It's horror-lite. Tedious in parts -- too much of the character-building breaking up the actual plot development. But easy-enough to read. Easy enough to put down, too. Which leads me to my regular complaint:

It's not obvious -- until I start reading -- but this is book two. Worse yet, book two does not finish the story. I would normally put that complaint right at the top of my review... but...

Skitter is lightweight entertainment. The characters are introduced and quickly placed in context. It doesn't really matter where the spiders came from, in fact, I suspect that book one could have had a lot of tedious "discovery" of the threat. This book leaps straight into the action!

And book three? Does not really matter...

Skitter is a snapshot of a disaster. Nice people surviving -- or not. Not-so-nice people either causing mischief in a minor way -- or being wiped out of the story. There is development towards a conclusion but the conclusion is not important.

This is an easy-to-read book with no power to grip. Enjoyable, yes. Would I like to read about phase three of the disaster? Yes. If I never read it, will I miss phase three? Not really.

Not a great book. But a good book for reading to pass the time.

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved
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​"No one said they wanted faster horses, they wanted less horseshit." … no, not said by Henry Ford

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This Day all Gods Die / Stephen Donaldson

This Day all Gods Die

(The Gap #5)

by Stephen Donaldson

science fiction

copyright 1996

re-read in October 2017

rated 8/10: really quite good

And now... it's politics !

Each of the Gap books seems to have its own theme. The Gap into Ruin -- #5 -- has space battles, aliens, heroic space-people... and the final *political* machinations. All good fun :-)

All over the top, too... even more so than usual. The characters have been pushed, in the first four books, to their limits. Now they go even further :-)

There may, however, be a slight shift: Earlier books pushed characters to their limits. In this book the characters *choose* to go even further.

Several major characters have been tested... and succeeded... and now discover new depths. Which enable them -- or encourage them --to try even harder. Yes, it's the final book -- with loose ends being tied up and characters finally achieving their ultimate goals... Not always "winning" but reaching their personal bests.

The science is -- as usual -- over the top and rather dated. Not that it matters. (I may have mentioned this in an earlier review: Donaldson writes this "science fiction" rather like a "fantasy".) The characters are over the top. The politics...

The politics is rather unbelievable.

Why can I accept over the top science but not unbelievable politics? Because science is *expected* to develop... Yes, the Gap science is dated. Yet it is still futuristic, it's just the general approach that seems dated.

When the political discussion starts, it is as over the top as the science... and yet... And yet, I am not able to believe that the people -- the politicians -- have "advanced" so far!

Science advances, yes, use whatever ray-gun technology you like and I will accept it. People, though... I just don't expect them  to change. Not so much, anyway.

The characters are overdrawn caricatures of "ordinary" people: strong, weak, greedy, honest, whatever... The physical and mental toughness -- the characteristics which drive the heroes and villains -- I can accept. It's the political cunning which seems -- to me -- to be a bit hard to accept.

But, no worries -- it's a most enjoyable book :-)

A lot of excitement, action, cunning plots -- and a very satisfying conclusion.

A great end to a great series.

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved
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​"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." ... Albert Einstein

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The Last Wish / Andrzej Sapkowski

The Last Wish
(The Witcher #1)
by Andrzej Sapkowski

fantasy, short stories

copyright 1993
(translated by Danusia Stok 2007)
read in October 2017

rated 7/10: well worth reading

Yes, it's "really quite good". Which would rate it as an eight. If the cover did not claim that this is a "novel".

Novel: "an invented prose narrative that is usually long and complex and deals especially with human experience through a usually connected sequence of events" (Merriam-Webster.com)

This book contains a series of short stories. Ostensibly linked by occasional chapters called "The Voice of Reason". This does

​ *​

not

​*​

turn the short stories -- despite their common characters and common fantasy world -- into a "connected sequence of events". It's a book of short stories. I read, hoping for a developing plot leading to a unifying conclusion... and was disappointed. Enough said.

The back cover quotes SFX: "There's a fairy-tale quality..." Do the reviewers at SFX get out much? The entire book is a fairy-tale. A warped fairy-tale. Plenty of the humour is due to the author's turning of well known fairytales on their heads.

It's great fun. the hero is heroic -- and moral. The adventures are action-packed, often bloody, of variable quality but always entertaining. The actual "last wish" of the title is... satisfying? Yet i

​t

 has nothing to do with any of the other short stories. As far as I can tell. Oh, and the author is clearly gaining confidence: he suggests the wish but I can't guarantee that I understood it. Nor am I clear as to why that particular wish -- as I guess it -- managed to solve the final near-disaster.

Oh well.

I enjoyed the book. Yes, it was well worth reading. Yet I finished reading in one rather hurried sitting... simply because if I had not finished quickly I would probably not have bothered finishing it at all.

Overall it is well worth reading, for passing entertainment. A book to be read and enjoyed. Then -- whether finished or not -- put away and forgotten.




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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved
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"A lot of people cry when they chop onions. The trick is to not form an emotional bond." … Jimmy Carr

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Nagash the Sorcerer / Mike Lee

Nagash the Sorcerer

(Rise of Nagash #1 of 3

in the Warhammer world)

by Mike Lee

fantasy

copyright 2008

read (in part) October 2017

rated 7/10: well worth reading

This is absolutely over-the-top fantasy. Super heroes, super villains. Hmmm... aside: "heroes"? I don't think that there are "heroines". But the women are incredibly beautiful and the men are incredibly handsome. Or hugely attractive in a rather monstrous way...

The battles are enormous, the smallest stake must be world domination. The gods are involved in every step... but are rather overwhelmed by the villainy of Nagash.

All very enjoyable!

But far too complex for an entry into the Warhammer world.

I read a couple of books from Warhammer 40,000, the science fiction equivalent of this series. I had no idea who the characters were -- but it didn't seem to matter. In this fantasy Warhammer world -- I am out of my depth.

Nagash is a villain who -- as I understand it -- has been the chief villain in several earlier Warhammer books. This book (and two others) provide the complete Nagash history. For those who know this world -- an excellent and probably essential trilogy.

But I am confused. Nagash I soon know. I'm enjoying his history. But who are all these other people? Well known from other books... I guess. But for me -- as a newcomer to Warhammer -- I have no idea. So it makes it just too difficult to find the... significance... of the rise of Nagash.

I'm enjoying the book. Less that one third through. With two books to follow... The full volume is due back on the library in two days. I may read a bit more. But... the book will be returned. Largely unread.

For fans and followers of Warhammer: I believe that it would be an excellent book :-)

For me... as a newcomer... no. This is *not* the book to use as entry to this extremely complex world.

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved
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"A lot of people cry when they chop onions. The trick is to not form an emotional bond." … Jimmy Carr

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