BJ problems--concluded -- DUNE Novels Discussion Board

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05/ 6/24 17:01:10 [ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2], 3, 4 ]

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Date Posted: 23:39:08 10/20/03 Mon
Author: theButterfly
Subject: BJ problems--concluded
In reply to: theButterfly 's message, "some problems" on 01:12:31 10/17/03 Fri

Of course, endless filler material is a huge problem in these books, but sometimes they make exactly the opposite mistake. There are some things that I, as a reader, just can't accept without good reason. We're supposed to believe that after a few weeks of reading, Vorian Atreides abandoned his lifelong beliefs and turned pi radians into exactly the opposite direction? Yeah right. In circumstances like this, it is the responsibility of the writers to make it believable. But since they're apparently writing for fifth graders, I guess they don't need to worry about things like that.

Thus far, the problems I have cited have pretty much been applicable to all of the prequels. So in spite of all that I have mentioned, I was prepared at one point to say that THE BUTLERIAN JIHAD was one of the best of them. This was before I read the ending.

It started off well. I was reading a chapter with Erasmus and Serena and feeling impatient because I felt that this part of the story was already getting stale, even in the first book of the trilogy, when suddenly they dropped the bomb. When Erasmus murdered Serena's child, sparking the rebellion, the prequels reached a new height in quality. I really felt it. Chills ran through my body. The spirit of the Jihad flowed in my veins. Even if you saw it coming, it was still beautiful; it was just engineered so perfectly.

So here we are, poised on the edge of what is apparently going to be a fantastic conclusion to the book. As if to underscore this, they put together a parallel between the slave rebellion on Earth and a slave rebellion on Poritrin, a technique that would have been much more effective if they had been more subtle about the parallel earlier.

Then, Iblis leaves Earth, the slave rebellion on Poritrin is quelled and the climax is effectively brought to an immediate and grinding halt. All of the excitement, high hopes and anticipation sizzle away, as we prepare for yet another period of pointless filler material, one last chance for the authors to bore us before finishing the book, and a safeguard against making it too good. And just what is this interim to consist of? Oh horror of horrors, it's back to that stupid love triangle! You would think that if they were going to use such a clich� plot device, the least they could do would be to skim over it as quickly and painlessly as possible, but this was not to be. No, they have to go through all of the motions of leading up to it, systematically avoiding the issue and increasing anticipation, finally bringing us to their contrived situation of maximum embarrassing impact. Great, she runs off like a wounded fawn; now let's never have to read about this again. Please.

After about 30 more pages, we're finally ready for the finale, the atomic bombardment of Earth. Perhaps this would have made up for the wait if it were not the most badly written part of the whole book. Since this review has already gone on for far longer than I intended, I'll just state the basic problem quickly and simply. When one side sends an unarmed vehicle discreetly past the battle, accompanied by fighter guardians, it is COMMON SENSE that it's one of the most important military targets, and this is NOT BASED on "gut feelings". Again, it's the writers' responsibility to make it believable. This, combined with overall bad writing, completely ruined the ending that had once shown so much promise.

This concludes my lengthy review of THE BUTLERIAN JIHAD.

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Replies:

Feel the same. I'm just tired of debating about it though...too many people like it. (NT) -- Crysknife, 17:12:02 10/21/03 Tue
- trash -- Sparqy56, 21:42:18 11/11/03 Tue