Date Posted:19:47:33 05/31/03 Sat Author: tvscks Subject: General ramblings...
I was going to wait till my trip later in the year to read the novels, but I couldn't resist. I finished the "House" books and have moved on to Dune, itself. Let me start with an opinion. Frank Herbert is 10x the writer his son is. The Pre's had some verbal stutters that really annoyed me (such as the whole acquiline nose thing, which is said more times than I can count. thesaurus, anyone?). That's not to say I didn't enjoy the other books, but Frank is in a class by himself. As usual, I wanted to add some things to the other current threads, since the subjects are from a fresh memory.
Paul's conversation with his father reveals that he has been being trained as a Mentat since his schooling began. It is part of the training to keep this from the pupil until he is of age to decide whether to continue or not. It is revealed to Paul at age 15 bye Leto and he states his desire to continue, though the events that happen next obviously prevent this from taking place.
In regards to the non-foldspace travel thread and colonization of a million worlds (and this requires grounding in the Pre's)... When Shaddam is stranded on Dune by the Spacing Guild (after he attempts to override them and threatens to destroy the planet) he states that it would take centuries to get home to Kaitain with conventional ships. This begs the question again. Unless they planet jumped every 3 days, an empire of this size doesn't seem plausible in 10,000 years. Man just conquered this planet in the past 10,000 years and it's our planet of our origin and evolution. I'll chalk it up to creative license and fiction. I haven't read Jihad, so I have no further comment on the matter.
Unless the opening lines in Dune are incorrect, Paul was definitely not born on Kaitain.
Some of the characters are very much different between the works of the father and his son. The Baron is much more level-headed and less sadistic in Dune. The Baron even states outright in Dune he kills out of necessity, rather than amusement like Piter. His relationship with Piter is much more interesting, as well, in Frank's books. As I read it, it reminded me more of the onscreen relationship in the Dune motion picture. The scene with
Piter: "my plan"
Baron: "my plan!"
Piter "THE plan."
Very confrontational, rather than the jelly-spined Piter in the Pre's. Then again, this IS a different Mentat, since Piter dies in House Corrino.
I also haven't seen any indication, yet, that Gurney has prior-familiarity with Dune. Maybe I haven't gotten to it, yet, but the conference with the planning staff in the very beginning of the book seemed like an opportune time to say something. I guess he forgot.
