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| So I reread Dune. by Arbit 06/05/2012, 6:31pm PDT | ||||
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| Or Dewwwwn, as it should be pronounced.
It's pretty entertaining, which is a lot more than I can say for most of the books from my childhood that I have gone back and reread. But since it's more fun to pick things apart, I'm going to do that. - Characters are constantly whispering to themselves how smart/subtle/skilled/awesome the other characters are and how mad complex the plot is. Perhaps I'm just unable to separate the book from the author these days, but whenever characters start going on about the subtle genius of the plots and the feints within feints within feints I can't help but see this as Herbert penetrating the 4th wall with his penis and bludgeoning my face with it. - "On Caladan it was air and sea power. On Dune, it is desert power." This line or a close permutation of it is repeated by Paul probably in excess of ten times throughout the book. It is noteworthy in its incredible obviousness, particularly so after someone just got done thinking OMFG this guy is sooooo smart!!!! - "Presently". What is the purpose of this word. - The shields vs projectile vs stabby does not make a lot of sense. First, I don't see how an unshielded knife fighter could possibly win against a shielded one. Shields deflect quick slashes and stabs, obviously, but its also implied that high impact weapons like artillery are useless against a shielded person, so you can't punch a shielded guy either. Spinning around rapidly and windmilling your arms should essentially make you invincible. So how are the Fremen kicking the shit out of shielded Sardaukar, let alone Harkonnen conscripts? Secondly, if shields aren't used in the deep desert because they attract sandworms, why doesn't everyone revert back to guns? At one point Thufir Hawat (the Atreides Mentat Assassin if you don't remember) gets owned instantly by a "slow pellet stunner" - you would think everyone would be carrying one of those after that point, or a least a Glock or something? This probably sounds like sci-fi nerdrage on the level of "but you can't hear any soooound in space" but really, I'm trying to envision these fights in my head and basically it's ending up looking like one side is sitting stock still while the other slowly pushes a knife into their faces. - I can buy the Bene Gesserit powers being the product of superhuman focus and breeding, but achieving the crazy heights of supersoldierdom exhibited in the book simply through extra hardcore training is a little hard to swallow. It smacks of DBZ power level horseshit, where Sardaukar have trained really hard and have achieved a power level of 3,000 and so can kill 30 normal soldiers, but Fremen have trained extra hard so they get 9,000 and kick the shit out of everyone with near-impunity. I think I'm venturing too far into the realm of the over analyzing sci-fi nerd here, so I'll stop. I'm getting into the next book, which I've never read but it looks pretty good. Dune establishes Paul as a nearly flawless, nigh-invincible character and this book seems to be devoted to figuring out a way to take him down. |
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