April 13, 2003
Children of Dune
I'm going to try and watch the new mini-series/movies Children of Dune on the Canadian Space Channel. I'm a big fan of the books, the first time I read them out of sequence and then a few years ago I re-read them in their proper order. My favorite by far is God Emperor of Dune, which is strange because a lot of people hate that one. Whatever. The mini-series is a sequel to another series that was based on the first book [Dune] and aired two years ago. This one is based on the second and third books, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. The next one after that is God Emperor. I kinda hope they don't do God Emperor as I think it really deserves to be made for the big screen. Not that that's any guarantee that it will be any good. Like the Dune movie.
The last two books in the series are Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse:Dune. I didn't like the last two very much the first time I read them, but after reading them in order the second time I felt they were quite good, especially the character Miles Teg.
Frank Herbert, author of the Dune series, died in 1986, so that was the end of the series, although he had at least one other Dune book in the works. His son, Brian, started to publish prequels, co-written with Kevin J. Anderson; Dune: House Atreides, Dune: House Harkonen, Dune: House Corrino, and Dune: The Butlerian Jihad. [The first three are called Prelude to Dune then Jihad plus The Machine Crusade and The Battle of Corrin will make up The Legends of Dune] [He also wrote a biography of his father, Dreamer of Dune] He's going to put out a sequel to Chapterhouse based on his father's notes as well. I've only read the first prequel, House Atreides, and I was not very impressed. Barely adequate, far shallower than his father's work. I'll probably end up reading them anyhow because I'm such a Dune fanatic. Well not a fanatic, but I really did like the books.
And of course, there was the Dune games. The first Dune game was an adventure game that I never checked out. The second one was Dune II, one of the first real-time strategy games. It was great, I played it through to the end as each of the three races, Atreides, Ordos and Harkonen. Something I rarely do. There was a remake of this game called Dune 2000, basicly the same game with upgraded graphics. Then there was another Dune real-time strategy game called Emperor of Dune. And I think there was another adventure game and an online game. And a roleplaying game?
Update
Just finished watching the first episode, which I believe encompasses the entire novel, Dune Messiah. I was quite impressed, much more enjoyable than the first series. All the actors were very good, although Duncan Idaho wasn't quite as charismatic as I pictured him from the books. The CGI used to render the sandworms was a step up from the first series. In fact, all the CGI used looked better than the first one, you didn't get that omigod that looks fake feeling as much. The fact that William Hurt wasn't in this one was a plus in my book, I thought he was terrible in the first one. They seemed to cover all the highlights from the book, at least what I can remember of it. Very cool, can't wait for the next two installments.
Maybe they could do justice to God Emperor after all!
Posted by Fungii at April 13, 2003 03:09 PM |