Tuesday, July 19, 2011

July Readingfest 2

Everyone benefits when I'm in reading mode. Well, everyone but my discarded horde and my current characters in limbo that is. My dog gets to go to the dog park where I can sit on a bench and read. My kids get to go to the beach, ChuckECheese, the park, and get to see me without a laptop attached to my person. My tub gets my attention with lots of long baths (though my shower probably misses me). My husband takes joy in not hearing the constant clickety clack of my fingers on the keyboard. Me, I'm getting a tan and feeling a little more accomplished with each book I take off my TBR pile.

I finished Jacqueline Carey's Naamah's Blessing since my last post. LOVED IT. And was overjoyed to have a strong ending to that trilogy with the promise of a new one to come. If I have to nitpick at something, it would be the overuse of single sentence paragraphs. Every chapter seemed to end with them and they were also scattered throughout. But really, that's digging for something to nitpick just to be fair.

Then I dove into Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's, Paul of Dune. As much as I love Dune, this book has tragically languished on the bottom of my TBR pile since its release in 2008. That's how behind I am. Eek! This was a great point to dive back into the Dune universe. Reading of any of the previous books wasn't necessary, as necessary information was neatly tucked in. Of course, I had read all the previous books, but it's been a LONG time since reading the original six books. Focusing on Paul and the years between Dune and Dune Messiah, we learn the events that turned Paul Muad'dib into a terrifying ruler that brought massive change to the universe. Nitpick: The jump between childhood years and present day was jarring and off-putting at first but well indicated.

Currently I'm halfway into Hunters of Dune, also by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's. The long awaited first part of the divided Book 7 of the original Dune series. Thankfully, this book also does a great job of inserting necessary snippets to jog the memory since Chapterhouse Dune was published in 1985 and I likely read it within a couple years of that. Yeah, it's been awhile. Easy to follow and as enjoyable as all the new Dune books have been, I have found nothing significant to nitpick on. Yet. The chapters are blessedly short, making it a perfect read for the constantly interrupted like myself. With a myriad of characters to follow, there's something for everyone as we follow the spiderweb of plotlines that clash and smash their way toward the climax of this awesome and inspirational series.

4 comments:

  1. Interesting that you're enjoying the newer Dune books. I'm pretty sure I read (most of) the original series way back when, and started to feel like the concept was getting milked a bit dry after the groundbreaking achievement of the original book.

    Then I recently read one of the prequels and was rather disappointed. I only finished it because it explained some of the events leading up to the original book, but I felt the writing let it down rather badly. It seemed to me a sign that the authors really were just milking a sure thing rather than creating something they believed in.

    But then I'm just a cynical and grumpy old man, so what do I know? :D

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  2. The biggest thing I'm taking away from this postis that the time has finally come for me to read Dune.

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  3. @Botanist: Huh. I loved the prequels because they explained a lot of the stuff in the original series. It fleshed out a lot of the world and events that were only alluded to in the series but were major historical events.

    Because there was a huge gap between my reading the original series and then the two prequel trilogies and now the other four books that have been added, I didn't fall into the comparison of the writing style issue. That, and I've read several hundred books in between. I considered rereading some of the orginals after the prequels a few years ago, but didn't want to be disappointed by things not being as awesome as I remembered (as seems to happen with most anything I read with my now tainted writer eyes).

    @Ray - If you haven't read any of the series yet, I'd recommend starting with the prequels so you get the entire series in order from the beginning. Otherwise, start with Dune but insert Paul of Dune and Winds of Dune before Dune Messiah. Everything will make more sense as those two fill in the big gap of time between the two original books.

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  4. Hmm, yeah, I also thought the Dune thing was like telling a different version of the same joke. Maybe I'll check it out.

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