Sci-fi/Fantasy recommendations

[The Brain]

I've never read Dune,

You haven't read about Kareem Gom Jabbar?

[Ideologue]

I'm not a big sports fan.  I thought he was hilarious in Airplane.

[Tonitrus]

Daybreak core idea is about the US Constitution and the possible constitutional crisis when the POTUS, the Vice-POTUS, the Speaker of the House, and the Senate leader dude, are taken out simultaneously.

Secretary of State becomes President.  Constitutional crises over.  Cut the head off the Soviet chicken.

[Siege]

I would like the read the culture.

[crazy canuck]

The trouble with "Dune" is that the first book is a cut above the rest.

"Dune Messiah" is short and forgettable (as I suspect has happened in the case of a certain poster only a few posts above me.)

"Children of Dune" suffers from "annoying brat" and "underused characters" syndrome

"God Emperor of Dune" is probably the second best book, but suffers from a degree of tonal dissonance compared to Dune. It's really hard to care for the characters in "God Emperor" which is not the case with "Dune".

"Heretics of Dune" and "Chapterhouse:Dune" show clear signs, unfortunately, of an author in decline, writing books from his most popular series because he was running out of ideas. Plus they form a pair of set-up books whose denouement was left to inferior hacks due to the death of the author.

I am going to go against the grain on this one.  I thought he was hitting his stride In Heretics and Chapterhouse.  Its too bad he wasnt able to finish the story.  It was going in a very interesting direction.  Something that was entirely lost on the son.

[The Brain]

I am currently wading through Judge Dredd comics, and I didn't know before that Warhammer 40k was so heavily influenced by it. In the Cursed Earth story they drive a Land Raider (that looks a lot like the 1st ed Games Workshop Land Raider), a mutie has a power sword (that looks an awful lot like a 40k power sword), the last POTUS lies in suspended animation under tons of gold in Fort Knox and he needs constant vampiric sustenance (the Emperor on the Golden Throne on Holy Terra). Fairly interesting.

[Queequeg]

I think Warhammer's Emperor is pretty similar to Emperor Leto II, actually. 

[The Brain]

I am currently wading through Judge Dredd comics, and I didn't know before that Warhammer 40k was so heavily influenced by it. In the Cursed Earth story they drive a Land Raider (that looks a lot like the 1st ed Games Workshop Land Raider), a mutie has a power sword (that looks an awful lot like a 40k power sword), the last POTUS lies in suspended animation under tons of gold in Fort Knox and he needs constant vampiric sustenance (the Emperor on the Golden Throne on Holy Terra). Fairly interesting.

Adding to the list:

Litany of hate (very common term in 40k, not extremely common in average text)
Old One Eye the monster Tyrannousaurus (Old One Eye the monster Tyranid)

[Razgovory]

Thanks, that is interesting.

[Siege]

Whoa, Brain has a brain?

[Gups]

Read a third of the first Mistborn novel by Sanderson and have ditched it.

It's the same old story. Crap writing, a plot so implausible it is impossible to suspend disbelief and characters with as much depth as a paddling pool.


I think I'm done with fantasy. I like teh idea but with only a very few exceptions the books are aimed at a readership which is so undiscriminating that the writers can just ring it in.

[DontSayBanana]

non-elder Herbert Dune books should be expunged.

Eh, House Harkonnen made for a decent read if you could mentally substitute other names and forget that it was the Dune universe.  Other than that, I'll completely and totally agree. 

House Atreides and House Corrino read like terrible fan fiction (LOL DUNCAN IDAHO), and Butlerian Jihad was so pointless and bloody for the sake of being bloody that I haven't touched another entry since.

[mongers]

Read a third of the first Mistborn novel by Sanderson and have ditched it.

It's the same old story. Crap writing, a plot so implausible it is impossible to suspend disbelief and characters with as much depth as a paddling pool.


I think I'm done with fantasy. I like teh idea but with only a very few exceptions the books are aimed at a readership which is so undiscriminating that the writers can just ring it in.

Try some of Robert Holdstock's books.

[Malthus]

Read a third of the first Mistborn novel by Sanderson and have ditched it.

It's the same old story. Crap writing, a plot so implausible it is impossible to suspend disbelief and characters with as much depth as a paddling pool.


I think I'm done with fantasy. I like teh idea but with only a very few exceptions the books are aimed at a readership which is so undiscriminating that the writers can just ring it in.

It's the same with any other type of "genre" fiction. There are a few real innovators, a few who have serious writing chops, and a whole lot of writers capitalizing on the fact that every genre has a built-in audience.

[Ed Anger]

Did I say Gor yet?