The Sword and Laser

Dang, I've just started Dune. I tried to get in it early but I guess I'm gonna be a little late.

Fun FACTS!

Sinclair Oil is still around and operates gas stations in the Rocky Mountain states, I think. The joke about the "Dinosaurs" show is that the Sinclair gas station logo has a picture of a brontosaurus on it. "ESSO" stations are for "SO" which is short for Standard Oil. Standard Oil was Rockefeller's company. Standard Oil operated under the ESSO brand. When Standard Oil was broken up, there were a bunch of little Standard Oils (little by comparison to the old company). The Standard Oil Company of New York was known as SOCONY and later became Mobil. Standard Oil of New Jersey was the biggest and used the ESSO brand. Some of the other Standard Oils sued them for using the brand. As a result the company couldn't use ESSO throughout the U.S. Eventually, in the 1970s, they changed the brand to EXXON. If you go to any other country, the brand is still ESSO.

If you want to know more about the history of oil, read "The Prize" (which I do sincerely recommend if you are interested in recent history, big book though)! Alternatively, to get the gist, watch "There Will Be Blood" and play all of the Fallout games (which I also recommend, though I can't speak for FO3 yet).

Great to hear you guys talk about Dune. I think you guys nailed the appeal of Dune and I love the fact that if you read it more than once it does have more layers to see and appreciate. If you read more of Herberts stuff you also see how Dune showcases his humanistic beliefs (or human potential)and how the human spirit is greater than the technology we create.

Glad to hear Daemon is a good read I was wondering about that...if you like that book then Charles Stross "Altered States" would be a good book to read as well.

Keep up the good work V and T.....

I forgot to mention that I love that you guys mention the whole metal or heavy metal conection to fantasy...another band was Molly Hatchet who always featured Frank Franzetta art on their covers and they also had some connection to author Karl Edward Wagner who wrote sword and socery books based on a guy called Kane. The Led Zepplin song was "Misty Mountain hop" and Michael Moorcock's Elric is a seminal character in fantasy novels. Good stuff in a 30 miute podcast.....

Regarding Michael Moorcock in metal, he actually collaborated with the awesome psychedelic/space rock band Hawkwind for a whole album called Warrior on the Edge Of Time which was based on his Eternal Champion theme. This was actually before he wrote Black Blade (awesome song btw, do check it out, I think I'll add it to my music on this site, in fact I might add all the songs based on fantasy/Sci-Fi books) for BÖC.

I happen to know this mainly cos I've been doing a rock/metal history project (just for fun) and gone backwards from some of my favorite bands to find out their influences etc. Monster Magnet was how I ended up on Hawkwind, but Motörhead as well, since Lemmy played bass for Hawkwind back in the 70s.

Anyway, check my music stuff on this site soon, I will add all songs based on books etc. shortly.

I've added the extended version of Lynch's Dune to my Netflix queue, although I'm noted it has only been given 1 star. :)

Great choice on the next book, I've seen it mentioned in our forums multiple times, looking forward to it.

if anything, the dinosaurs show was about the dino baby, also known as the prehistorical center of the universe. great episode, i will order the book soon.
i've read the first 3 dune books a while back and the ending of the third kinda left me devestated, in addition hearing that his son picked up after frank herbert passed away always leaves a bad impression to me, just might pick it up at some point again though, once i can really say i've gotten over it...

Jenny, I did too! Looking forward to watching it, we'll have to make a thread about it in the forums! -- V

An interesting note on the how the various things are pronounced. While Scott Brick has gotten some criticisums on the audible site's comments in an interview with Brian Herbert in one of the Dune prequel books that Brian sent him a large amount of notes on how various items in the Dune universe where to be pronounced. So hearing Dune or one of the other Dune books read by Scott Brick will give you a good idea of how Frank Herbert expected to have things pronounced.

The best dune-related song is Weapon of Choice by Fat Boy Slim.

If I were starting a Dune-Band it would be called "Chani's Children"

Greetings from Spain!

I first downloaded your podcast to improve my English. Now I download it 'cause I love it - and download BBCs documentaries for the English :-)

"The Steel Remains", great stuff. There are swords and... lasers. I recommend it.

For Dune, I will buy it next Thursday 23rd, 10% discount 'cause it is "Sant Jordi" over here, and tradition says we give a rose to the girls and they give a book to the boys, so roses and books are sold everywhere - books have discount, roses don't :-((

Keep the good wok here!!

Hear you next month!

ET

As someone who has read the original Dune series a few times, as well as the newer Anderson/Herbert sequels and prequels, the first two original Dune books present a bit of a puzzle.

Taken as they are, you only really get a vague hint about the shift from hero to antihero story; almost as if Paul Atreides were Anakin Skywalker and you saw only The Phantom Menace. The books start to plod a bit as you press further into the original series, though after a fashion the plodding serves a larger purpose in the story.

Just like Asimov marked the shift from robots (slaves or serfs) as atomic age frankenstein monsters to independent actors, Herbert seems to have marked the mainstream transition of speculative fiction into sociopolitical speculation. Probably not coincidental that it shares a timeline with Asimov's Foundation, though it is arguably less derivative in its depth, and more rooted in modern society.

Okay, a few corrections and additions that I feel are in order.
The "original" audiobook recordings by Scott Brick and George Guidell all have what is, by most people anyway, considered the canon way of pronouncing all the different unknown terms (most of which actually have a root in present-day language).
God-Emperor is set almost 4000 years (at least between 3500 and 4000 years) in the future compared to Children of Dune.
Furthermore, Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse of Dune are seperate from the "original trilogy" and God-Emperor of Dune.
There's an unofficial timeline published several places, including some on the internet, that indicate Dune takes place almost 20000 (19400 years, approximately from year 2000). The rest should be possible to figure out from internal chronology. As for where, who knows? Long enough away from Earth that it appears it hasn't been found in the colonization of the Universe at the stage it's at in Dune.
Regarding the sentences, it's one thing that the book is praised by by some people, since it's unavoidable that language chances over 20000 years.
Frank Herbert himself was also into the whole idea of dry-land ecology, and had an entire station set up at his home at one point.
The book tthat Tom mentions is actually called 'The Road To Dune' and is written by Frank Herbert and Brian Herbert.

Regarding the explicit scenes - Just don't ever read any of Robert Heinlein's non-Juvenile books - those will make your ears burst into fire if you're offended by Dune.

And regarding the ending of the first and sixth book, Frank Herbert was a lover of cliffhangers, which anyone who've read them finds as no surprise.

Also, there's a Dune movie-remake set for 2010 that's currently in the scripting-stage according to it's IMDB page.
There's also been work on a fan-movie, which may have been forced to stop because of the above filming mentioned.

On a personal note, I'm a -real- Dune nut (and yes, it tastes spicy ;)) I've probably read the entire original series 20 times or so since I discovered it as a little lad - and the prequels and sequels at least 10.

"Regarding the explicit scenes - Just don't ever read any of Robert
Heinlein's non-Juvenile books - those will make your ears burst into
fire if you're offended by Dune."

The explicit scenes conversation was in regards to Daemon, not Dune! I
don't remember there being any explicit scenes in Dune, were there?

Oh, right. Well, other than the mention of torture in the original series and the somewhat-descriptive imagery in the prequels, I suppose Dune is rather free of pretty much anything. Sorry about that, got things mixed up a bit.

That series changed the way I perceive time and the universe. Some of it is actually pretty scary in terms of what it illuminates and the repercussions of that information, particularly for a 15 year old kid which I was at the time -though I think existential angst feels pretty much the same no matter how old you are amirite? D:

I would say "Fear is the mind killer", but I'm not sure if I agree with that statement as much as I once did x|

I made a little video summary of Dune. It's about 3 minutes long. I actually had to do it for a school project. Made with Keynote. Check it out at http://www.vimeo.com/4806996