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Drawing Energy From The Rotation Of Deceased Authors
First off, not too long ago I asked about Ultima X. On a whim, I plugged it into Google and came up with this little tidbit of news. Thanks, EA. You really know how to pick winners. Keep on churning out Madden football year after year and milk that franchise until it bleeds. Electronic Arts used to be a great company, with wonderful games like Archon and MULE. Now they're... well, who can tell. My opinion of them is fairly low. This is more like a nail in the coffin.
Anyway, I have started reading The Butlerian Jihad and as many have learned, overall reception to the Dune "prequels" has been less than enthusiastic. Indeed, I find myself in agreement.
Butlerian Jihad is halfway decent SF on it's own. Though I wish that KJA hadn't used the names he did for the Titans, overall it was interesting. Some would say it only needs to stand on it's own merits. If he had called it, 'The War Against The Machine,' that would be fine. However, it is Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, and it is most certainly not Dune.
It's kind of arrogant, isn't it? To boldy declare, 'This is not Dune!' when none of us, last I checked, were a living, breathing Frank Herbert. Even so... we can at least tell when something just doesn't have the feel for Dune, and Butlerian Jihad is one of those things.
I don't think it''s that the good guy/bad guy roles of the Atreides and Harkonnen are reversed. Well, maybe it is. Atreides being the bastard son of one of the Titans is bad enough. Vladimir Harkonnen was said to be quite genuinely charming and handsome in his youth, so it was no surprise that the Harkonnen ancestor was likewise quite likable, so I'm fine with that. But this is a jarring bend to a feud that apparently spanned generations if not thousands of years. I can understand the desire to do a jarring role-reversal for the Atreides and the Harkonnen. But in this case it just doesn't seem to work out all that well.
There is also overuse of foreshadowing. There was a book called Raptor that was a historical novel set at about the fall of the Roman Empire. It was absolutely littered with bad foreshadowing. Everywhere the main character turned (it was written in the first person) he would write hints about what horror or tragedy was about to happen. It was getting frustrating. The character was so angstful about what he'd done and brooded over the decisions he had made that I wondered why he hadn't just nipped off and hung himself already. At one point, about halfway through the book, I read the line, "It was a decision I was to regret for the rest of my life." And I closed the book and put it away. KJA commits this sin a few times with several characters. It becomes quite irritating by the time Xavier Harkonnen learns of the fall of Geidi Prime.
I don't know. Maybe we've been innundated by the Borg and the Berserkers so much that the idea of a war between humanity and machines is blase.
Anyway, running out of steam here. Comments welcome. ^^
Anyway, I have started reading The Butlerian Jihad and as many have learned, overall reception to the Dune "prequels" has been less than enthusiastic. Indeed, I find myself in agreement.
Butlerian Jihad is halfway decent SF on it's own. Though I wish that KJA hadn't used the names he did for the Titans, overall it was interesting. Some would say it only needs to stand on it's own merits. If he had called it, 'The War Against The Machine,' that would be fine. However, it is Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, and it is most certainly not Dune.
It's kind of arrogant, isn't it? To boldy declare, 'This is not Dune!' when none of us, last I checked, were a living, breathing Frank Herbert. Even so... we can at least tell when something just doesn't have the feel for Dune, and Butlerian Jihad is one of those things.
I don't think it''s that the good guy/bad guy roles of the Atreides and Harkonnen are reversed. Well, maybe it is. Atreides being the bastard son of one of the Titans is bad enough. Vladimir Harkonnen was said to be quite genuinely charming and handsome in his youth, so it was no surprise that the Harkonnen ancestor was likewise quite likable, so I'm fine with that. But this is a jarring bend to a feud that apparently spanned generations if not thousands of years. I can understand the desire to do a jarring role-reversal for the Atreides and the Harkonnen. But in this case it just doesn't seem to work out all that well.
There is also overuse of foreshadowing. There was a book called Raptor that was a historical novel set at about the fall of the Roman Empire. It was absolutely littered with bad foreshadowing. Everywhere the main character turned (it was written in the first person) he would write hints about what horror or tragedy was about to happen. It was getting frustrating. The character was so angstful about what he'd done and brooded over the decisions he had made that I wondered why he hadn't just nipped off and hung himself already. At one point, about halfway through the book, I read the line, "It was a decision I was to regret for the rest of my life." And I closed the book and put it away. KJA commits this sin a few times with several characters. It becomes quite irritating by the time Xavier Harkonnen learns of the fall of Geidi Prime.
I don't know. Maybe we've been innundated by the Borg and the Berserkers so much that the idea of a war between humanity and machines is blase.
Anyway, running out of steam here. Comments welcome. ^^
no subject
Ah, EA, I remember them ... I try not to link my memories of that creator of a great many fun games back in my old Amiga days with a company that just happens to have the same name these days (I keep telling myself this).
Brett
Legasus
(Anonymous) - 2004-07-27 10:27 (UTC) - ExpandRe: Legasus