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"Dune" As good as "Lord of the Rings"?

B

businessbooks

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I recently re-read Frank Herbert's "Dune" after a particular edition had a quote on the back page calling it one of the best sci-fi novels of all time, compared only to "Lord of the Rings" and you know what? I am tempted to agree.

What do you think?
 
FM's right - I don't think that the two can be compared.

I was quite disappointed with Dune. I think it was more a case of having over-hyped expectations than anything else.
 
Dune is very good, but I think Lord of the Rings is much better.

If you want to know which to read, then I would suggest reading both.
 
I actually really liked both of them. I just don't consider Lord of the Rings even close to science fiction.
 
I'm going to agree with FM and MC. Thomas as well. You can't really compare the two. Also, Joderu is 100% correct.
 
joderu95 said:
I actually really liked both of them. I just don't consider Lord of the Rings even close to science fiction.
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I agree, Lord of the Rings isn't science fiction, it's fantasy. But you guys know that.

I haven't read Dune but it is on my long list of stuff to read. What is it about? and does it continue as a series?

I like your avatar Fantasy Moon. Eowyn is my favorite character from LOTR :D.
 
Dune is part of a series but stands well on its own. Here is Amazon's summary which does it more justice than I ever could.

This Hugo and Nebula Award winner tells the sweeping tale of a desert planet called Arrakis, the focus of an intricate power struggle in a byzantine interstellar empire. Arrakis is the sole source of Melange, the "spice of spices." Melange is necessary for interstellar travel and grants psychic powers and longevity, so whoever controls it wields great influence.

The troubles begin when stewardship of Arrakis is transferred by the Emperor from the Harkonnen Noble House to House Atreides. The Harkonnens don't want to give up their privilege, though, and through sabotage and treachery they cast young Duke Paul Atreides out into the planet's harsh environment to die. There he falls in with the Fremen, a tribe of desert dwellers who become the basis of the army with which he will reclaim what's rightfully his. Paul Atreides, though, is far more than just a usurped duke. He might be the end product of a very long-term genetic experiment designed to breed a super human; he might be a messiah. His struggle is at the center of a nexus of powerful people and events, and the repercussions will be felt throughout the Imperium.
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I still don't think that I have read the last 50 pages of Heretics of Dune. It really just lost my interest during book three, but I'm a glutton for punishment in attempting to finish series that I begin. Not sure if I'll ever get back to it. I wouldn't mind re-reading Dune, but that's as far as I will go.

Thanks, Steph. Eowyn is an awesome character in Middle-earth.
 
was dune that show that came on in the 80s or so, where people had to yell to shoot their guns and rode around on giant worms? i believe i was still a zygote when the mini series was on.
 
Disenthral said:
was dune that show that came on in the 80s or so, where people had to yell to shoot their guns and rode around on giant worms? i believe i was still a zygote when the mini series was on.
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The miniseries came out in 2000. The David Lynch movie came out in 1984.
 
Correct me if I am wrong, but I belive that Dune is classified as Science Fiction while Lord of the Rings is Fantasy. This puts the two of them in different catagorys from which there is no comparison. Dune would compete with such epics as Star Wars and Star Trek, which are the giants of Science Fiction where as Lord of the Rings would compete with such giants as Harry Potter.
 
jbcohen said:
Correct me if I am wrong, but I belive that Dune is classified as Science Fiction while Lord of the Rings is Fantasy. This puts the two of them in different catagorys from which there is no comparison. Dune would compete with such epics as Star Wars and Star Trek, which are the giants of Science Fiction where as Lord of the Rings would compete with such giants as Harry Potter.
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These two books are easy to classify, but others do become more shady. That's why the two genres are often merged into SFF, so you could argue that the two books actually come from the one genre.

You can't strictly compare the two, but of course it's possible to say which one you enjoyed better.
 
I like both... and yes they might be similar in the epic background, but TLOTR isn't SF, so I don't think they're compareable...
 
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