Word: dune
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...damp overcast mornings with mist are frequent, and sulphur fumes occasionally erupt from the nearby ocean bed. Taking advantage of the omnipresent sand, Walvis Baymen have built an 18-hole golf course with predictably spectacular bunkers. Perhaps the world's only drive-in movie atop a sand dune is a popular spot. Favorite sports include dune-buggy races and sand skiing at speeds of 40 m.p.h. down the precipitous 600-ft. dunes. The principal hazards for golfers, moviegoers, racers and skiers alike appear to be meandering flamingos and gulls...
...manner of an Audubon book about a newly-discovered bird species, and it describes in detail the physiology, folkways, legends, industries and daily routines of the wee folk. Although the book concentrates mostly on the red-capped woodland variety of gnome, other gnome species, like the barn, dune, and Siberian gnomes, find their way into the text...
After reading Dune, sci-fi fans were convinced Herbert could do no wrong--sadly, though, he fails to maintain such heights in his following books. Perhaps Dune reached heights no author could reclimb. Sensing a mesmerized readership, Herbert continued with Dune Messiah and Children of Dune, well-crafted books but not quite on the same level as their forebearer. Dosadi uses many of Dune's conventions and provides some entertainment, but the reader no longer believes he is holding the ancient, jewel-encrusted dagger in his hand and is chanting the mystical incantations...
...like Gowachins and the death-dancing wreaves--with their Kung-fu-like movements and poisoned mandibles. Jorj X. McKie, a red-haired man of Polynesian descent, is the only human accepted as a Legum in the Gowachin legal system. Herbert fails to give the legal cult the depth of Dune's Bene Gesserit witches but he still shows traces of his creative genius...
...much time detailing individual maneuverings and fails to create a convincing atmosphere of intrigue and mysticism. There are religious fanatics, homosexual kamikaze warriors, and Fannie Mae, but Herbert does so little with them. Too often he leaves the reader teased with his imagination but unfulfilled with his writing. Dune is a book that pleased all, from fantasy freaks to History and Lit majors, but Dosadi is only for the most dedicated sci-fi readers...