Frank Herbert's Pandora Series

[Nilentropy]

i just wanted to take a poll and see how many people have read these books. I personally feel it's Frank's best series next to Dune. I had to find them at used book stores. Here's the list:
Destination: VOID
The Jesus Incident
The Lazarus Effect
The Ascension Factor
I just finished reading this series for a second time recently. Like Dune, you need to read it more than once to soak it all in. This series is the antithesis of Dune in every way. For anyone interested in this series they might have some copies at your local used book store or amazon.com.

 

[Leto]

Antithesis of Dune ? How ? It's exactly the same subject : what is human ? what is divinity ?

 

[Nilentropy]

basically they are the same in the fact that humans can reach a higher state of consciousness, but that's a theme that runs through all of frank's books. other than that they are complete opposites: planet of sand/planet of water, humans all over the galaxy/mutant humans not even in the same universe as where they started. the list goes on.

 

[Leto]

Of course, he didn't re-do over and other the same book. Else it would be quite boring to read him. But I'm sorry, having read both of them at least 10 times, the antithesis is only in the planet choice, not in the ideas under (and the water planet doesn't appear at all in the first book). In both case, the extreme condition of the planet occupied by the protagonists (and Dune throughout the serie is not the only planet and not all the time covered of sand) act more as a catalyst for for their "ascension" and/or downfall.

 

[Nilentropy]

blah, blah, blah. i was just trying to see how many people read frank's books other than dune. stop saying pointless crap, leto. i say pandora is completely different than dune. you can keep living in your fantasy where dune is the only thing frank wrote.

 

[Leto]

blah, blah, blah. i was just trying to see how many people read frank's books other than dune. stop saying pointless crap, leto. i say pandora is completely different than dune. you can keep living in your fantasy where dune is the only thing frank wrote.

Nice sabotage trick, but then why don't you ask frankly instead of opening a debate between two series equally good yet not so different ?

 

[shinygau]

This series, Dune, and Dosadi Experiment all have very similar concepts and themes - all unique and all brilliant, but after Destination Void the Pandora series does take on easy Dune or Dosadi comparisons. You're right, the idea of greatness achieved only through hardship is central to each. Comfort = weakness, struggle = evolution, plus the miriad of social, psychological, and regilious insights.

And don't open up a topic with a comparison between such deeply thought-provoking series and knock the only other poster for debating the concepts presented in each. What good is a message thread if each poster only added "I read it", "yeah, me too", "I didn't", "lol I pwnd both s3r13s".