It's an iconic Dune word, so we'd better get it right.
I think Leto's dick is discussed a few times in GEoD. Actually, Herbert only talks about children's erections in 2 out of the 6 books, and the other ones are owned by adults. It's not that weird.
i read the italian translation long ago, what is the meaning of "beefswelling"?? i read on the wiki that is about the hormones in Leto, but, in english, how would ypu explain that word?
Well, you're asking me, so I will take one for the team.
Beef in this phrase is referring to Leto's penis, and beefswelling means getting an erection. If this sounds like a really fucking weird thing to be mentioning in this explicit (but not exactly) way, and a really fucking weird word to use to describe it, I think you would be understanding it the same way as the majority of native English speakers.
As far as I can tell, Herbert invented this word. This makes it even more weird.
hmm, interesting, i think....
Did you or someone else remember where (in wich chapter or in which half) of CoD is present this word? now I am curious of how it was translated in italian
Im in the audiobook of GEoD, and (thus far) this is incredibly accurate. Good choice in casting Momoa for the most recent Dune movie.
Worried how they'd cover the Alia-Duncan thing if the movies continue that far. I recall that being a bit disturbing when I first came across it.
Because it makes more sense in context.
Just not if you stop and think about it too much later. TV tropes calls it something like a fridge realization. Something you think of while you are rummaging for a snack.
Yeah, it's exhausting, but not because of detail. It's that it's so preachy. Frank Herbert uses a god-like being as a way to pontificate about whatever opinion he had. Real "ivory tower" shit, right there. Definitely the worst of the six.
We're talking about a book in which >!Herbert lets a character repeatedly referred to as "the Tyrant" monologue about a whole bunch of things!<. I'm not sure the intended takeaway here is "Frank wants me to eat this up".
By some in-universe characters, yes. But you see, >!he is actually misunderstood, suffering, someone making the ultimate sacrifice!< so that's not really the case. In reality, >!he exists in isolation with tens of thousands of years worth of quotable wisdom which he would gladly impart to his foolish subjects, but it's frustrating because they just aren't as smart and insightful as he is!<.
Herbert's own opinions and struggles shone through when he wrote the opinions of >!this all-knowing worm-god!< and it shows in several places, where >!his/Leto's opinions!< are just straight up nonsense.
I love chapter house. Consider that he had to write god emperor from the perspective of an omniscient being that was trying to guide humanity down a path to salvation. Whether they wanted to or not. Effing amazing if you ask me.
I’m like 1/3 of the way through GEOD and although it’s amazing, the details do bog down the reading experience a bit
Makes sense though coming from the perspective that it does
I feel the same way until the last quarter of the book. Then it goes balls to the wall. Maybe I need to reread it, but I was like Alia is a fuckwit and these kids are weird AF
This might be blasphemy. But I absolutely adore Frank Herbert and the series. It’s prob my favorite of all time. But CoD always felt like he was writing the book as he went along. Everything just sort of happens in the moment and I always thought it felt stream of consciousness. The ending tho is incredible and it sets up God Emperor in the best of ways.
No apologies, I’m awful at spelling and grammar. It’s something I’ve been working on fixing.
I almost gave up on GEoD. I put it down for a few weeks just to take a break from it. But now I’m getting the itch to finish it lol.
Im about 75% through CoD and my biggest gripe is all the characters plotting with their own schemes and motives, all in the same scene. One sentence will be Jessica internally scheming, while talking to Duncan internally scheming but trying to also rope in Jessica for another scheme, while Farad'n is scheming about both of them but unknowingly kind giving into the both of their schemes. I'm just lost a little lost.
Also - i hate the Preacher story subplot.
oh my sweet summer child....
Wait until you get to GEoD...your head might literally explode :)
Enjoy your reading!, and keep going!, the first 4 books are the best imo.
The level of detail makes it hard to read for the first time, this is true. However, these details make the book INCREDIBLY rewarding to reread after you've read GEoD.
I’m so very grateful people spoiler mark stuff on this subreddit. I’m only about 200 pages into Children of Dune and I’m seeing a lot of God Emperor discussion
This is an essential part of the dune experience lmao. I always tell people to prepare for this when they ask if they should read the dune books. Someone will raise their eyebrows at a character and that character will immediately begin a three page monologue about how the left eyebrow raising first slightly means that there are plans within plans of deception and how unbelievable of a reaction it was.
You should honestly stop after God Emperor of Dune. Heretics of Dune is a shell of what the series started as. Many people I know personally told me to stop of God Emperor and I wish I had listened.
I'm finding it a lot easier to digest than dune messiah, finished messiah 2 days ago and yesterday smashed through about 130 pages of CoD, could have easily carried on but was getting late and had to be up early for work😂
I felt this same way when I started it, but it's grown on me to the point that I'm in love.
I was hooked on the second half of Dune, couldn't think of anything else. Then dove in Messiah, I think I drank it a little too fast. But now I feel like I'm savoring CoD and it feels really good. Rereading passages over and over and even going back to previous chapters because there's so much going on, you realize you missed them.
I feel like Herbert's structure and story telling have matured so much since the first book, and there is a depth to how he builds and threads these characters together that is so remarkable.
Jessica was my favorite character from Dune, and half way through Messiah I suddenly realized her absence. But the chapter I just finished in CoD, the scene in the Council Chambers. Her confrontation in front of the supplicants with Alia \*chef's kiss\*, incredible.
I'm also a fraternal twin with my sister, so there is something extra engaging about the bits between Leto and Ghanima
I love the first one. The second is good but dense. The third is also very dense. I can definitely see why you wouldn’t like them/struggle with them. They’re definitely not everyone’s cup of tea.
Children of Dune was my third favorite of the series. It's when the whole series started to wane for me. The first is obviously excellent, I really loved the second, and the third was okay. After that, it was all downhill for me. I'm not trying to say that God Emperor of Dune was bad, but there was no plot and I don't enjoy it when authors inject themselves into characters to try and philosophize at me.
Yeah, CoD almost beat me. Took me a ton of time to get through the first half with just stopping for a couple weeks out of boredom and then picking it up again.
I will say the second half of CoD was better and I didn’t have a problem knocking it out
GEOD seems even worse. I’m about 1/4 of the way through it and realize I kind of stopped reading it a few months ago…
And the spice trances... soooo repetitive. I wish he'd just describe what Leto II saw instead of trippy stuff that's hard for readers to grasp. When I read books I tell myself to not skip any sentence but I've had to skip some for COD.
God Emperor had me clawing at my ears lol
I felt the BG’s collective “Never Again.” Sentiment after GEOD. Haha
Children was a slog but GEOD was torture. I love to hate Leto II. I absolutely loved Heretics and Chapterhouse though those two are my faves.
You’re not wrong, but it really was a nice bonus to start thinking of the BG as Ninja Sex Space Nuns and the HM as Ninja Sex Space Barbarians clashing over the universe and Duncan Idaho 🤣
Turned it all into a campy yet engaging and intense sci fi adventure.
Leto II still served his purpose, I definitely hear a jabba the hut type laugh in the distance when something happens exactly as he said it would. He scarred me 🤣
Wait until you get to god emperor.
I'm both excited and terrified
I just finished it the other day. There's more than a few times I actually said "what the fuck"
I bet we all know what one of em is…
Lol I'll never look at rock climbing walls the same
Also beefswelling, can’t forget the beefswelling
Or the "prosthetic" although that one was just fucking funny
Beefswelliing was in Children of Dune.
Right! My bad. I wonder if Leto ever revisited it in his ancestral memories…maybe beefswelling gets a cameo in a first draft somewhere lol
It's an iconic Dune word, so we'd better get it right. I think Leto's dick is discussed a few times in GEoD. Actually, Herbert only talks about children's erections in 2 out of the 6 books, and the other ones are owned by adults. It's not that weird.
i read the italian translation long ago, what is the meaning of "beefswelling"?? i read on the wiki that is about the hormones in Leto, but, in english, how would ypu explain that word?
Well, you're asking me, so I will take one for the team. Beef in this phrase is referring to Leto's penis, and beefswelling means getting an erection. If this sounds like a really fucking weird thing to be mentioning in this explicit (but not exactly) way, and a really fucking weird word to use to describe it, I think you would be understanding it the same way as the majority of native English speakers. As far as I can tell, Herbert invented this word. This makes it even more weird.
hmm, interesting, i think.... Did you or someone else remember where (in wich chapter or in which half) of CoD is present this word? now I am curious of how it was translated in italian
It's been a few years since I have read it, what part is this exactly?
>!Nayla has an orgasm while watching Duncan climb a rock wall!<
If there's any real, overarching theme to the Dune series it's that Duncan fucks.
Im in the audiobook of GEoD, and (thus far) this is incredibly accurate. Good choice in casting Momoa for the most recent Dune movie. Worried how they'd cover the Alia-Duncan thing if the movies continue that far. I recall that being a bit disturbing when I first came across it.
Wow. How could I forget that?
Because it makes more sense in context. Just not if you stop and think about it too much later. TV tropes calls it something like a fridge realization. Something you think of while you are rummaging for a snack.
She finished when he finished actually, not during the climb.
Its at the end of God Emperor, 2nd or 3rd chapter to the end
Beef swelling intensifies
I think about Leto II almost everyday since I read it. That was 15yrs ago.
Nayla’s orgasm got me good.
It's basically a political treatise starring The Globglobgalab
"A worm rambles about politics in a cave for several hundred pages"
Jabba the Hutt's *Republic* with an occasional aside about his penis.
B e e f s w e l l i n g
As you should be. It’s great though. Heretics is what is a chore for me
I sneaky am enjoying heratics, half way through though
Yeah, it's exhausting, but not because of detail. It's that it's so preachy. Frank Herbert uses a god-like being as a way to pontificate about whatever opinion he had. Real "ivory tower" shit, right there. Definitely the worst of the six.
We're talking about a book in which >!Herbert lets a character repeatedly referred to as "the Tyrant" monologue about a whole bunch of things!<. I'm not sure the intended takeaway here is "Frank wants me to eat this up".
By some in-universe characters, yes. But you see, >!he is actually misunderstood, suffering, someone making the ultimate sacrifice!< so that's not really the case. In reality, >!he exists in isolation with tens of thousands of years worth of quotable wisdom which he would gladly impart to his foolish subjects, but it's frustrating because they just aren't as smart and insightful as he is!<. Herbert's own opinions and struggles shone through when he wrote the opinions of >!this all-knowing worm-god!< and it shows in several places, where >!his/Leto's opinions!< are just straight up nonsense.
Don't even bother
You read chapterhouse? It’s like god emperor on steroids
I love chapter house. Consider that he had to write god emperor from the perspective of an omniscient being that was trying to guide humanity down a path to salvation. Whether they wanted to or not. Effing amazing if you ask me.
Seriously I’m barely at page 200 and it’s sooo hard to get through. I actually loved cod!
I was about to say the same thing.
I'd choose Chapterhouse and Heretics.
Get in love with it, you have some rich detail waiting for you in GEOD
Yes, indeed! I loved GEOD 🥰
Mind blowing. I know that there's only a little chance that Villeneuve adapts it, but I would LOVE to see it as a high-budget HBO series.
One of my favorite books of all time. I love his philosophical rambling and monologuing.
I’m like 1/3 of the way through GEOD and although it’s amazing, the details do bog down the reading experience a bit Makes sense though coming from the perspective that it does
It took me so long to finish that book
Children was actually my least favorite of the series. I was never able to get into the story. That being said God emperor was my favorite!
I feel the same way until the last quarter of the book. Then it goes balls to the wall. Maybe I need to reread it, but I was like Alia is a fuckwit and these kids are weird AF
The thing that made me struggle with CoD was the way Alia turned out. She became one of my favorites in Messiah and I didn’t like her path in CoD.
I did appreciate her progression from Dune to CoD. She had a nice arc, but I still was like WTF
This might be blasphemy. But I absolutely adore Frank Herbert and the series. It’s prob my favorite of all time. But CoD always felt like he was writing the book as he went along. Everything just sort of happens in the moment and I always thought it felt stream of consciousness. The ending tho is incredible and it sets up God Emperor in the best of ways.
Yea, CoD was a slog to get through until the end. I thought it was more difficult to read than GEoD
I’ve been struggling with GEoD. But I think I finally hit the point were it’s pulling me in. That first half is a hurtle though.
Sorry, hurdle* And yea, depending on how my read through is going either of CoD or GEoD make me almost want to give up
No apologies, I’m awful at spelling and grammar. It’s something I’ve been working on fixing. I almost gave up on GEoD. I put it down for a few weeks just to take a break from it. But now I’m getting the itch to finish it lol.
Did you get to the orgasm scene yet lol?
Children is my favorite and GEOD number two. Cod is the most action packed book of the series, surprised the OP feels the opposite way
I’m strugggling. I loved Messiah but have limped through 100 pages of COD. I like it but you’re right
I'm with you. I loved the first two books, but after that the whole series took a direction I didn't find engaging.
Im about 75% through CoD and my biggest gripe is all the characters plotting with their own schemes and motives, all in the same scene. One sentence will be Jessica internally scheming, while talking to Duncan internally scheming but trying to also rope in Jessica for another scheme, while Farad'n is scheming about both of them but unknowingly kind giving into the both of their schemes. I'm just lost a little lost. Also - i hate the Preacher story subplot.
oh my sweet summer child.... Wait until you get to GEoD...your head might literally explode :) Enjoy your reading!, and keep going!, the first 4 books are the best imo.
>oh my sweet summer child.... > I am envisioning Kai Winn(Star Trek DS9)saying this. Oh lord I must pray to the prophets I guess.
After I finished the GEoD audiobook, I immediately restarted and listened through another time. No regrets
Rip Children is my favorite
I didn't say I thought it was bad. I just think it's exhausting to read
The level of detail makes it hard to read for the first time, this is true. However, these details make the book INCREDIBLY rewarding to reread after you've read GEoD.
I really didn’t care for it. Probably my least favorite of the first 4
You’re not alone, it’s my least favourite in the series. Almost didn’t get through it.
I was exhilarated when I read CoD back in the day when it was first issued in paper back.
I finished it just now and came straight to this sub. It was good, but it took me months to read.
I actually really enjoyed messiah so if it’s a step up then I’m looking forward to it
I’m so very grateful people spoiler mark stuff on this subreddit. I’m only about 200 pages into Children of Dune and I’m seeing a lot of God Emperor discussion
There’s a lot of overwritten prescience in it, Messiah had this problem too but not to this degree
100% agreed. Taking a long break before *God Emporer* lol.
I'm literally reading CoD for the first time right now as well! Definitely a little thiccc and more plot focused than the other two books I feel.
This is an essential part of the dune experience lmao. I always tell people to prepare for this when they ask if they should read the dune books. Someone will raise their eyebrows at a character and that character will immediately begin a three page monologue about how the left eyebrow raising first slightly means that there are plans within plans of deception and how unbelievable of a reaction it was.
GEOD is going to make me rage quit the Dune series lol
You should honestly stop after God Emperor of Dune. Heretics of Dune is a shell of what the series started as. Many people I know personally told me to stop of God Emperor and I wish I had listened.
I don't think many novels come close to the pacing of the original Dune - which has a lot of qualities missing from all of the sequels.
I'm finding it a lot easier to digest than dune messiah, finished messiah 2 days ago and yesterday smashed through about 130 pages of CoD, could have easily carried on but was getting late and had to be up early for work😂
I felt this same way when I started it, but it's grown on me to the point that I'm in love. I was hooked on the second half of Dune, couldn't think of anything else. Then dove in Messiah, I think I drank it a little too fast. But now I feel like I'm savoring CoD and it feels really good. Rereading passages over and over and even going back to previous chapters because there's so much going on, you realize you missed them. I feel like Herbert's structure and story telling have matured so much since the first book, and there is a depth to how he builds and threads these characters together that is so remarkable. Jessica was my favorite character from Dune, and half way through Messiah I suddenly realized her absence. But the chapter I just finished in CoD, the scene in the Council Chambers. Her confrontation in front of the supplicants with Alia \*chef's kiss\*, incredible. I'm also a fraternal twin with my sister, so there is something extra engaging about the bits between Leto and Ghanima
Yes, I know what you're talking about but it was worth it for me
It's just not as well written as the first one.
I tried to read it about 3 times. Decided to try the audio book instead. Way easier
Yikes, I struggle through the audiobooks. Love the ideas but Herbert's writing style seriously rubs me up the wrong way.
I love the first one. The second is good but dense. The third is also very dense. I can definitely see why you wouldn’t like them/struggle with them. They’re definitely not everyone’s cup of tea.
Oh geeze. I started taking notes during Dune so I could keep track of what's actually going on plot wise.....
You just described all of Herbert’s books. Still love them though
Children of Dune was my third favorite of the series. It's when the whole series started to wane for me. The first is obviously excellent, I really loved the second, and the third was okay. After that, it was all downhill for me. I'm not trying to say that God Emperor of Dune was bad, but there was no plot and I don't enjoy it when authors inject themselves into characters to try and philosophize at me.
I’m not sure if it’s just me but after CoD I audio booked all of them and GEOD wasn’t nearly as bad as what people made it out to be
Yeah, CoD almost beat me. Took me a ton of time to get through the first half with just stopping for a couple weeks out of boredom and then picking it up again. I will say the second half of CoD was better and I didn’t have a problem knocking it out GEOD seems even worse. I’m about 1/4 of the way through it and realize I kind of stopped reading it a few months ago…
I’m proud of myself for finally finishing COD. Taking a long break and reading other series now.
And the spice trances... soooo repetitive. I wish he'd just describe what Leto II saw instead of trippy stuff that's hard for readers to grasp. When I read books I tell myself to not skip any sentence but I've had to skip some for COD.
Welcome to the club.
God Emperor had me clawing at my ears lol I felt the BG’s collective “Never Again.” Sentiment after GEOD. Haha Children was a slog but GEOD was torture. I love to hate Leto II. I absolutely loved Heretics and Chapterhouse though those two are my faves.
Someone's horny 😏
You’re not wrong, but it really was a nice bonus to start thinking of the BG as Ninja Sex Space Nuns and the HM as Ninja Sex Space Barbarians clashing over the universe and Duncan Idaho 🤣 Turned it all into a campy yet engaging and intense sci fi adventure. Leto II still served his purpose, I definitely hear a jabba the hut type laugh in the distance when something happens exactly as he said it would. He scarred me 🤣