Two weeks ago, I reviewed Denis Villenueve’s Dune adaptation, and last Wednesday I gave my thoughts on the book, but why stop the fun there? It’s been a while since I’ve done a book tag (last one was probably the Jurassic Park Book tag I did back in June) and I thought it would be fun to do one for DUNE, but lo and behold I could not find one (if you know of one please link it in the comments).
So I thought I’d give it a shot. Since the new movie is no longer on HBO and I didn’t think to pull quotes from it while watching, I decided to base the prompts off of Irulan’s epigraphs in the book (honestly one of my fav parts of reading Dune).
Anyway, there are only a couple rules to participating which are basically the same rules as every book tag:
- Link the original post, and whoever tagged you
- Pick a book that fits each quote theme.
- Have fun!
- Tag 3 or more people.
Here we go!
“A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care . . . “
— from “Manual of Muad’dib”
What’s your favorite SFF Opening? (aka “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit“? or “It was a dark and stormy night.”)
This is actually a pretty difficult one for me. My writer brain feels like it should have an immediate answer, but nothing came to mind. I looked in some of my writing notes and I did have some examples of openings from favorite books, but neither seemed particularly interesting to me right now.
Perhaps it’s just because I’ve been watching the show, and reading about The Wheel Of Time everywhere right now, but the line that came to mind was: “. . . a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.”
Now I know there are technically other lines in front of this, but I just really like how contradictory the whole passage is and yet still understandable, prescient to the book (and whole series), and poetic. Very nicely done.
“The wisdom of seeding the known universe with a prophecy pattern . . .
— from “Analysis: The Arrakeen Crisis”
What is your favorite chosen one story, whether played straight, inverted, or subverted?
Sometimes it’s really hard for me not to just pick Mistborn for every book in every tag hahah. But while I do think Sanderson did a cool thing with the “chosen one” trope in that book, I think I’m going to try and branch out a bit.
The book that jumped to mind next was actually kind of surprising to me. Surprising in that it was the next thing to come to mind (cause I’m not sure it really left a big stamp on me otherwise) and surprising in the way it used the trope.
This book would be Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey. I won’t go too much into the specifics because it would literally spoil the entire story, but I think I can say what I enjoyed about the trope’s use without giving too much away. 1) The main character isn’t The Chosen One which was kind of interesting and refreshing, and 2) The chosen one is fully cognizant of “being the chozen one” (as far as I can remember) pretty much the whole time and this effects their character motivations in ways that I totally did not expect.
Maybe I should a reread of Magic for Liars. Or maybe Gaily should write a sequel! hahah
“There should be a science of discontent. People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles”
— from “Collected Sayings of Muad’dib”
A book you did not enjoy reading but are glad you did.
I think for this one I’ll choose a relatively recent read for me: R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War. This book was a hard pill to swallow, but I think it really pushed me to learn a lot, and (thought it’s set in a 2ndary world) dig deeper into the history of a culture and time period which took place IRL.
When you read, have some soothing herbal tea nearby though . . . or maybe whiskey.
“Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife — chopping off what’s incomplete and saying ‘Now, it’s complete because it’s ended here.’”
— from Collected Sayings of Muad’dib”
A book that ended too abruptly. Or, one that didn’t end soon enough.
Perhaps ironically, I think I’m going to choose the book that inspired this post to answer this prompt. Frank Herbert’s DUNE. It’s insane that a 792 (for my edition) page book could feel like it ended abruptly. Consequently, there were many times while reading that I thought it would never end. Perhaps that’s what made the ending feel abrupt. We read and read and read saying “Are we there yet?” and then when he hit that last line:
“While we, Chani, we who carry the name of concubine — history will call us wives.”
Herbert, Frank: Dune. pg 792 1965 (please forgive that I basically just made up that citation style haha)
We’re completely surprised it’s actually over. And yea . . . that’s what it ends on. So weird. I kept turning the page thinking there was more to the story (don’t get me wrong there was more to the book . . . like 5 appendixes more), but that was the end. I’m still not parsing it. Oh well.
“Muad’Dib could indeed see the Future, but you must understand the limits of his power.”
— from “Arrakis Awakens”
A book who’s ending you saw coming. Or . . . maybe one you totally didn’t.
I have lots of love for Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas, but I pretty much guessed who killed Miguel the moment the character was introduced. However, this almost didn’t matter as the book is about so much more than just who dunnit . . . Still though. I called it! hahah
Party’s over . . .
Welp. This has been fun. I’m sure I could have gone on and on — there are a lot of epigraphs in DUNE — but at the risk of my post falling victim to the Arrakeen Attitude of the Knife, I’m going to say that this post is over (and so it will be over).
I’ll tag Benedict over at The Oasis Book Blog, and . . . that’s all I got for the tagging portion. I don’t have many friends yet haha. Anyway Maassalama! I hope to see you all next time. What were your thoughts on this tag? Should I create more? How about the books? Let me know everything in the comments!
alligators and aneurysms! 