Hello Everyone

[Shai Hulud]

I like when people participate in their own threads. I imagine the criticism about Christian boards applies more to fundagelical boards than to Catholics.

The name hasn't much significance. The first board I was on was the Hero Games Discussion Board, and I thought Doctor Agenda sounded super-villain-ish. I modified it a little for this board (I don't actually have a doctorate) and mainly kept it because I can be a little naïve and forget that sometimes people have hidden agendas, my handle reminds me of that when I think of it.

There's something to the 'atheist agenda' though in that there's a combination of things most atheists in America at least tacitly support: separation of government and religion, equal treatment of atheists in the eyes of the law; and education, science, and reasonable skepticism. Of course you don't have to be an atheist to support all those things and some atheists don't support all, or even any, of them.

Thanks, it seems polite, one would think to do so.  And while I hope you're right on the criticism of Christian boards, I had to read a reminder that Catholic ones aren't immune, right before reading your post.  In a thread about My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, someone got accused of blasphemy for asking what Jesus would look like as a pony, and someone else said if we extend that to the whole Mass as well, it would be iconoclasm.     Confession:  I have a horrible time figuring out where the line is on blasphemy.

That's a nice origin story on your screen name, very nice thing to remember with people having agendas, heh.  Though supervillains do have all the fun stuff.  Even if they tend to not be the best.  On the atheist agenda, fair points.  Also well put that one doesn't have to be an atheist to support all those things, and some don't support all/some of them.  There are a number of churches that wouldn't touch my filthy Papist money, but FFRF seems to have no issue with it.

[Thumpalumpacus]

[...]we find out in the post Frank Herbert books[...]

This is where the heresy begins. There are no post-Frank-Herbert Dune books.

[The Valkyrie]

[...]we find out in the post Frank Herbert books[...]

This is where the heresy begins. There are no post-Frank-Herbert Dune books.

I've only read Dune.

Tried one of the others but found it very hard to get into.

[Shai Hulud]

[...]we find out in the post Frank Herbert books[...]

This is where the heresy begins. There are no post-Frank-Herbert Dune books.

You just made me so happy. Two words on the books that may not exist "Ultra. Spice."

This is where the heresy begins. There are no post-Frank-Herbert Dune books.

I've only read Dune.

Tried one of the others but found it very hard to get into.

Not everyone likes them, but to each their own! (Though almost no one likes God Emperor of Dune, it's like Frank was reading a lot of 70s or 80s pop psychology or something while he wrote it.)

[brewer]

I think I stopped at Chapterhouse. Can you/anyone here give a quick review of Brian and Kevin's work?

[Shai Hulud]

I think I stopped at Chapterhouse. Can you/anyone here give a quick review of Brian and Kevin's work?

You stopped when it was good.  Tleilaxu are almost wiped out and the last Master joins with the merged BG/Honored Matres of the New Sisterhood to make lots of clones/gholas ranging from Muad'dib, his mom, Chani, etc. and put them all on one No Ship. Also the Face Dancers have gone rogue (seemingly, they were actually subverted by the Machines) and are trying to take over humanity. Then the Machines come back; we failed to wipe them all out during the Butlerian Jihad.  The Guild manages to genetically engineer new superior sandworms that can create "Ultra Spice" which is a far more potent form of Spice.  Leto II's ghola merges with all the universe's sandworms into a new giant super sandworm.  Duncan Idaho ghola is revealed to be the True Kwisatz Haderach; having evolved and perfected himself through thousands of years of ghola rebirth and altered DNA.  The Machines second in command flips a mental switch and kills every Face Dancer in the universe with a built in kill command, then merges with Duncan to create a new synthesized hybrid between man and machine and bring peace to the warring universe. (If none of that made sense...it really didn't very much in the books either.)

I've not read anything after Sandworms of Dune finished the chronology of the main series though, so if anyone else can shed light on that, it would be nice.

[Fireball]

I think I stopped at Chapterhouse. Can you/anyone here give a quick review of Brian and Kevin's work?

You stopped when it was good.  Tleilaxu are almost wiped out and the last Master joins with the merged BG/Honored Matres of the New Sisterhood to make lots of clones/gholas ranging from Muad'dib, his mom, Chani, etc. and put them all on one No Ship. Also the Face Dancers have gone rogue (seemingly, they were actually subverted by the Machines) and are trying to take over humanity. Then the Machines come back; we failed to wipe them all out during the Butlerian Jihad.  The Guild manages to genetically engineer new superior sandworms that can create "Ultra Spice" which is a far more potent form of Spice.  Leto II's ghola merges with all the universe's sandworms into a new giant super sandworm.  Duncan Idaho ghola is revealed to be the True Kwisatz Haderach; having evolved and perfected himself through thousands of years of ghola rebirth and altered DNA.  The Machines second in command flips a mental switch and kills every Face Dancer in the universe with a built in kill command, then merges with Duncan to create a new synthesized hybrid between man and machine and bring peace to the warring universe.   (If none of that made sense...it really didn't very much in the books either.)

I've not read anything after Sandworms of Dune finished the chronology of the main series though, so if anyone else can shed light on that, it would be nice.

I browsed a couple of the knock offs after Frank Herbert died. Looked like an effort to trade on dad's name for a buck. I haven't sat and read any of them.

[Thumpalumpacus]

This is where the heresy begins. There are no post-Frank-Herbert Dune books.

I've only read Dune.

Tried one of the others but found it very hard to get into.

For my money, the story ended with GEoD. The first and third were my favorites. Paul as the Preacher in Children of Dune really struck me, how he mustered force of personality and words to convey his message.

I found a lot of thinking to be had in those first four books: how religions are constructed, how people move to primal urges, how people have different levels to them that aren't necessarily plain to the untrained eye.

[Shai Hulud]

I browsed a couple of the knock offs after Frank Herbert died. Looked like an effort to trade on dad's name for a buck. I haven't sat and read any of them.

Agreed from the ones I did read to make it through the main chronology. But then again, personally, I loathe Kevin J. Anderson's writing style.

I've only read Dune.

Tried one of the others but found it very hard to get into.

For my money, the story ended with GEoD. The first and third were my favorites. Paul as the Preacher in Children of Dune really struck me, how he mustered force of personality and words to convey his message.

I found a lot of thinking to be had in those first four books: how religions are constructed, how people move to primal urges, how people have different levels to them that aren't necessarily plain to the untrained eye.

Good points. And agreed with them. As well as the allusion to our oil addiction in the form of Spice and CHOAM as OPEC.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Yup -- he certainly got the concept of economic bottlenecks ... and the struggle for them.