Book Pyre

I have always been fascinated with WWII military history, and no research into that would be complete without a lot of attention on one of the most interesting Generals in US history: General George S. Patton. No research into Patton is complete without this book. In it are a selection of the General’s letters to his wife Bea, and some other selected writings on military matters. It provides an interesting insight into the man behind the legend (and not altogether accurate movie portrayal that most people are familiar with).

A word of warning though, this is not a flowing narrative of WWII, it is a series of letters often devoid of context. Patton knew his wife was following the war in the media along with the rest of the world and often wrote her to supplement what she already knew about recent events with his perspective. I would not read this book until you read a few other Patton biographies or at least a good comprehensive WWII history book to get a sense of what is going on outside of the letters.

We finally stop jumping a few thousand years between every book and pick up exactly where we left off in Heretics of Dune. A showdown is looming between the Bene Gesserit and Honored Matres, Duncan and Murbella’s relationship develops, and Miles Teg makes a comeback as a Ghola.

All in all, not a bad wrap up for the series. It does leave a bit open though.

Several thousand years after the events in God Emperor of Dune, the golden path is quietly running it’s course. Humanity exploded into the universe during the “scattering”, dependents of Siona carry the genetic mutation making them immune to prescience, and the old power bases (bene gesserit, tleilaxu, and the Ixians) are re-emerging. However there is trouble as many of those who went into the “scattering” are returning, either coming to conquer the “old empire” or perhaps fleeing from something horrible.

Once again we see Idaho resurrected (he is in every dune book, get used to him) only this time he becomes a major player. A showdown is looming between the Bene Gesserit and the Honored Matres (warped dependents of the Bene Gesserit who fled into the scattering thousands of years ago) and Idaho might just hold the key to defeating them.

Thousands of years after Children of Dune, Leto II’s “golden path” is coming to a close. Although nearly invulnerable, long lived, and unquestionably the ruler of the universe, his existence is a tortured one. Isolated for humanity and protecting all from a fate they know nothing about has drained him and leaves him open to a plot from his enemies.

This story becomes much more philosophical than the previous two. Dune was a great mix of philosophy, action, politics, and plots, while Messiah & Children were a little light on the philosophy in favor of action, this one swings far in the other direction. Not to say it is not good, it is very good and makes you think, just don’t expect a fast paced thriller.

With Paul seemingly dead, it is up to his now teenage children to continue his legacy. Their aunt Alia is showing signs of possession and their grandmother Jessica is ending her self imposed exile from Dune to visit them. With everyone having their own plans for the twins, the two prescient offspring of Paul (armed with all of his knowledge and abilities) put into effect their own plans:

The Golden Path, the salvation of the human race and the single most disruptive event in the course of the Dune Universe.

The further adventures of Paul Muad’Dib. Overthrowing the galactic government and setting up a religion based monarchy was the easy part. Now that he is in power, Paul fights to maintain a stable universe in the face of multiple conspiracies against him. With his wife pregnant, and cracks forming in his once loyal Fremen, all of his plans become very complicated.

I love the Dune series, but what I love most of all is this one. This book not only gets it all started, it is clearly the best of the series. Mixing science fiction, politics, religious topics, and…well….giant sand worms, this books juggles a massive array of characters who all pretty much end up well developed and interesting. Not as philosophical as some of the later books, there is a pretty good balance of action, explanation, character development, and back-story development.

Word of warning, once you read this book you will likely want to read the others to find out what happens next (or leading up to it, as the case may be). There are well over 10 books now, and I believe two more on the way, so if you are compulsive about this sort of thing, consider the financial and time investment.

I don’t care how weird this book seems to be on the surface, it is one of the funniest I have ever read. James takes pictures and descriptions from recipe books of yesteryear (defined as any time before I was born) and just makes fun of them. Sometimes the excerpts are funny enough by themselves and require no commentary. Consider this MST3K for food, an idea who’s time has come.

Covering Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, AIX (woohoo) and HP-UX, this is a handy little pocket reference for most normal system administration tasks. Almost like a book full of manpages for each OS, this is something I tend to never be too far away from.

Second to the last book. This one is by far the most intense, eye opening, and interesting book of them all. The rest of the world is now aware that Lord V has returned, and Harry has several times stopped his efforts to wreck havoc, but he is still not believed by the adults trying to run the show. Gone is the brooding, depressed Harry from the last book, now he is pissed, frustrated with bumbling wizards in positions of authority, and for the first time seriously taking control of his destiny. Dumbledore reveals to him what has been happening all along (it was not what anyone thought) and gives him direction and a plan for the final battle. The next book will be the last one, and it is going to have to be pretty impressive to tie up the mess everyone finds themselves in at the end of this one.