Midday is upon me, and I am glad to say the my progress has been really satisfactory.
There are 199 pages left on Dune: The Battle of Corrin, and from the look of it there’s a pretty good chance I’ll get thru them sometime after midnight.
To make this day-long reading session much more enjoyable I am thrilled to welcome my two good friends, pizza and red wine.
On a side note, my current total for the week now sits at 760 pages, still shooting for 1,000, but will see.
With little under an hour left on the day I am glad to say that the halfway point of Dune : The Battle of Corrin, currently on page 323 of 620, my goal is to leave around 250 for tomorrow’s reading.
For the total pages of the week I’m really close to 700, so shooting for over 1,000 isn’t that complicated, maybe even 1,250, but I must not get ahead of myself, first thing first, keep the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge on schedule, and then reduce the accumulated pages a little each week.
Let’s see how the Monday report fairs, and then scheme some new crazy challenge to get back on track, like, I don’t know, read 100 hours each month, just an idea, not like I have been thinking about it.
Although a bit late, last night, I finished the tenth book of this year of reading.
The second volume of the trilogy Legends of Dune, The Machine Crusade, focuses on the Infinite battlegrounds of the conflict between the League of Nobles and Omnius, the evermind, and his thinking machines
The Butlerian Jihad, as it has become known for , the now figurehead of the human side of the conflict, the uprising of Serena Butler against her Machine captors
The books depicts, intensively by the way , about 36 year of the conflict, stretching thru various parts of the now famous universe created by Mr. Herbert. I am particularly interested on the creation of the Navigators Guild, there are hint of the past history of this universe and what made this story so compelling, to see its genesis is simply amazing.
One of the great things, and without spoiling anything, although the books have been in print for almost 20 years, anyway, is that the authors do not shy away from high stakes, in which, this characters you become to love, have to face hard and possibly life threatening situations.
To continue with my journey the next tale is the short story The Faces of a Martyr, contained in the book The Road to Dune, and the final chapter of the Trilogy, The Battle of Corrin.
And to get back on track with my challenge of 52 books in 52 weeks, I only have 5 days to finish it.
As part of getting this week’s reading back on track, I just finished the ninth book of the year, Dune: The Butlerian Jihad.
The events depicted in this book happened 10,000 years before the original series by Frank Herbert, there’s an conflict between the sentient machines and the league of human planets.
Some of the coolest things in the story is the introduction of the League of the Nobles, the first glimpse into the famous houses we see later in the story,not to spoil anything, but the shock of seeing the origin of House Atreides still is roaming in my mind.
Also, the first hints of the use of Spice, with just a bit of the nomadic people of Arrakis, riding sandworms and all.
And lastly, the thinking machines from the ubiquitous Omnius, to the brutal Erasmus, and the war hungry Titans, knowed as cymeks which are humans minds transplanted to robotic bodies, the panoply of characters are the perfect menacing force.
To continue with this amazing series, written by the son of the late Frank Herbert, Brian, and Kevin J. Anderson, the author of the Saga of the Seven Suns, I’ll read thr next short story in the timeline, The Whipping Mek, published in the companion book The Road to Dune.
And then the next of the trilogy, Dune: The Machine Crusade.
And to make this weekend more interesting, and get back on track with my reading schedule, my task is to read at least 354 pages each day, this morning started with a good pace, 44 pages, let’s keep it up.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
Lithany against fear, Dune by Frank Herbert
I read the original novel around 2006, and although I loved it, as well all of its incarnations in the silver screen, the time was not right for me to jump into what us considered the Science Fiction counterpart of Lord of the Rings.
Well that time has arrived, and I have the full intention of going thru every single piece of story I can get my hands on .
For this particular endeavor my decision was to go chronologically, and with the help of a very handy list provided by the official website of the series, dune novels.
As you can see in the picture above, my journey starts some 10,000 years before the original novel with the short story Hunting Harkonnens, in my case is contained in The Road to Dune, and the novel Butlerian Jihad, both written by the dynamic duo of Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.
Lost In A Million Pages 