The Sweet Spot

I'm at Wiscon for my first time. They do things differently here in Madison, one of which is scheduled meal breaks. That's nice, but since I had a big and late breakfast and a snack of Tiptree bakesale goodness, I decided to get a hit of the Internet. ("Hi. My name is Chris and I'm an Internet-oholic.")

So far I've seen shsilver, Toby Buckell and Mary Robinette Kowal, the later for the first time in person. (She's as charming as her blog suggests.)

In other news, I read from SF Signal that Brian Herbert is putting out yet another slew of books in the Dune universe. Oh joy.

Now, I think the original book Dune was a masterpiece. Dune Messiah and Children of Dune were lesser books, but only by comparison to Dune. The farther one gets away from the "Dune Trilogy," the less interesting the story gets. I think that holds true whether Frank or his son Brian is at the helm (although Brian is definitely the lesser writer).

There's a sweet spot in any story where, just like the sweet spot on a golf club or baseball bat, the response is magnified and everything happens like it should. In fact, I submit that there's a sweet spot to life and history as well. For example - why is God Emperor of Dune not as entertaining as Dune? Well, in the story as in life, the "new" of Clan Atreides has worn off. Now, instead of making radical changes, the story is "keep on keeping on." It's intrinsically less interesting.

This doesn't mean that there is no merit to some extensions of the universe. The Prequel to Dune trilogy (House Atreides, etc.) was interesting. But now Herbert's gone so far afield of the meat of the story that it's ridiculous. But that's just my opinion - I could be wrong ;-)