I'm generally not a big fan of science fiction, and I first heard of Dune through the excellent game Dune 2000. The real advantage that game had over the Command & Conquer series was a proper story, not something cooked up in 20 minutes.

Dune is the novel by Frank Herbert, from 1965. It is known as one of the finest works of science fiction, and the first novel spawned a whole series, upon which movies and tv-series were based, and several computer games. And while the book is now quite old, it doesn't seem outdated.

I find the story very compelling, it is "my" kind of science fiction. That is a fictitious world, yes, but with a significant element of realistic technology. In a word, it makes sense. It is internally coherent, there are no strange, unexplained loose ends. The world of Dune is very complicated, the mark of a good sci fi story. There are lots of angles and aspects to this world. Although the account is driven by one thread, by one set of people, there are lots of entities with different motives and interests, so the interplay between them is interesting.

It is a futuristic inter-plantery world. There are several noble Houses, which are feudal societies. Each has a leader, a blood line, and its own home planet. The two protagonist Houses in Dune are House Atreides and House Harkonnen. The Houses are in a sense united (but fierce rivals) under the imperial House Corrino, ruled by the Emperor of the Known Universe. The Emperor is supposed to be the neutral moderator/arbitrator between the Houses, but he has his own motives. Every house has its own army, where the Emperor's elite army are the Sardaukar, the finest in the universe. The Spacing Guild is an independent entity, which has the monopoly on space travel. Then there is the secret female order of the Bene Gesserit, with members all through the different Houses and their motives are completely different from everyone else's. Their ultimate goal is careful inbreeding between the Houses, so as to produce the perfect genes to create their perfect being, the Kwisatz Haderach. The Bene Gesserit allow themselves to be exploited by the various Houses for their abilities of premonition, while pursuing their own goals. All of the Houses (and the Guild) depend upon the precious commodity, the spice melange (the monetary unit in Dune). This is found only on the wild planet of Arrakis. Arrakis is a desert planet, plagued by a complete lack of rain, by giant sand worms marauding the desert and incredible sandstorms. Most of the planet is uninhabitable. The Houses take turns in controlling this planet. Arrakis has a native population - the Fremen, a desert peoples who are born in this climate and brave the elements to the point where they are part of the desert. They also consume the spice and depend on it to live. Finally, the strong leaders often have mentats, a human trained to think like a machine, fed as much data as possible and performs computations to reach conclusions. Mentats, like a machine, cannot lie, but has a full set of human emotions (so while they cannot conceal a fact if asked about it, they can still be scheming and devious).

All of these people are humans, just with different cultures and gene histories. All of these groups generally have a hierarchy of power, so there is often struggle between the layers in this hierarchy, and of course struggle between the different groups. The Houses are bound by the Great Convention, whose breach is a very serious transgression, and always covert. There is much political ambition, diplomacy, deception, treachery, bribery. The key characters are very intelligent, and there is a fine play between what is happening and what is being said. So the politics are very complex, and that makes it interesting.

The most interesting single character is perhaps the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. This leader is more or less the symbol of evil, and most of the plot unfolds through his actions, direct or indirect. Highly astute and educated politically, a brilliant schemer.

But what is probably the most interesting aspect of Dune, is the mental/physical powers of these people. Most of the people are just humans as we know them, but those trained in the school of the Bene Gesserit (and certain children of nobility) have powers of awareness and senses developed far beyond what we know. Their awareness of their own body is very extensive, they can examine themselves for disease and injury, control their muscles with incredible precision, "hibernate" under extreme conditions into a mode where only the core functions of the body operate (by controlling the breathing and heart rates), they have techniques to handle any emotional situation (like death of kin) and push it away to retain full control over their mind, methods of relaxation under extreme stress and so on. They also have wide ranging outward abilities, like being able to read a person's emotional state through the tones of their voice (for instance to determine whether he's lying), to twist their voice so as to induce an emotional state upon a person, to decipher a new language based on a short conversation. Venturing into the more fantastic, the Bene Gesserit have the ability to be in more than one consciousness at the same time, to convey their awareness to another Bene Gesserit (basically a transfer of all knowledge and memories from one person to another), to foresee the future in certain limited ways.

Another fascinating idea in Dune is the Missionaria Protectiva, a bit of "religious engineering" on part of the Bene Gesserit. On Arrakis, they spread myths and legends about the future, about a leader who is to come and realize certain prophecies. This religion is later realized by that leader, who is able to exploit the religion to become leader of the tribe and lead to whatever political goals he has, without any kind of dissent among the population.

I mentioned technology, and there are some ingenious technological concepts in Dune. The Fremen, the desert people, have a very powerful culture of preserving water (obviously in the desert water is precious). To this end, they carry stillsuits, a body suit which covers the whole body, collects all the moisture radiating from the body and recycles it. So essentially, a Fremen loses no water at all, and drinks the recycled water through a tube (which is a pretty good justification by the author for creating a peoples who live in the desert, something we consider impossible). Other technologies in Dune include laser guns, electro magnetic shields, spice harvesters (which harvest the spice in the desert), atomics (nuclear-like weapons), various kinds of air transport, but also domestic items. Close combat, however, is chiefly with the use of blades.

In such a magnificent world, the story is really quite secondary. Even a poor plot (which it isn't) would make an interesting story. The story is told through fragments of days or weeks of time. Fragments which tell of much more than just what is told in its space. From chapter to chapter, we join different groups of characters in what they are currently doing, which describes not only the present situation local to them, but also the world at large (the relevant world at least) and prospects of the future. So although the total amount of real time covered isn't great, through it the story conveys much greater bits of time. This has the elegant feature of always being in the present, but without having to give background or comments.

I haven't been doing much reading lately, it's been forgotten and neglected. But I'm hoping to revive it, so here's a list of books since last time.

Stephen Hawking :: A brief history of time

I had a habit of buying books as gifts, especially for Christmas. I bought this one as a gift without having read it, simply because it looked good to me. As it turned out, I was given the warmest recommendation to read it myself, after it had been most well received.

Hawking does only one thing in this book. He explains the "history" of the universe. As we have believed it to be from ancient times right up to the present. Along the way, he tackles all these theories in a simple and understandable manner, perfectly suited for the layman.

Lawrence Lessig :: Free Culture (online)

It may seem puzzling that anyone would pick up a book that deals chiefly in law, the history of copyright law, the different events that shaped the law and so on. But Lessig's book is a valuable text for the sake of understanding what copyright law is all about and what fairness in copyright means.

It is in many ways a sickening account of the monopoly of the rich, as with so many things. Historically, and presently, copyright owners (that is publishers, not writers) have strived to monopolize the rights for works they own and to keep this right forever. This applies not just to books, but to all other forms of creative content. It is amazing how authors don't own their own books, musicians don't own their own recordings and cartoonists don't own their own cartoons. It's a bit of a paradox that copyright, which is supposed to protect creators, actually only protects big companies which own these rights for profit.

Lessig's point is that culture is becoming increasingly restricted. While it was possible for Walt Disney to base his cartoons on existing cartoons, it wouldn't have been possible today. These restrictions stifle creativity and go against our society's traditions for culture. This discussion is in many ways an equivalent of what free software is to software.

The book is all the more interesting, as Lessig talks about the case heard before the Supreme Court in 2002, that he argued about Congress's power to extend copyright on existing works indefinitely (which in his view is unconstitutional). Lessig describes the case in some detail and offers analysis on why the case was lost.

George Bernard Shaw :: Pygmalion (online)

An old [comedic?] play describing how a Cockney girl is transformed into a lady by a professor of phonetics who teaches her to speak correctly. The story is not exactly profound and as most plays are, highly predictable.

H. G. Wells :: The Invisible Man (online)

An early science fiction story of a man who discovers the secret of invisibility. I stumbled upon it by chance, and quite liked the build-up in the story. Incidentally this is the same author who wrote the mother of all alien invasion stories - The War of the Worlds.

Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels :: The Communist Manifesto (online)

The manifesto is quite interesting to read, although there are things that are difficult to understand (remembering that it was conceived in 1848, in those circumstances and realities). It gives strong references to historical movements and revolutions, and cites communism as a natural follower of those. It also deeply criticizes the entire social and political system, and explains how communism provides a natural and effective solution to cure the ailments of the society at large, not just the interests of the working class.

One of history's juiciest ironies. Here's a school of thought which criticized the position of the working man in present society, as an individual of no rights, no power and no influence, subjected to terrible working and living conditions for the unending pursuit of profit for his superior, and which strived to improve upon this and reinstate the worker as a individual with rights and personal values. Then, in practice, it is given as a pretext for a revolution, a shift of power, a popular uprising. This new found power, in turn, is used to oppress the common man to the same set of living conditions, lack of influence and spiced up with some additional ideological values to constrict freedom of expression. I'm tempted to say that noble values are the most dangerous weapon for any intellectual to possess, by which to dupe the gullible masses, only to exploit them instead.

Franz Kafka :: The Metamorphosis (wikipedia)

Under its original title called Die Verwandlung (ie. The transformation), which makes me think the English title is appropriate, but somewhat exaggerated as to the original one. It's a one-of-a-kind sort of story. A seemingly normal man wakes up one morning having been transformed into some kind of animal or insect. He has the consciousness of a human, but to outward appearances he is anything but. At a first glance, this sounds like a trivial children's tale, but what makes it interesting is the thoughts that go through his head. I'm sure few people are thinking "if I woke up one day as an animal, what would I be thinking?", but the story answers these sorts of questions. Kafka describes everything that happens in great detail, every thought, every physical movement, every noise. Gradually, his mind begins to transition into a state where he becomes more consistent with the animal than the human. What is most puzzling about this story is how his family treats him. It begs the question - why do they think this bug is their son to begin with?

While it escapes me just how this story is so incredibly important, it has an exhaustive list of derived works and references from other works, so it's "one to know".

Colin White & Laurie Boucke :: The UnDutchables

For all intents and purposes, an 'introduction' to the Netherlands. It is written as a comedic description of the many odd habits and customs in this country, and it's quite informative. Of course, it's easier to inform than to make you laugh and the comedy falls a little short here. It's the book you want to read if you plan to be here for a few months.

Ben Long :: Complete Digital Photography (online resource)

If you need a reference to digital photography, this is a very good choice. Unlike some books, it gives a very complete treatment of the subject, beginning with the optical theory behind a digital camera (some books treat this very superficially), through explaining what kind of camera to choose and why, through all stages of photography, and concluding with a lot of photo manipulation techniques on pictures already taken. So if you feel deficient in any or all of those aspects, you're getting a great run down. The author does not base the instruction on any particular kind of equipment or software, so you can follow along with whatever you have.

Fyodor Dostoevsky :: Crime and punishment (wikipedia)

Truly one of the best books I've ever read. The psychological drama of Raskolnikov is described with such pin point precision and realism, that it deeply grips you. It's been quite a while since I read it, so I don't remember very much of it anymore, but it's more than a story, it's an experience really. The story is such an accurate crafted account that you don't feel like you're missing anything at all, everything you want is contained. Some books keep you wondering about what happened after the story or about some detail that wasn't explained properly, but not here, it's all there.

Of course, the central theme, to commit a crime and accept punishment for it, is a very simple idea, but explored in all its intricacies. Aside from the setting, the characters who interact with Raskolnikov, the city, the atmosphere and everything external to his tragedy, what really is of great value is everything he goes through. Those auxiliary elements are necessary, but in a sense, irrelevant. As such, the narration drifts away from Raskolnikov's plight at times, which is where it loses its appeal. But all in all, a very well done story indeed.

I saw a site a while back that was about organizing a community effort to record books on tape, and thus offer a library of audio books for all, free of charge. The other day I was looking for it and I couldn't remember what it was called, so here's a sticky note for your monitor. The site is LibriVox (ie. "free speech") and is an effort to record texts in the public domain, taken for instance from Project Gutenberg.

Now you may be wondering why anyone would listen to recordings of text instead of just, you know, reading it. Well, lately I'm satisfied that I have a sufficient amount of reading to do for school and so I don't feel an urge to do more reading on the side. So this way I get the same benefit of the text, just without the arduous task of turning pages ;) Of course, other consideration enter into this, you don't have to sit up to read, you can even 'read' in the dark, falling asleep (which I'm testing as a new cure for insomnia). Equally, reading on the road is entirely possible, both walking and biking (which again I intend to test in the near future). It's a nice change from listening to music on the mp3 player, which tends to get dull after a certain period of time.

Finally, audio books are easy to come by if you can get them online. Dead trees have to be loaned, ordered or purchased first.

Once before I did a listing of books I recently read, here's the sequel. Decided it would be more interesting to include short descriptions this time. Oddly enough, I seem to have read all of these but the first this year, a rather prolific year compared to past years.

Al Franken :: Lies and the lying liars who tell them
Al Franken is a comedian, right? He's not funny, that much is clear. The book gives a tireless account of what is according to Franken a long list of lies and misrepresentations in the media courtesy of the right. But unless one is incredibly interested in the people he talks about, it's fairly dull material. I also don't think much of Franken's self rigteousness, which I find in bad taste. His supposedly humorous exaggerations are far too obvious to be funny. That's not to say the man doesn't know what he's talking about, just not my cup of tea..

Jon Stewart :: America, a citizen's guide to democracy inaction

In familiar style to the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, this piece includes contributions from some of his tv cast members. It takes a humorous look at American history from day zero up until today, starting with how America invented democracy to a complete breakdown of the fine institutions then conceived, still in function. Get the back story on the presidential office, on the Senate, on the Supreme Court. Quite entertaining, also gives detailed instructions on how to become president.

Noam Chomsky :: Hegemony or survival (review)

A thorough account of American foreign policy since the 2nd World War, describing US ambitions for dominating the world by controlling strategic areas like the Middle East. In style, rather academic and "dry", certainly not a book for amusement. Should definitely provide several interesting revelations about recent events on the world political stage.

Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution (online version)

Deals with a broad set of subjects within open source history and practice, lots of interesting case studies. Features a range of authoritarian authors like Linux Torvalds, Bruce Perens, RMS, Eric Raymond and Larry Wall. Each chapter is completely autonomous, so they have no correlation and can be read selectively.

H. H. Dalai Lama & Howard C. Cutler :: The Art of Happiness

As one would expect, a spiritually enlightening book. Written by a psychiatrist studying the mental paradigms of Buddhist practices as applied to everyday life. I find the focus to be decidedly on basic human qualities and the significance they carry throughout life. Concepts of compassion, warmth and suffering are central. Gives a gentle introduction into practices centered around the individual and what can be done to achieve happiness.

Salam Pax :: Baghdad blog (online version)
The famous blogger from Baghdad. This is a rather interesting back
story on the events presented in the media. Salam tells the world about
his life in Baghdad during the buildup to the war, as well as during
the war. The story told is a captivating one, in stark contrast to what
the western media was selling at the time. Even daily events like
shopping, going to work, driving etc are set in a new light in a
country ravaged by war.

EDIT: the one that got away, added to the list

Albert Camus :: The plague

High school flashback but despite years having passed I seemingly have not made much headway in terms of maturity. Found the book reasonably dull from start to finish, very much lacked some kind of climax in my unrefined view.

Umberto Eco :: The island of the day before

Could not get past page 70, incredibly slow start to the story, bored me to death.

Michael Moore :: Dude where's my country?

Reasonably interesting but always true to Moore's sensationalist style. An interesting take on US domestic and foreign policy but hard to discount the fact that this book really sells by being controversial. Humorous on occasion, but Moore's self righteousness shines through.

Books I've read the past few years..

John Levine/Margaret Young - Unix for dummies

Frederick Forsyth - The dogs of war

Frederick Forsyth - The day of the Jackal

John Grisham - The Chamber

John Grisham - The Rainmaker

Toni Morrison - Beloved

Umberto Eco - The name of the rose

Umberto Eco - Foucalt's Pendulum