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The Mystery of the Dune Font

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Re: The Mystery of the Dune Font

#41

Post by indymike »

latch wrote: post #8
mathieuh wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read the Frank Herbert Dune books back-to-back several times and love them all, but I've never tried his son's additions to the series because I've read a few people saying they're not worth the time. Do you agree?

I'm not the parent, but I've also read all the original 6 books a great number of times, as well as about 7 or 8 of the B. Herbert/K. Anderson Dune books, and I'd say they aren't worth it. They largely explain things that, as far as I'm concerned, didn't need explaining. As you probably know, they wrote a 2 book conclusion to the series. These 2 books largely tie the Frank Herbert Dune universe with the B. Herbert/K.…

> These 2 books largely tie the Frank Herbert Dune universe with the B. Herbert/K. Anderson Dune universe. And that seemed quite forced to me and, cynically, felt like an attempt to force you to read their Dune prequel trilogy

I really like the Frank Herbert books. They are on my favorites shelf. The sequel/prequel books were just ok, and felt like they were trying to fill in details that were left to the reader by Frank Herbert. By filling in the details, I'm sure the thought was we are completing the story... but that story was already told.

Re: The Mystery of the Dune Font

#42

Post by danparsonson »

Zecc wrote: post #22
Semaphor wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just the four letters D U N E, which are exactly the same shape but rotated 90 degrees. It's an incredibly simple and effective design. For those interested: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/P/B08HPFCMLS.01._SCLZZZZZZ...

See also: Sun Microsystems' logo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sun-Logo.svg

Gosh I've seen that so many times before and yet never really looked at it until now.

Re: The Mystery of the Dune Font

#43

Post by jon-wood »

dmitriid wrote: post #21
dvh wrote: post #3

I have nothing to add to the font aspect but here's fellow HNer's advice how to approach these books: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20859569

My personal take (having read the entire series including the tacked-on ending by the son) is: The first Dune is the result of research and thinking. Great care went into it. Every subsequent book is more and more of "oh, here's a sequel". I can't remember anything after God Emperor which in itself was a slog bordering of abysmally bad. So: - Dune . Yes. It's slow, long, but ultimately very good - Dune Messiah . Mayb…

For me the sequels never hit the same highs as Dune, but they’re still better than most sci-fi novels that have been written, and I love how they gradually lean ever further into just being really weird. God Emperor is probably the pinnacle of that. I don’t remember much of Heretics or Chapterhouse, I should probably go back and re-read them at some point.

Re: The Mystery of the Dune Font

#44

Post by serallak »

derbOac wrote: post #33
enriquto wrote: post #2

None of these covers shows "the" Dune font, for me. The first edition of Dune had a very stylized calligraphy that looked like arabic. I remember it vividly since my dad had this book in the living room, among others; and when I was learning to read, this was the only cover that I couldn't read at all. (It was a translation, but with the same cover.) These letters are shown on the wikipedia page about the novel: http…

Thanks for pointing that out, as I had almost forgotten about that first edition. I was trying to remember where I had heard of Chilton, the publisher of the first edition, and realized it was automotive manuals! The story of that first edition is interesting and somewhat sad, although maybe edifying and not alone in publishing and other forms of narrative arts.

I remember reading that, because the editor was as you said better know for its technical manuals, a friend of Herbert joked that maybe they thought to publish an Ornithopter maintenance guide.

Re: The Mystery of the Dune Font

#45

Post by giantrobot »

dunefox wrote: post #7
mathieuh wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read the Frank Herbert Dune books back-to-back several times and love them all, but I've never tried his son's additions to the series because I've read a few people saying they're not worth the time. Do you agree?

It's just Dune fan fiction...

It's just a model!

Re: The Mystery of the Dune Font

#46

Post by cmrdporcupine »

dmitriid wrote: post #21
dvh wrote: post #3

I have nothing to add to the font aspect but here's fellow HNer's advice how to approach these books: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20859569

My personal take (having read the entire series including the tacked-on ending by the son) is: The first Dune is the result of research and thinking. Great care went into it. Every subsequent book is more and more of "oh, here's a sequel". I can't remember anything after God Emperor which in itself was a slog bordering of abysmally bad. So: - Dune . Yes. It's slow, long, but ultimately very good - Dune Messiah . Mayb…

God Emperor is a slog, but it's IMHO brilliant in its own way. And along with the two books after it, it creates a whole new philosophical universe than the first three, which were a story about Paul. It's best to kind of treat it almost as two different series with God Emperor the bridge.

God Emperor and beyond are far more cerebral and philosophical, expressing some more far more abstract ideas Herbert had about man vs machine, liberty/freedom vs tyranny, etc. etc.

Unfortunately the second series was not completed. Herbert clearly had a direction he was going after Chapterhouse, but he wasn't able to follow through.

Re: The Mystery of the Dune Font

#47

Post by dylan604 »

noisy_boy wrote: post #37
Cockbrand wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I went to my first computer fair as a teenager, I saw the Sun Microsystems booth and was blown away by the fantastic logo. As I had never seen a Unix machine before, I didn’t know what to do with the computers on display, though.

The very first Unix I was exposed to was from Sun; I remember seeing the logo on their servers and thinking that those were the most beautiful computers I had seen (which isn't much because I had hardly seen any servers before that). I still remember that one of those came with a key (forgot whether to turn it on or lock the power button panel?)

Didn't Sun computers run Irix? Is Irix Unix?

Re: The Mystery of the Dune Font

#48

Post by wazoox »

ernesth wrote: post #10
enriquto wrote: post #2

None of these covers shows "the" Dune font, for me. The first edition of Dune had a very stylized calligraphy that looked like arabic. I remember it vividly since my dad had this book in the living room, among others; and when I was learning to read, this was the only cover that I couldn't read at all. (It was a translation, but with the same cover.) These letters are shown on the wikipedia page about the novel: http…

> EDIT: The covers of some modern french translations are also incredible. Just the four letters D U N E, which are exactly the same shape but rotated 90 degrees. It's an incredibly simple and effective design. Indeed, the Robert Laffont 2020 edition looks great: https://www.noosfere.org/livres/EditionsLivre.asp?numitem=13...

Yes the metal cover with forms changing with the light are great, look almost like holograms, extremely SciFi! The static pictures can't make them justice.

Re: The Mystery of the Dune Font

#49

Post by detaro »

dylan604 wrote: post #47
noisy_boy wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The very first Unix I was exposed to was from Sun; I remember seeing the logo on their servers and thinking that those were the most beautiful computers I had seen (which isn't much because I had hardly seen any servers before that). I still remember that one of those came with a key (forgot whether to turn it on or lock the power button panel?)

Didn't Sun computers run Irix? Is Irix Unix?

IRIX was SGI, not Sun (and anyways yes, it's a Unix).
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