Round 4 Anathema…Explosion
Okay, evil
dudes – you’re up.
Dune
You saw
the picture of Baron Harkonnen from round 1.
He is great. Harkonnen is the
definition of dangerous. He will kill
members of his own family. He will kill
members of your family if he needs to.
Do not let him near little boys.
Absolutely do not do that. He’s
also enormously gigantically fat so really he’s even a danger to himself
right? He is such a despicable
character, you are just begging for him to struggle with something or fail in
any way, but he is too resilient and insanely smart for his own good. A
feint within a feint within a feint.
When it
comes to evil, Baron Harkonnen and the entire Harkonnen family rate about as
high as they come on the vile-o-meter.
And if you don’t have a vile-o-meter, rating high means you’re about as
gigantic a dick as they come, which in HEP DEATHMATCH terms, means you’re hard
to beat.
This Immortal
This is an
interesting one. Conrad is committed to
keeping Vegans from Earth. So much so
that he is literally dismantling the major historic monuments to convince them
there is nothing worth their while here.
Committed. But they weren’t so
much the immediate threat that the Harkonnen’s were for Paul. They were dangerous, not in terms of possibly
doing violence to Conrad but that they might move to Earth and make humans into
second-class citizens.
The other
threat facing Conrad was even more mysterious. Conrad, though he suffered the Vegan’s
presence that he was escorting, he was committed to keeping him safe on their
tour of Earth. Someone in their group
though was out to kill the Vegan, or maybe even Conrad. He couldn't know but it caused their entire
trip to be the most unsettling journey ever.
When he wasn’t battling mutants or robots he was playing detective and
trying to figure out who was trying to kill him.
I guess
what This Immortal lacked in
single-source antagonism, it made up for in blanket mystery and planet wide
threats. I guess if you can’t get more
evil than Baron Harkonnen, your best bet is to expand your coverage, cast a
wider net?
Round 5 Desert Thunder
This is
kind of a strange category, but you have to admit that both of these books take
place in deserts. I mean, you have to
admit it. And given that fact, we must
now force those two deserts to battle each other until someone’s brains are
splattered on the wall.
Dune
Arrakis is
such a crazy planet. It is both
terrifying and deadly, but also extremely intriguing and inspires fierce
loyalty. The worms, the giant worms are
pretty awesome too. I think though that
what is coolest about Arrakis is actually the adaptations that both the Fremen
and the spice traders have developed.
I’ve mentioned Stillsuits.
Hmm. I guess I thought Dune
would put up more of a fight here but well, I don’t know what else to say. Reading about the desert planet is
captivating and of all the desert planets it is probably the most popular. Maybe the only thing it has going for it is
that it has holds this incredible transformative power. Not only does it physically, mentally and
emotionally change a person when they go out there (if they survive), but it
also holds deep within an opportunity to become a green, wet planet and that is
something people will die for.
Okay, so I
thought Dune was down and out but
had something of a comeback. Was it
enough though?
This Immortal
If you’ve
ever seen The Hills Have Eyes you know exactly what to picture when you
picture earth after The Three Days.
Cobalt bombs have destroyed most everything that isn’t an island and
maimed, disfigured and mutated anything that survived. The result was a landscape so treacherous and
unpredictable that it was hard not to be on the edge of your seat.
Literally
turning the corner from a perfectly safe area, you might find a Satyr or a group
of mutants in a religious cult or maybe a sea-monster. You really don’t know what to expect other
than some kind of grotesque monstrosity.
Actually they weren’t always grotesque.
Conrad’s immortality is reportedly the result of his mutation and his
dog, Bortan, is a kick-ass mutant. But
when you get out into the wild desert areas, the rules just don’t apply.
I really
didn’t think it was possible that This Immortal would come close to Dune in
this respect, but this is actually looking like a tight race for ruler of the
universe’s desert power.
So that about wraps it up. I’m gonna take a day or two to deliberate and
if you have any thoughts, now’s your time to contribute. I’m about the crown the winner for all time.
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