Stories by Williams

Religion in Sci-Fi

by storiesbywilliams on September 24, 2012 in Authors, Books, Sci-Fi and tagged 2001: A Space Odyssey, 3001: Final Odyssey, Alastair Reynolds, Aldous Huxley, anakin skywalker, arrakis, Arthur C Clarke, asbolution gap, bene gesserit sisterhood, chasm city, children of dune, darth vader, duncan, Dune, dune messiah, emperor palpatine, f451, farhenheit 451, firstborn, flow my tears the policeman said, foundation, Frank Herbert, fremen, FTL, gene roddenberry, george lucas, god, god emperor of dune, guy montag, h.g. wells, harkonnens, hyperspatial drive, i robot, indoctrination virus, Isaac Asimov, judea-christianity, justice, kaballah, Kefitzat Haderech, kwisatz haderach, leto II, luke skywalker, midichlorians, monoliths, Obi Wan, one state, padishah emperor, Paul Atreides, Philip k dick, picard, PKD, prescience, Qui gonn Jin, Ray Bradbury, redemption ark, revelation space, robert a heinlein, sandworms, sky haussmann, sky's edge, spice, Star Trek, Star Trek TNG, Star Wars, starfleet, stranger in a strange land, the big three, the enterprise, the exegesis of philip k dick, The Force, the jesus incident, the lazarus effect, the shape of things to come, VALIS, VALIS trilogy, war of the worlds, World State, yevgeny zamyatin

Since its inception as a literary genre, religion has played an important role in science fiction. Whether it took the form of informing the author’s own beliefs, or was delivered as part of their particular brand of social commentary, no work of sci-fi has ever been bereft of spirituality.Even self-professed atheists and materialists had something […]

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Technology in the Dune Universe

by storiesbywilliams on June 3, 2012 in Books, Movies, Sci-Fi, Series and tagged arrakis, atomics, axlotl tank, duke leto atreides, Dune, fedaykin, foldspace, foldspace technology, Frank Herbert, fremen, guild heighliners, guild navigators, holtzman engines, holtzman shields, house atreides, house corrin, Ixian, ixian probe, lasgun, leto II, miles teg, no-chamber, no-ship, ornithopter, Paul Atreides, prison planet, sand crawler, sandworms, sardaukar, Sci-Fi, science fiction, selusca secundus, spice, stillsuits, stone burner, technology of dune, the bene gesserit, the bulterian jihad, the fremen, the great convention, the tleilaxu

Hello again techies and social studies experts! I’m sorry, I assume those are the only two kinds of people who would enjoy these posts Regardless, I love doing them, mainly because it gives me a chance to exercise a little critical thinking when it comes to some of the most popular franchises of science fiction. […]

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Worlds of Dune

by storiesbywilliams on April 3, 2012 in Books, Sci-Fi, Series and tagged arrakeen, arrakis, axlotl tank, baron harkonnen, bene gesserit, bene tleilax, caladan, chani, chapterhouse, chapterhouse dune, children of dune, dr yueh, duke leto, duncan idaho, Dune, dune messiah, dune novels, face dancer, feyd rathau, Frank Herbert, fremen, geidi prime, ghola, gholas, god emperor of dune, golden lion throne, gurney halleck, hagal quartz, heretics of dune, honored matres, house atreides, house corrino, house harkonnen, hwi noree, Ix, Ixian, Jessica, kaitain, leto II, malky, miles teg, no-cell, no-field, no-ship, old empire, old imperium, Paul Atreides, planets of dune, sandworms, sardaukar, selusa secundus, shai-hulud, spacing guild, the maker, the spice, The Tyrant Leto II, tleilax, tleilaxu, wallach IX, whalefur

Hello all and welcome back. Starting today, I thought I’d get into a cheerier aspect of science fiction. Not that I don’t looooove dystopian stuff, but after days and days of romping through endless examples of totalitarian, cyberpunk and just generally dark futures, I thought it might be time for a break. And it just […]

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Of Galactic Empires

by storiesbywilliams on March 9, 2012 in Sci-Fi, Series and tagged arrakis, Babylon 5, babylon 5 movies, battletech, Butlerian Jihad, centauri, custodian, dark ages, decline and fall of the roman empire, Dune, earth alliance, edward gibbon, foundation, foundation series, fremen, galactic empire, gene roddenberry, george lucas, hari seldon, history of the decline and fall of the roman empire, house atreides, house corrino, house harkonnen, in the beginning, interstellar alliance, Isaac Asimov, j michael straczynski, kaitan, league of non-aligned worlds, legends of dune series, mech warriors, mimbari, narn regime, narns, old republic, padisha emperor, Paul Atreides, planetkillers, planets, psychohistory, selusa secundus, Star Trek, Star Trek TNG, Star Wars, the borg, the first ones, the shadows, the spice, thinking machines, united federation of planets, vorlons

Hello again, fellow sci-fi fans! Today, I thought I’d write about something conceptual, something that is intrinsic to so much science fiction and keeps popping up in various forms. It’s something that has appeared in countless serials, novels, tv shows, movies, and RPG’s. I am referring, of course, to the concept of the Galactic Empire, […]

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Hunters of Dune, part II

by storiesbywilliams on November 19, 2011 in Books, Reviews and tagged arrakis, axlotl, axlotl tanks, baron harkonnen, baron vladimir harkonnen, bene gesserit, bene tleilax, caladan, chani, chapterhouse, chapterhouse dune, dan, duncan idaho, Dune, dune: house corrino, face dancers, fan fiction, fanfic, fremen, gammu, geidi prime, ghola, gholas, guild, guild navigators, gurney halleck, honored matres, hunters of dune, Ix, Ixian, Jessica, khrone, kwisatz haderach, lady jessica, melange, murbella, oracle of infinity, oracle of time, paul, Paul Atreides, rakis, richesse, sandworms of dune, Sci-Fi, science fiction, scytale, serena butler, sheeana, sisterhood, spacing guild, spice, spice melange, stilgar, thufir hawat, tleilaxu, uxtal, vladimir harkonnen, waff, xavier harkonnen

Okay, now that I’ve managed to sum up the book, let’s get down to why it sucked! In addition to the usual weakness one can expect out of a book by these two – bad characters, bad story, cliches, and a general feeling of exploitation – there were several other glaring points. As usual, I’ve […]

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Hunters of Dune, a review

by storiesbywilliams on November 17, 2011 in Books, Reviews and tagged arrakis, axlotl, axlotl tanks, baron harkonnen, baron vladimir harkonnen, bene gesserit, bene tleilax, caladan, chani, chapterhouse, chapterhouse dune, dan, duncan idaho, Dune, dune: house corrino, face dancers, fan fiction, fanfic, fremen, gammu, geidi prime, ghola, gholas, guild, guild navigators, gurney halleck, honored matres, hunters of dune, Ix, Ixian, Jessica, khrone, kwisatz haderach, lady jessica, melange, murbella, oracle of infinity, oracle of time, paul, Paul Atreides, rakis, richesse, sandworms of dune, Sci-Fi, science fiction, scytale, serena butler, sheeana, sisterhood, spacing guild, spice, spice melange, stilgar, thufir hawat, tleilaxu, uxtal, vladimir harkonnen, waff, xavier harkonnen

Oh boy, it’s finally here! After years of waiting and having to endure those horrible prequels, the long-awaited conclusion is finally here! Yes, that’s what I thought when I first heard the news. After years of making us wait and spend our hard earned money on a sleuth of teaser prequels and filler, Brian Herbert […]

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Legends of Dune Prequels

by storiesbywilliams on November 5, 2011 in Books, Reviews and tagged agamemnon, AI, Brian Herbert, Butlerian Jihad, cymeck, Dune, dune interquels, dune prequels, dune sequels, erasmus, evil the cat, fan fiction, foldspace, foldspace technology, Frank Herbert, fremen, geidi prime, ginaz, ginaz swordmasters, golden duck, guild highliners, holtzman engines, hunters of dune, iblis ginjo, Kevin J Anderson, KJA, legends of dune, machines, mentat, norma cenva, omnius, sandworms of dune, selusa secundus, serena butler, spice, spice harvesting, synchronized worlds, the fremen, the guild, the machine crusade, the spice, thinking machines, tio holtzman, titans, tleilaxu, vorian atreides, xavier harkonnen

Last time around, I made a big deal about prequels and why they aren’t so good. And of course, the Dune prequels were featured pretty prominently in that post. However, what I came to realize shortly after writing it was that I’ve never dedicated a post to the prequel work of Brian Herbert and Kevin […]

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Dune, the miniseries (Part III)

by storiesbywilliams on July 18, 2011 in Movies, Reviews and tagged arrakeen, Atreides, baron harkonnen, bene gesserit, chani, duke leto, Dune, Dune 2000, Dune miniseries, emperor, fedaykin, fenrig, feyd, fremen, guild, gurney, harkonnen, irulan, Jessica, lady jessica, Leto, Muad'Dib, naib, othyem, princess irulan, sandworms, sardaukar, Sci-Fi, science fiction, sietch, spacing guild, water of life, yueh

We come at last to Part III and the final act of the Dune miniseries! Been a long time in coming, and funny thing is, I tried to do all in one post. Now here I am breaking it into four just so I can cover the original movie and the miniseries faithfully. But as […]

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Dune, the movie (and miniseries)!

by storiesbywilliams on July 14, 2011 in Movies, Reviews and tagged 1984, alejandro jodorowsky, arrakis, arthur p jacobs, baron harkonnen, chani, david lynch, david lynchs dune, dean stockwell, dino de laurentis, doctor yueh, duke leto, duke leto atreides, duncan idaho, Dune, Dune 1984, Dune miniseries, feyd rathau, francesca annis, Frank Herbert, frank herberts dune, fremen, geidi prime, gurney halleck, house atreides, house corrino, house harkonnen, jurgen prochnow, kaitain, kyle maclachlan, lady jessica, max von sydow, Muad'Dib, patrick stewart, Paul Atreides, princess irulan, reverend mother, richard jordan, sandworm, Sean Young, spice, sting, thufir hawat, weirding modules, weirding way

Wow… when I first started doing these movie reviews, last week, I knew that at some point I’d have to cover the book-turned-movie that inspired me to write! And truth be told, I actually saw this movie before reading the book. Yes, Dune was just like Lord of the Rings for me, a film that […]

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Of Dune and its Descendents

by storiesbywilliams on March 28, 2011 in Books, Reviews and tagged Arakis, Atreides, baron, bene gesserit, classic sci-fi, duke, Dune, dune sextet, dune trilogy, Frank Herbert, fremen, harkonnens, Jessica, Leto, Paul Atreides, Philip k dick, sardaukar, Sci-Fi, science fiction, spice

I could never create a blog about science fiction without mentioning the man who is by most standards the greatest sci-fi author of all time. Frank Herbert, author of the Dune sextet, was not only a master at creating detailed universes and realistic characters, he was also the man who literally wrote the book on […]

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