Ugghh. It has been a whole month since my last entry ... that is pathetic. I just don't recall The Machine Crusade being as tedious as it is. There are so many important things that happen but the story is just not told well. It is almost like it is just delivering important information to understand future events but no weaving of a story ... no really good intricate politics or remarkable insight into the human psyche.
I just finished reading about Norma's remarkable transformation. Norma is one of the most important characters in this multimillenial human saga. I had forgotten that part of her transformation included visions of her maternal ancestors ... precursor to the Bene Gesserit. At least now I have something a little more interesting to pay close attention to. It was obvious in The Butlerian Jihad that the Sorceresses of Rossak were pre-cursors to the Bene Gesserit but Norma's part, throughout the whole story, just needs closer scrutiny.
Another little tidbit was that the home planet of Xerxes, the Titan, was Ix. Xerxes, before the time of the Titans, was son to the king of Rodale IX, said to be a resource rich planet. Xerxes killed his father to take control of the planet during the overthrow orchestrated by the Titans. Then some time later the planet just came to be known as Ix ... not sure when that happened but if it comes up, I'll let you know.
A final note about the Titans is that Tlaloc, the real mastermind of the Titan revolution, was from Tlulax and though he really believed in the greatness of humanity, he was less than enchanted with the Tlulaxu people. At the time of Tlaloc, there must have already been some strange cultural trends on Tlulax. Not sure how it became the weirdly religious and woman-hating society we see later on in the story but more details I know are coming.
So bear with me as I plow through the rest of The Machine Crusade. I will get through it and I am looking forward to The Battle of Corrin!!
