Dune (1965)

It is the masterpiece it is by the sheer volume of concepts introduced at the time in the genre. Even though the book as actually a bit long, the final part of the book feels really rushed as there is so much important happening in just a few pages. On the to next book! ( )

Flat characters, unexplored plot, shitty dialogue. I see where others have improved upon what has started, so i appreciate its influence. But i have no interest in continuing. Esp when ive read about how far off the rails this story goes.
This edition with the appendix was pretty helpful. ( )

This was a book with some interesting concepts and ideas but also with some glaring flaws, which is why I can’t rate it higher than 2 stars. I saw the movie first and completely fell in love with it and that made me pick up the book, which has affected my enjoyment of said book. I will compare the book and the movie in this review because I can’t help myself. This is also a bit of a rant review, so this might not be for everyone.

I very much liked the idea of spice as the universe’s most valuable commodity used for space travel. The worldbuilding is incredibly interesting and I really love the politics and backstabbing that goes on.

The writing style in book 1 didn’t really work for me. I felt everything was very distant which makes me unable to get attached to the characters, which was a huge difference for me between the book and the movie. In the movie I really loved Duke Leto, in the books I didn’t feel like I got to know him at all, and so his death didn’t matter to me. It felt like the author tried to tell me how great he was, but he didn’t manage to show me what an amazing leader and father he was.

One of the reasons why this is, I believe, had to do with how the author choose to write his POV’s. We jumped so many times between the thoughts of all the characters that I never got to really know any of them. In some chapters, we would switch between people’s thoughts in every paragraph instead of sticking to one person, and this didn’t work for me as a reader. Eventually I learned to ignore this issue, but it did affect my overall enjoyment of both the book and the characters. This did get better in books 2 and 3.

One thing that I felt came completely out of the blue was the info dumping that happened when Liet-Kaynes died where he saw his father’s ghost (the fact that they changed this to a woman in the film was not a problem for me at all, both book and film needs more female representation). This brought me out of the story, and it felt like a desperate attempt from the author to give the reader this information. The way this was done, with the ghost (which was probably a hallucination) didn’t fit into the story in my opinion and brought me completely out of the setting and storytelling, and just felt weird.

The main issue I had in book 3 were the time jumps that I couldn’t follow. At some point we’re told that Alia is two years old and then some chapter later she is suddenly a four-year-old. It also felt like they skipped a lot of key moments because of these time jumps. There was also a two year gap between books 2 and 3 which was really disappointing. We never saw Paul and Jessica being included in the Fremen culture and learning their way of life or the developing relationship between Paul and Chania, they were suddenly together and had a son. And again this goes to the authors choice of writing the story by telling me instead of showing me, and that is a storytelling that doesn’t work for me.

Another thing that disappointed me a little was that we’re never explained what a mentat is. On one hand the fact that everyday concepts in this world, like mentats and shields etc. are never explained is good, because the people in the world already know what it is, but it’s also a two-edged sword because the reader doesn’t know what it is or how it works. Herbert introduce these interesting concepts, but never goes into detail about what they are or how they get to be that way, and I would have liked more information about this in some way. This was one of the reasons I wanted to read the book, because the movie never goes in dept either. I wanted more information but didn’t feel like I got it, I still don’t really understand what a mentat is or how they do what they do. The same with the school that Yeuh was trained at. We get some hints about it, but again it’s taken for granted that the doctors that comes out of this school cannot be corrupted, however that works. Maybe these things will be explained in later books.

Moving on to the Bene Gesserit and how they are utilized. The fact that you have these powerful women who are a part of an organization whose reach seems to be limitless, and they’re being used as broodmares to make this prophet be born (so that they can manipulate and use him), and to preserve other bloodlines, seems good in theory but doesn’t work so well in reality. Yes, they have other functions as well and can be very dangerous and crafty when needed. There is an argument to be had that this, having so much control over these bloodlines and noble houses, is a power in itself, which is true but I would still have liked to see much more of them and their capabilities, instead of them being in the background birthing babies.

Another issue I had was how Paul inherited the women of the man he killed in single combat. She had the choice of becoming either his lover/wife or his slave. He also inherited the man’s children. I know the book was written in 1965, but this notion that women are only valuable in relation to their man doesn’t work very well in 2021, and to be honest, I was kind of disappointed in the Fremen culture at this point. We have this warrior culture that can beat the Emperor’s best soldiers and only the men can fight, whereas the women are commodities that are owned by their men or sent away to the southern parts to rear the children.

Unfortunately, this book was a disappointment for me and I’m not sure if I’ll ever pick up another Dune book again. The movie on the other hand worked well for me. The emotion and storytelling there were done so well, they cut away most of the things I didn’t like about the book and I’m very much looking forward to watching Dune Part II and rewatch Part I. ( )

This escaped my 1970s High School Sci-Fi radar. I saw the movie and then read the book and both were great. He created a universe that I am looking forward to reading in the next few books. Heros quest on a desert planet with some good philosophizing wound w in th enarrative. ( )

A little too much fantasy for me. First one is a classic. Second one starts to get a little been-there-done-that. I never bothered with any beyond that. ( )