Dune

The book confirms it's not a type of narrative point of view book for me. The writing was dragging and over-explained. BUT I will watch the film which I'm excited about.

I was dreading starting on this despite having bought the book a while back, but it was a more engaging read than I thought it would be. It's probably well known by now but I'll reiterate that this book is really complex and demands a re-read if you really want to do a deep dive into its themes and messages, but it's probably easier if you do a superficial read-through of the book (and probably the whole series) first to get a hang of the overarching plot. Nevertheless, I was not disappointed and I like the direction that this book is setting up for the rest of the series.

The long and short of the story is pretty simple. Paul Atreides is heir to House Atreides, one of the Great Houses that governs whole planets in the name of the Imperium. They are transferred from the water planet Caladan to the desert planet Arrakis, which, though nigh uninhabitable, is still a gem to the Imperium because it is the only source of melange-spice, a coveted resource that is harvested and exported for a ton of money all throughout the Imperium. However, Arrakis was previously governed by House Harkonnen, sworn enemies to the Atreides, and it's unlikely that they'd give up an actual goldmine that easily.

There is really good, nuanced, layered, and complex storytelling here. There's a ton of philosophy to be unearthed, a lot of plots within plots (that's sometimes too veiled for me to even understand), and you can really just go on deciphering this book forever. I appreciate that kind of depth in any book. When you first start the book, it immediately plunges you into the world without any “tutorial” scene, which I actually appreciate. I enjoy that level of immersion in a new world, and Herbert did a great job in writing it such that the reader is just immersed enough without being too overwhelmed. Though there was a list of terminology at the back of the book, I didn't want to refer to it at all and just let the story explain the terms to me, and I thought it did this marvelously. I was super engaged by the book in the first third, but it started dragging for me after that, ramping up again in the last maybe 20%, and only dialing it up to 11 in the last two chapters, whew.

For characters, I was generally quite bored with Paul who seems to be a pretty obvious hero/saviour type, although I'll grant that nothing in this book is really that black and white, and thus Paul doesn't quite tick off all the checkboxes for that sort of trope. But being bored with Paul was a little alarming considering this entire book pretty much revolves around him. I thought almost every other character is more interesting, but I was particularly interested in Lady Jessica, and some other female characters (Alia, Chani, and even Princess Irulan). I don't know if it's any surprise or coincidence that they're mostly major female characters.

That brings me to a huge theme that I paid a lot of attention to going in: the representation of women. I have heard a lot about that (and not exactly positive things) from some others who have attempted this book before, and had gone in really hesitant. Reading this book hasn't quite changed my mind on that, although once again I'll grant that things aren't black and white there either. There were some bits that discomfited me when reading, like when Harah was trying to offer herself up as wife to Paul after he had killed her husband, and protesting that she was "still young", or at the end when they were kinda just treating Irulan as a pawn instead of a human being, or really anytime when any woman in this book, no matter how powerful she might be, is always relegated to being either mother, lover, or wife, and never having any kind of power that doesn't have to do with those functions in relation to men.

But at the same time, the book isn't straight up female objectification and misogyny either. I liked that the female characters were often very powerful (more so than their male counterparts), and sometimes even more relatably portrayed, like Lady Jessica vs Paul. They were also more enigmatic and interesting and often didn't fit into archetypes, like Alia being a complete wild card for everyone vs Paul who is the obvious hero/saviour. I was even intrigued by Chani and Irulan more so than Paul/Feyd.

So i guess the tl;dr is that this book isn't easy reading, but it's quite likely an engaging one. It'll certainly demand multiple reads if you really want to fully understand the whole thing, but even just an initial superficial read of it is still going to be overall enjoyable and action-packed, even despite the slower sections. The female representation on this book isn't quite so straightforward, and so I'm kinda sitting on the fence on whether I enjoyed that bit or not. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm keen to visit the rest of the series, although I'll have to give myself a bit of a break first.

Terrific and had me in awe for 600 pages which is rare but I do wish that the characters were more developed as I always felt from arms length from them. And who names every character sci fi names like Hawat and Stilgar etc etc and names the main character Paul??? Other than that a extraordinary book

In anticipation of the film that is to be released later this year, 2021 for anyone that bothers to read this in many a year's time, I have reread Dune! A reread of any kind this late in my life is a rarity.
How did it go? Wonderful.

In my youth, I considered it a masterpiece in its field. Sci Fi just did not come much better back in the day. (1976 is back in the day, I was 16.) I was so impressed, I think I may have read it a dozen times in as many years.

That was then. So with a read again after all these decades, the fact of the matter is that into my fast approaching dotage it is still a masterpiece in its field.

By goodness, this film had better be good.

It was okay, it was a bit slow but I'd give it another shot in the future. Maybe I'll feel differently about it once I've sat with it for awhile and watch a few breakdown videos on the world. Idk

Interesting. Weird. Good enough that I finished. I'm not compelled to read the other books. Though, I might for curiosity's sake.

Non so cosa ho letto la prima volta. Con la seconda rilettura, complice anche il gioco da tavolo, mi è piaciuto molto di più. Continuerò la saga.

Dune est sans le meilleur et le plus beau livre de science-fiction à mes yeux, avec son récit quasi-mythique qui sait nous parler intelligemment de politique et d'écologie.

Up until July when I read Dune, I had been in a reading dry spell for around 8 years (I am embarrassed to say!). Upon reading the first chapters, I was confused by the immediate thrust into worlds I had not been told of beforehand. But after that I consumed the book quicker than I had in a long time. My partner was even shocked at how enthralled I was with Dune, considering he hadn't seen me read like that since we had started dating. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed Dune with Herbert's fantastic world building and creating such amazing characters. This book should be on everyone's must read list. I look forward to reading the next two books in this series.

This took me a lot longer to finish than I expected and I was wondering for the longest time if it was just me who found it extremely boring and uninteresting but I see other people have thought the same thing. There is so much I can go into regarding this book and while I acknowledge the classic nature of it within the genre, the only way i can describe it is as a story that's given me a whole lot of nothing. Like A LOT of nothing. So many words later and I still have zero attachment to the characters, and while that can be overlooked in generally plot-heavy books, it felt like this book also had zero plot. I'm mainly just disappointed because I expected to like this book a lot more.

A melhor obra de ficção científica que já tive o prazer de ler

5.00/5.00

“God created Arrakis to train the faithful”.

Frank Herbert created Dune to blame the guilty. The theme of Dune is a calling of preservation, creation and ecological harmony. This is book is a masterpeice, flawed, but still one so. The creativity behind the ecology of Dune and the Fremen culture is epitome of fantasy world building. The religious adaptation of Islam into the Fremen religion is a stunning display of prose and storytelling. Dune is written in lyrical prose, sometimes mesmerizing the reader into emotional highs. Dune is incredibly visual, with scenes I will never forget.

In spite of my overwhelmingly positive review and rating, I will note the tinge of the author's homophobia invested in one character. It is where this book falls away from being the perfect masterpiece for me.

“Let us pray violence shall never be necessary between us”. “A worthy prayer”.

Emotional Impact -> The prose, the prose, the prose. The worldbuilding, the character moments, the visually charged storytelling. I loved it. I would have given a higher score if it was not for the homophobia thing with Baron Harkonnen. Glad he is dead and we can put him out of our mind. Characters/Theme -> Loved Lady Jessica and Liet-Kynes. What a spectacular death scene for Liet-kynes, probably the best I have ever read. The ecological theme of this book comes out beautifully. I find myself hoping to see the green-brown Arrakis. Paul is a solid character too! and Leto, my dear Leto, my dead Leto, the inspiration for ASOIF's Eddard Stark! I am disturbed by Baron Harkonnen's character and association of pedophilia and same-sex attraction. What a disgusting caricature to parade around... really hit me hard... otherwise I would have loved this book. This book is taking a black & white approach of good vs evil with Leto vs Baron. Plot -> Very good. The idea that the Bene Gesserit manipulated the Fremen for centuries so one day their Kwisatz Hadreach will be accepted as the Fremen Messiah and weild them as a weapon is beautiful. Prose -> Magnifique. On the same level as Terry Pratchett. 10/10!Worldbuilding -> So much here. The fremen! The sandworms!..... I enjoyed this so much! The gender based magic system is added here to aid the sci-fi worldbuilding, making this a true sci-fantasy epic. I'm interested to know more about Alia the savage Truthsayer, the reverend mother!

EDIT- I have since finished this book on audio and it was much better. I mean, I still don't ‘get' the hype or whatever, but I didn't want to claw my face off with my own sharpened fingernails, so definitely a vast improvement. I still think Paul is literally the least character that has even been a central character, though. Paul is wet sand. Paul is a blanket soaked in cat piss. Paul is a bucket of playdough that has been inside a toddler's mouth. Paul is the leftovers that hyenas and jackals leave after a feast. Paul is the literary equivalent of sitting in a room with your eyes closed until you die. That's really the crux of my review: Why does Paul exist?

PREVIOUS REVIEW:
Alright, I'm done. I throw in the towel. I really tried. For four months I tried to snail crawl my way through this book. I made it to page 155. And I had the book in my hands, and I realized I was angry. Why am I angry? I asked myself. And I realized I was angry because the writing style of this book is manifest pain. And I could be doing any number of other things that weren't manifested pain.

Lots of people love this book, and I was determined to give it a good try. After I decided to stop, I wiki'd the plot. And yep, great plot, sounds fantastic and a whole lot of fun. Maybe in a few years I'll retry, or maybe I'll give it a shot on audio sometime, but for now I'm just gonna watch the movie and respect that while some people absolutely loved this, for me, it's an example of a wonderful concept ruined by sluggish, boring writing. Can we pay, like, Andy Weir or something to rewrite this book?

I've never been more conflicted on the rating of a book. I wish this was a clear-cut perfect book for me, but unfortunately, it wasn't. I loved it for the most part but there were some things that bugged and it's hard to get past them (maybe I'll get into it one day). Despite its flaws, I do understand why it's such a revered work of fiction and I guess I still count this as one of my favorites, just with an asterisk.

Villeneuve no decepcionó

Not gonna lie, I struggled a lot getting through this book as its pace became dreadfully pedantic at certain points of the story.

I found the protagonist to be rather bland and one-dimensional throughout most of the story, as it's made clear he is “The Chosen One” on top of the fact that he has an ability that almost strips him from being in peril. On the other hand, the construction of the antagonists and the way they executed their plans was enthralling, which gave you insight to what the protagonist would face in the future as well as providing the reader with worldbuilding (which is splendid, but at the same time challenging).

Yet (after pushing myself to continue reading), at around 78% into the book the protagonist does a complete 180 and surprised the shit out of me. All this build up, all the thoughts of people telling you he was incredible, all the people praising him, truly paid off. I say this because I couldn't believe he was the same character, as he suddenly delivers killer dialogues, takes smart and intelligent decisions, and completely destroys (verbally, spiritually, and physically) every single antagonist, person who tried to manipulate him, and those who underestimated or took him for granted; I mean, holy shit, it was EPIC, not because characters were telling you, but because you could see it; Suddenly, I could see just why the protagonist and novel are praised.

It turns out that many readers and critics also acknowledged that the book is hard to get through, mainly due to the surplus of themes that are delivered. So, after multiple readings, the novel improves. The prose itself was also quite challenging, as I found myself revisiting paragraphs many times to figure out what exactly happened, the more so whenever action “scenes” took place; it takes time to get used to. Nevertheless, I must say that Frank Herbert did create a phenomenal epic that definitely deserves the praise, but it's not one I would recommend to a casual reader unfamiliarized with the genre.

This was a very interesting read. Very different from all the books I've read till now. I liked the SciFi part, but the fantasy part made no sense (at all).

Parts 1 and 2 were great. But I needed more from part 3. The time skip threw me off. The stupid decisions did too. Good job, Paul. Where the heck is the story even going?!

Gurney Halleck was my favourite character!!

I started reading Dune in preparation for the up coming adaptation by Denis Villeneuve. I had heard a lot of good things about it but I was never a fan of the science fiction genre so I wasn't drawn to it.
That was until a read Frank Herbert's masterpiece.

Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, a young boy that, along with his family, travel to a planet call Arrakis, also know as Dune. Here, Paul's journey becomes one of growth and adaptation, understanding a different culture and becoming a leader.
But Frank Herbert's work subverts expectations of what a hero's journey is and uses it in favor of the overall theme of the book.

With a particular development of his protagonist, along side of the universe and cultures of his world, Herbert achieves an unique and deep worldbuilding as I only seen a few times.
He uses his main characters in a way that lets you in on the mental process of their desitions, telling you what they are thinking, even in conversations between them. This makes for some of the best parts of the books and I could only wish he did it more often.

At the beginning it can be difficult to understand all the information it contains, mainly because Herbert doesn't stop to explain more than the necessary for the particular scene and even then there're times when one can feel lost, but that feeling fades with the more you read.

But the most important part of Dune is the plot, the story. And Frank Herbert doesn't let anything get in the way of what his trying to tell. Dune goes to the point, everything in the book is for the story to move fowards, even with this unique universe to explore.
This sometimes can make the development of some side characters a little flat but being a saga I hope that this gets better deeper in the subsequent books, but it is a point that I have to highlight.

In conclusion, I think Dune is an unique and interesting book with a very good prose that Herbert utilize to develop his characters and universe. Sometimes it can get a little bit confusing and some characters feel flat but everything else in the book makes up for it.
I only hope that it can improves on his not so high points and expand this world and characters in the rest of the saga.
I wasn't a science fiction fan but once I got hook to Dune I couldn't let it go and I can't wait to read Dune Messiah and beyond.

DNF. I've tried to pick this up more times than I can count and it's just suuuuuch a slog. I'm going to commit a massive faux pas and just say that the movies are way more entertaining, even if they're corny as hell. Oh well.

Well, then. What can one say about Dune that has not already been said in the last half a century? Only my own thoughts. This took me a while to read; longer than I've taken with even longer books. I enjoyed it when I read it but never found myself yearning to read it. I understood things and was really interested in the schemes and control of the Bene Gesserit over the empire; seeding legends into cultures in order to serve their best interests. It's a great book; it isn't a 5 star for me simply because the ending felt a little flat and I didn't love it like I have loved some others that have got 5 stars from me.

Can't believe it took me this long to pick up this book, I should've it read it sooner. Short from five stars - just on some of the main characters behaviors - which is either amazing character building from Frank Herbert or just too much grandiose.

Things I loved about this book:
- Really good action/fight scenes
- The science fiction gadgets and technology were cool
- Paul seems like a nice kid
- The descriptions of Dune's environment and the critters that try to survive there were powerful
- The obvious nods to Arabic and Bedouin cultures were cool

Things I hated about this book:
- It is ~10,000 years in the future so why is everyone talking and acting like it is Medieval England
- Wife, mother, servant, or sex slave were the only roles available to women
- The Bene Gesserit: WTF is that bullshit
- It changes from a sci-fi adventure into a religious fantasy novel

So I hated it a tiny bit, then I really liked it, then I hated it again while understanding and grudgingly respecting what the author is trying to show us, then I liked the final bit. About halfway through the book I started noodling around online and saw that this book is actually considered more of a prequel to the rest of the Dune series rather than the first book; it is Paul's origin story, and is just setting the stage for the later books. Once I saw that this book made tons more sense, and I could more easily swallow what was happening.

Overall I was truly drawn into the world of Dune but a little disappointed by what I found there.

Don't know about a rating but likely 5 stars
Need to re-read and keep better track of the plot lol

3.5

10/10