Dune

Rating:
Summary: watch out for the sandpeople
Review: this is the best work in the dune series. I love rereading this book, i loved the dune movie (yes the david lynch one!) and miniseries. This is a great book if you are looking for a long scifi series

Rating:
Summary: A very good story...even for those that don't like sci-fi
Review: I've always been a fantasy fan...I enjoy reading Jordan, Tolkein, etc. All of these books created a world from basic ideas. Herbert does much of the same...Dune is a desert land that requires a hard existence. The Fremen, people that naturally habit this land, are a troubled people that exist for nothing more than to create life from nothing. Paul, the main character, is adopted by these people, and becomes their spiritual leader. It is a good story that is very origonal (I haven't read any other story that compares). I find that as you read fantasy books, many of the ideas presented by todays top writers are borrowed from one another (just written in a different way, with different characters). I don't know about you, but this gets old after a while.

Anyways, I started reading dune 5 years after I bought the book. I had tried reading the story many times over those five years, but I'd get lost or disinterested in the story because of all the made up language, philosophical mumbo jumbo, and from the fact that basically, the book starts out slow. After getting through the first 50 to 100 pages, the story becomes very involved and very real. It was written very well. I understand why this is the highest selling sci-fi of all time.

For those that enjoy fantasy, this book is clasified as a sci-fi, but really, it is in between. It doesn't have the space-flying-fighting juck that i normally would associate with a sci-fi novel. It's definitally worth the money and the time. Buy this book. You'll enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: My pillow book
Review: Great story that combines philosophy, ecology, adventure, romance and more. This is hard sci-fi, so you'll learn a lot.

This book is so deep and rich that you can almost create a new religion on it.

Rating:
Summary: A triumph. PS - Readers are the ultimate critics
Review:

Frank Hebert wrote Dune, only to be denied by at least twelve publishers before he connected to a publisher of technical manuals, who took a gamble and published Dune.

It was panned and trashed by almost all the critics who initially read it. But the first printing sold out anyway, and the second printing did too. People were picking up on the quality of this amazing book. Hebert starting mail from fans describing their fascination with Dune. Then he got a call from a reporter asking him if he was trying to start a cult. His answer was "God no!"

It's amazing that this book almost never existed, because this is one of the best books ever written. The novel is flawlessly conceived and visualized. The characters are very convincing. I don't think this book was a metaphor for the world situation. The Fremen borrow heavily from the Arab world, but look at the Arab world, much of it is desert. If Europeans who fight in the desert end up using Bedouin techniques and use Arab words like wadi and hammadas, then anyone living and fighting in a desert environment would naturally use the techniques and vocabulary of the world's best desert dwellers, who happen to be Arabs.

Dune does an amazing job of combining love, hate, economics, politics, and destiny. There are so many good storylines in this book that an average author could have derived at least five books from it. The concept of the Kwisatz Haderach alone, the ultimate being, is handled expertly here. What would an ultimate being, a living, breathing man who is worshipped as God, be like? How could you make the ultimate being, and how could you prepare the masses for their messiah?

Describing this book in a short review is nearly impossible. However, I do have to talk about the spice melange. I'm not sure what psychoactives Herbert ever tried in his life, or even if he ever did anything, but the effects of melange are like the effects of a popular but illegal herb that most Americans have tried at least once, only multiplied a thousand-fold. Anyone who's read the book knows spice is the cornerstone of the Empire, as its mind-expanding powers allow the human mind to manipulate space and time. The spice also has the power to unlock genetic memories, extend longevity, and is used recreationally. In a very subtle and engaging way, Herbert explicitly prescribes the use of mind-expanding drugs. Mua'dib definitely follows William Blakes advice when he says "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom," as Mua'dib completes his development as the Kwizatz Haderach by ingesting a toxic overdose of spice, and then experienes a 'trip' in which the deepest mysteries of life are revealed to him, and he becomes nearly omniscient.

The love stories and relationships within this book are as compelling as in it.

As far as the bad guys in the book go, the Emperor Shaddam the IV, and his tool the Baron Harkonnen are excellent. The Baron is truly terrifying, and he makes a horrible image. When telling his nephew, Rabban, how to govern Arrakis, he says "You must be always hungry, always thirsty. Like me." He then lovingly strokes his rolls of fat. The Baron's sexual tastes and appetite are also sickening, yet they are described implicitly, unlike in the recent "prequel" books by Herbert's son. At the same time, the Baron never falls into the cliches of most bad guys, and the scene in which Jessica and Paul are able to excape his cluthes is done in a very convincing way. They didn't escape through the palace air shafts or because the Baron designed an overly complex spectacle death for them.

All in all, buy this book, since it's most likely the best sci-fi you'll ever have the pleasure of reading.

-- JJ Timmins

Rating:
Summary: great story but....
Review: I did not read this book before i saw the 1984 movie. that said, when i did actually read this book, i was riveted in a great socio-political conflict between two great houses and other parties involved. the story was wonderfully written and well worth the read for anyone who likes a good story.

my qualm with the book comes from the idea that this is a sci-fi book. beyond the names of the houses and the idea that this takes place on different planets, this story could have easily taken place in ancient rome. as a matter of fact while i read the book, my first thoughts were to rome. who knows, maybe it was because i had just watched gladiator before reading this book. but the point is that this book lacked much of anything sci-fi. and i was a bit bummed that Herbert didnt get into the details of the spaceships, how they travelled, the weaponry and everything else actually dealing with science. even the battle scenes themselves are brief, with most action coming from conversations and the intrigue going on. and i guess i'm getting picky now that i have been reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, where he combines both political and social intrigue with some kick butt fighting scenes. that seems to be lacking in Dune, though the story is wonderfully written. that's why i give it only 3 stars.

PS: whatever you do, don't watch the Dune TV mini-series. stick to the original where a truly creative director helmed the show...

Rating:
Summary: One of the Few True SciFi Masterpieces of the 20th Century
Review: I'd like to get inside Frank Herbert's brain and find out what planet he came from. You just aren't a normal person if you can create entire worlds (and a universe) and make an epic saga out of it.

Although the story behind Dune has distinctive political/economic flair to it (centered around the spice and spice mining), it's so much more than that. The inclusion of the Fremen prophecy regarding the coming of the "One" (a.k.a., Quisatz Haderach; hope I spelled it right) the mental capabilities of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood and the Machine building Tleilaxu cilvilization bring entirely new depth to this enigmatic futuristic world. The story is quite complex and the reader should vigilantly read to grasp all the details. (I'm not going to give away the story, just read the book).

Rating:
Summary: Dune
Review: Many readers often incorrectly guess the title as being inspired by the desert regions of Saudi Arabia. While the massive machines of the oil refineries of Arabia and the Northwest are in part, the author was more inclined towards the fragile ecology of the duneform stuctures near Reedsport, Oregon ...Often difficult to suppose the author's real meaning.

Interesting book.

Rating:
Summary: I love this book!
Review: I love this book! On a scale from 1-10 I would rate it ten. DUNE is the first book in a trilogy a book for readers at about 12 years old and up because it is very complex. An example of how complex it is that there is a dictionary of the unusal or madeup words.
DUNE is a little bit like STAR WARS, if you like STAR WARS, you would like DUNE. It is set in the future. Bene Gesserits are a little like Jedi Knights except they are all female. What happens in DUNE is that the Atreids, people from a planet with a normal amount of water (Caladan), come to a planet with almost no water (Arrakis/Dune). The main setting is on Arrakis. Arrakis is a planet that is all a desert where water is used instead of water. The Atreides came to defeat the Harkonnens, they have been fighting for a long time. The Fremen are native to Arrakis. Water is a treasure to the Fremen so precious that when a person dies they squeeze the water from his skin.
The main character is Paul. He is a very complex character because he changes completely. During most of the book he is smart but at the end he gets smarter than his Bene Gesserit mother. An example is that he can se many ways that he could change the future. Jessica is Paul's mother. She is a very loving and compassionate person, but when she needs to fight she will. She is very logical and intelligent. Paul's mother is a Bene Gesserit. There is only one Kwisatz Haderach (A male Bene Gesserit) that could do things no Bene Gesserit can. Could that be Paul? Bene Gesserits have the power to use the voice a way to tell people what to do and they do it without thinking they are under the Bene Gesserit's power.

Rating:
Summary: If you don't like Dune . . .
Review: If you love politics, intrigue, and a marvelous world that just leaves you wanting more and more, DUNE is it. I have yet to meet a fellow Political Science major who didn't find these books inspired. If you don't like Dune . . . then you can check out the Dick and Jane books in the children's section.

Rating:
Summary: Truly the Lord of the Rings of Science Fiction
Review: I have been turning up the pace on my reading lately, and last time I entered a book store I remembered multiple friends had been urging me to read Frank Herbert's Dune. I snagged a copy of the book, and noted on the drive home that Arthur C. Clarke was quoted as saying "the only thing I know comparable is Lord of the Rings." I could not help but consider this an extremely bold statement.

As I read it, however, it did not take long for me to realize how true this statement rings. In Dune, Frank Herbert has crafted a dizzyingly imaginative universe. Every social group and race of people, from the Bene Gesserit to the Harkonnens to the Sardaukar to the Fremen is described in such mad detail that one cannot help but believe these societies exist in some remote corner of our universe. The ecology and geology of the planet Arrakis, from the sandworms to the barren deserts, are crafted with such grace that there is no doubt in my mind Arrakis has to be real somewhere in the galaxy, if not merely inside of Frank Herbert's head.

And it gets better. All of the characters, from the confused-yet-focused Paul Atriedes, to the Baron Harkonnen, one of the easiest to hate villains ever crafted, are completely real and filled with depth, and the way they interact with the world around them is absolutely believable.

All of the characters are involved in a breath-takingly epic story of politics and religion, with many subtle and not-so-subtle parallels of our own society interwoven with the entertaining quest. However, this grand story never overtakes the development of the individual characters, which always remains key to Dune. I didn't feel like I was reading a story with a beginning and end and a clear message to be brought out of it as I read Dune. I felt like I was watching these people play out a small portion of their lives, and when it was all over I was heart-broken that I would not be able to follow them any longer.

In the end, I could only agree with Arthur C. Clarke's assessment of Dune. The amazing degree of craftsmanship in creating the planet of Arrakis has not been seen in any book less epic then J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and, if it is possible, I found Dune to be even more believable. Despite my hectic class schedule this quarter, I found a way to tear through this book in under a week. If you have not read Dune, pick up a copy: you will not be disappointed.

Exaggerated one-line review: Dune is science fiction's Lord of the Rings.