Dune

Rating:
Summary: twaddle
Review: There are some good things in Dune. But the bad swamps the good. Clumsy writing, heavy-handed symbolism, self-righteousness, unbelievable dialogue, characters even a comic book would blush at. A book that insults the intelligence at every level.

Rating:
Summary: Wow.
Review: Is this book boring or what? I got through the first 100 pages with great difficulty (it was hard to keep from falling asleep) but it didn't get any better. So, I bagged it. I have no idea what the hype was about. I have enjoyed sci-fi and fantasy books before, so that wasn't the problem. It just happens to be a very tedious book.

Rating:
Summary: One that I can keep on reading and reading
Review: I loved this book. The book is a great story with lots of intrigue and detail that keeps you turning the pages. I have re-read this book several times and get more pleaure every time.

I HATED THE MOVIE. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME WITH THE MOVIE.

Rating:
Summary: Literature, not just Fiction!
Review: I first read Dune at the age of 15. I never really liked fiction and I wasn't all that much of a reader. But after reading a few lines from a copy of that book, that I just happen to be holding for a friend, I knew that this was no ordinary piece of fiction. Few books, save maybe The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are comparable with it in terms of the depth and vision. In certain aspects I find Dune even greater. Many of the poems and songs composed by the fictional Gurney became my own songs. I recall them even now, 15 years after I first read them.

Dune is not just a piece of fiction. It is literature in its finest form. In the world of science fiction, there is nothing that can be compared to it as yet. Few writers have mastered the art of making the unreal future, as tangible and believable as Frank Herbert does in this book. My only disappointment is the fact that the sequels never live up to the promise seen in the original. Nevertheless, that fact does not in any way detract from the greatness of Dune.

To a fifteen-year-old mind, the impact of such vision is profound indeed. I can still smell the spice, I can still feel the dryness of the desert sand and I still believe that the dreams we remember may be visions of the future. Such is the product of great literature! Such is Dune!

Rating:
Summary: Great - but.....
Review: 4???? 4 stars???? How can any self-respecting sci-fi fan dare, heck even dream to give less than a full 6 stars (x10) to one of the pillarstones of sci-fiction. A book so immense in scope and in imagination, in knowledge and in mystery that even the self-appointed guardians of 'true literature' quail at the thought of dismissing it - well my friends, my knife is sharpened and I'm kinda hankering for some holy cow cutting-down to size.

Dune is magnificent, it blows your mind with the sheer scope of the imagination, you really can believe 10,000 years from now human society may develop along these lines. Herbert cleverly plays on the idea that often the future is a derivation of the past - thus this feudal society, with Barons & na-Barons, Emperors & peons, where swords are used, atomics are House heirlooms and huge spaceships depend on the psychic power of their Navigators.

It's crazy, it's clever, it's captivating - his use of economics and arcology, his prescience regarding terraforming, the shaping effects of ecology and terrain on peoples and cultures, his synthesis & evolutions of religions - all of this is blinding and really, really makes your imagination soar. Compare it to most standard current sci-fi novels and settings they describe (even pre-made ones like the Star Wars series) and it's frankly pitiful, the paucity of imagination with over-elaboration they display. Compare and contrast if you will with the recent prequels to Dune....oh dear.

And yet, yet....it's is sometimes overly pompous, sometimes overly obtuse and sometimes in the later novels it frankly seems the Frank-ly decided to stick in a escape hatch from a story-line when it got too bogged down and ran into the mud that was once the sands of Arrakis.

Rating:
Summary: Go ahead, click "not helpful..."
Review: ...but I honestly don't see what's so great about this book. Daniel Keyes' "Flowers for Algernon" and Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End" are both better science fiction stories than Dune. They make powerful, emotional statements about the human condition without rambling on incessingly or clogging the pages with useless action scenes. If you want epic literature, read Lord ot the Rings. That story about an innocent hobbit thrown into a destructive war is a million times more epic and personable than this rambling nonsence about a superhuman destined for greatness since birth. Everything is predictable about the plot, not to mention the fact that Paul is next to impossible to relate to.

On the other hand, Frank Herbert DID exert a lot of artistic effort into this, which is to be commeneded. Perhaps he should have exerted this effort into a better idea.

Rating:
Summary: Reasonably entertaining and original
Review: Since its publication, Dune has recieved an impressive reputation in the SF community. If you expect this work to be the greatest novel ever, you'll probably just be dissappointed. On the other hand, if you just expect it to be above-average science fiction, you'll get what you're looking far.

Dune is set in the far distant future, when a single emperor rules all of humanity and various Houses govern individual planets. The main character is Paul of the House Atreides, which has recently been sent to govern the planet known as Dune. Dune is important for political and economic reasons because it produces a special spice that is necessary for interstellar travel. As others have already stated, Dune is one of the most remarkable and original worlds ever created by an SF author, featuring a parched and hostile landscape populated only by rugged "Freemen" and gigantic sandworms. However, I should also warn that Herbert's explanation about the relationship between the spice, the sandworms, and Dune's climate is a bit cryptic (as a matter of fact, a lot of this book is tough to comprehend), and you may need to reread some passages many times before you understand what is being said.

The plotline of the novel is very intricate and suspenseful, and you will want to keep reading to find the outcome of the battle between Paul, the Freemen, and a rival house. However, Herbert cannot right a decent battle scene, and the numerous fight sequences lack any suspense. Also, the strange dreams and premonitions that Paul experiences throughtout the book are poorly written and overdone; most of them should have been left out. Still, Dune is overall an engrossing read, and you won't regret buying it.

Rating:
Summary: Dune
Review: I LOVE DUNE. Frank Herbert goes into such detail that I am wordless. If you reading this review right know just buy the bokk you will thank yourself after you have read it

Rating:
Summary: A complete imagination
Review: The main problem every science fiction write has to face is to completely outline a futuristic world without being obvious about it. Even historical novels face a lesser problem; the worlds they describe are at least partly known to the readers. It takes quite a balancing act to tell a story and describe the future at the same time, both plausibly enough to achieve a suspension of disbelief, and in enough detail to fire the imagination of a true sci-fi buff.

I thought Asimov had done it brilliantly in the Foundation series - told a great story and at the same time shown us a future universe. (though I felt he faltered after the first three). I read many other books describing different futures, but never really came across another rounded, complete universe description. Star Wars had it, but it was a movie.

Then I read Dune. The one thing that struck my dazed brain at the end of the novel was the sheer complexity of the worlds described here. Somewhere down the line in a complex tapestry of what I can only think of as a period drama was a futuristic universe of incredible richness. Here it all was - incredible landscapes, unheard of technology, well-rounded characters and incredibly dramatic situations. And it had one thing that Asimov lacked - religion.

A true future universe is always going to have some component of religion and mysticism; Frank Herbert evokes this in fantastic ways by borrowing freely from Islam and other religions to give a texture to the political plots that really elevates Dune to classic status.

The only complain I have; I bought the collected volumes, and its far to fat to read comfortably in bed.

Rating:
Summary: Dune - A Science Fiction Epic
Review: The book, Dune, by Frank Herbert is a futuristic science fiction novel involving loss and gain. The protagonist of Dune, Paul Atreides is the son and heir of the Duke Leto Atreides. In the beginning of the novel Paul lives very comfortably on his home planet of Caladan. He has the very best that his planet, similar to Earth, has to offer. Everything changes, however, when he and his family move to the desert planet, Arrakis, also known as Dune. Arrakis is one of the most inhospitable places inhabited by humans. The temperature is so great, and water so scarce that its inhabitants must wear stillsuits, gear that channels all of the human bodies released water into reservoirs that can be deducted from if necessary. Even the smallest amount of water is precious to the populace of Dune and its people have learned not to waste anything. Although Arrakis is extremely harsh to organisms that opt to inhabit it, there is one element that makes it special and preferred above other planets. It is the only source in the known universe of the essential Spice, a cinnamon-like substance used in foods that prolongs life. This Spice is the reason that Arrakis is a coveted planet among the houses of power in the universe.
Only a short time after the Atreides arrival on Dune, the Atreides were betrayed by one of their own and a rival house, the Harkonnen, captured Paul, his father, Leto, and his mother Jessica. Duke Leto Atreides was killed but Paul and Jessica, a member of the ancient Bene Gesserit order, (a group of women who have special strengths and mind reading powers) escape into the desert. Paul was left stranded with only his mother in the middle of the harshest place in the universe, fleeing from the colossal sand-worms, organisms roughly the size of a space frigate who inhabit the sands of Arrakis and react to and kill anything that they sense moving on the surface of the sand. In this harsh position, Paul begins to think up a plan for him to regain his title and all that he had lost. His mission was to rally the Femen, the native nomads of Dune and unite them to fight against their common enemy, the Harkonnen. Rallying the Femen would prove to be no easy task however, scattered throughout the planet in different tribes, Paul had to gain their highest respect in order to gain anything from this venture. Although Paul is very smart and skilled in battle, it would prove a daunting task to unite the Fremen, defeat the Harkonnen, and regain his position as Duke of Arrakis.
Frank Herbert's epic novel Dune is one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written, in my mind comparing only to The Lord of the Rings in its greatness. Dune is a truly timeless epic to be treasured for all eternity. I am currently enrapt in Dune's sequel, Dune Messiah, and am thoroughly enjoying it. Another aspect of Dune is the variety of excerpts from other made up books and biographies relating to Dune such as this poem,
" 'Do you wrestle with dreams?
Do you contend with shadows?
Do you move in a kind of sleep?
Time has slipped away.
Your life is stolen.
You tarried with trifles,
Victim of your folly.'
-Dirge for Jamis on the Funeral Plain,
from 'Songs of Muad'Dib' by the Princess Irulan
Even this little aside, irrelevant to the story, adds to the feeling, the mood of Dune.
Frank Herbert's Dune is an incredible story with superb writing. It is a great science fiction novel ranking in my mind up with the Lord of the Rings and other classic sci-fi tomes. Overall, Dune is a timeless epic that will leave its mark on our society for generations to come.