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Summary: The Supreme Science Fiction Story
Review: Dune is the best hard science fiction novel that I ever read. Frank Herbert's deep understanding of issues range from economics all the way to desert tundra. The center plot of Paul of Atrides measures easily with the epic sagas of antiquity. Majestic heroes, horrendous villains, an exotic environment, terrible wars, court backstabbing, messianic thrills, WHAT MORE CAN YOU ASK?I read it back in College, and after countless SCFI stories this is easily the best one.
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Summary: I really adore this book
Review: I'm absolutely satisfied of this book. It contains not only scince-fiction themesbut also problems of all world like the resonibility of leaders, the fanatism, political methods. It also represents what will happen if there's such melange addiction in the world. Ecologycal problems of Dune shows exactly how we can exhaust the resources of our planet. At last the stoy of persons as Lito, Paul, Jesika are told with great tallent.
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Summary: Dune Book of a million themes
Review: Dune is a very deep and thought out book. It is really two stories rolled into one. The first story is about the atreides' rise and fall. The second is the underlying conspericies and the extra influences from the various groups throughout thee book. This book shows how a real universe works by giving u all the information which makes the book very exciteing
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Summary: Dune is great.
Review: I finished dune a week ago after less than a month of fabulous reading. i asked my dad if it was a good book, and he interested me with the sandworms, and other things. the characters were wonderfully detailed, and the world was filled with colorful descriptions. such a great book. i know only one other kid my age who is reading dune, but i don't expect many others. what with the educational system, and the reading ability of kids in the USA, it's makes me sad that more kids probably will not read this book.
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Summary: Excellent Novel
Review: This book is certainly a classic. It ranks with Clarke,Heinlein, and Asimov. "Dune" is set on the hellish world known as Arrakis. Despite the unbearable climate, it is a key planet in the scheme of things, for it is the source of the spice "melange". This spice aids in space travel by augmenting the precognitive abilities of the Guidsman, those who navigate amongst the stars.Enter the family Atreides. The Atreides are the new owners of Arrakis, which was previously owned by the Atreides' enemy and rival family the sadistic, power-crazed Harkonnens. Add the fact that the Atreides ducal heir Paul may be the the Muad'dib, messiah of the Bene Gesserit, and you have an epic tale. "Dune" is a novel filled with intrigue, betrayal, action, and other entertaining plot devices. It has very serious undertones of enviromentalism. Frank Herbert easily created one of the masterpeices of SF with this one. I heartily recommend this to any fan of the genre. You won't be dissappointed.
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Summary: Done with Dune
Review: Like many others, I picked up DUNE based on its broadly accepted status as a SF classic. I don't read much SF, so I try to get to the Big Books (War of the Worlds, Ender's Game, Fahrenheit 451, "The Year's Best" anthologies, etc). This was not a good book. The dialogue is stilted, the characters are caricatures, and everyone's always "hissing", "glaring", or "swallowing with a dry throat". The plot is interesting enough, but not nearly as complex or Byzantine as I had expected: warring factions, religious fervor, double-crossing, nefarious rulers, ulterior motives - standard stuff, really. If anything, the plot seems complicated because we're told so little about what the Guild, the Great Houses, and CHOAM really are. Anyway, as a non-SF connoisseur I realize that I don't get to vote on which books are the classics. But from where I stand, DUNE is a poorly-written, lackluster, repetitive tale. It's not the best SF I've ever read; it's not even the best book I've read this month.
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Summary: Almost as horrible as the first movie adaptation
Review: this vastly overwritten book isn't worth much. just read it - so you can say it was tedious, overly-meticulous and of pompous science fiction.
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Summary: Cosmic nonsense
Review: Thank goodness it takes only eight thousand years for a little political instability to worm its way in. Dune is crap. It's a bunch of pseudo-science hoodoo. I tried reading this book as a child and I was enchanted for awhile, the idea is so lovely it practically throbs. But really, for some reason, I just couldn't finish it. Now as an adult I tried again to read it and it's just more than silly. I guess Proust is right, you can't go home again. Or whatever. Maybe there was a time to read it and it passed. Of course, the idea is nice. If there was a book on the idea of Dune I'd probably read it. Even the idea of Frank Herbert. Just a book about some cat with a big prophet beard and a penchant for writing crackpot books of science fiction/philosophy. That would be nice. That would compel. Even if he veered at times dangerously close to fascism, which he does, and so does that Nazi Heinlein. It would be hilariously funny to read about some chubby floodge who wrote silly books of facsistic science fiction but never had the heart to get them published (there's a spin on things), and whose rantings were restricted--safely--to the confines of his kitchen. Funny. Sabbath's Science Fictional Theater. Yeah. But Dune is, sadly, really sadly, poorly written and should have been better. Sorry.
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Summary: Science Fiction meets Mythology
Review: Dune is a great book. It's one of those four or five books I've read that changed my outlook on things. I have an ecological bend, and the eco-mythos really grabbed me. That said, Dune is not a perfect book. Those who have criticized Herbert's style are correct. It's cliche, overwrought, overdone. But that's not important. What is important is the symbolic story, long though it may be, which takes the reader through a variety of fantastic settings and introduces he/she to a vibrant cast of characters. They're simple, with the exception of Paul, and that's good! This isn't drama. Herbert himself said the book was about ecology, primarily, and the dangers of thinking the environment is ours to control and manipulate. The Bene Gesseritt weave an intricate web, and it's torn to shreds by one act of disobedience. The political discourse has ingrained the idea that "the tripod is the most unstable of governments" (paraphrased) in my head forever. Look out, America. The book reminds me of Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Paul is the hero, and he must grapple with the complexity of the concerns of a universe, like all of us. That universe has spawned numerous sequels, which I fear can never live up to the precedent of the original. I try not to praise lightly. Nevertheless, I think Dune is one of the "great" science fiction novels. It's a marvelous story, and that, above all, is why so many millions have heralded Herbert's Dune as the masterpiece of science fiction that it is.
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Summary: A Greatness of Vision Seldom Matched
Review: Occasionally a person attains a moment of great clarity of vision and thought; much more rarely, this vision can be communicated to others. 'Dune' is such a vision clearly seen and expertly told. As with most epics, 'Dune' can be appreciated on many levels. It is a story about the rite of passage of Paul Atreides from boy to man. It is a tale of the end of an age-old feud between two major Houses. It contains morals and warnings, politics and religion, loyalty and betrayal, and all of the things which have become the staple of truly great Science Fiction. But the one thing that makes this book stand out is its clarity. Herbert had a story to tell, one he fully grasped, and he told it without extraneous details, without excessive dialog or inane side-plots. He revealed the secrets of Dune in a deliberate, timely manner, making every word count. There are few works in Science Fiction that come close to what Herbert has written here. If you want to see the best of what Science Fiction has to offer, read this book.
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