Dune

Rating:
Summary: Encyclopedically imagined, mature science fiction
Review: Like David Bronczyk and I'm sure many other readers, I came back to this book. I first read it as a teenager; now, 30 years later, I've read it again.

Though I'm far more sophisticated as a reader now, I was more impressed with the novel on second reading than when I first encountered it. I am rarely impressed by science fiction, but for me this book has held up remarkably well and is a substantial literary work.

Which is not to say it avoids many of the flaws that exasperate me when it comes to science fiction. For example, Herbert can't resist the standard science-fiction ploy of creating a society that, for some reason, has reverted to a sort of feudalism. Sci-fi authors just can't resist all those barons and dukes and emperors and fiefdoms and court intrigue etc. Why anyone thinks societies would go back to this sort of socio-political structure baffles me, but it's a staple of the genre. Herbert even has his characters armed with daggers and swords and lances, though he does provide a plausible rationale for that bit of reversion. You must also accept the premise of planets united and ruled by single people or families, another implausible idea.

But if you accept these central conceits, you find in Herbert's book a richly textured, brilliantly imagined fictional world that has its own ecology, complex social interaction, anthropology, political intrigue, economic determinism, and grand historical sweep. This is what recommends the book, in my opinion: the sheer scope and detail of Herbert's imagination.

Plus the author writes a good narrative. His skills as a story-teller are estimable. True, his dialogue can be wooden, and he had the bad habit of providing background information through dialogue or interior monologue. But I kept wanting to know what happened next, even though I'd previously read the book and seen the fascinating David Lynch movie.

When I return to the books of my youth, I'm usually disappointed. Not this time. Dune held my interest sufficiently for me to want to read the next book in the series. Herbert's was an interesting mind, and I want to spend more time with it.

Rating:
Summary: The Dune Chronicles
Review: I finished reading all six Dune books on 6/15/00. About a week ago (today is 6/23). It took me a little less than three weeks to read them all (I started Dune on 5/27/00). I rented the movie years back and turned it off after watching it about twenty or thiry minutes. I didn't know what the heck was going on. So, I said to myself that I'd read the book before I rented the movie again. Well I finally did...and then some. I started collecting all six Dune books. When I had them all I began reading Dune. Talk about one cool plot. Dune had it all. One main plot with many subplots underneath. I had to stop reading the book at points so that I could reason everything out before I continued (I LOVED IT). Dune Messiah was pretty good too. It seems to me to be the easiest to understand because its very simple. Children of Dune was okay, but seemed to dragged out because Herbert spent so much time describing Leto II's hallucinations, trances, thoughts, etc. It could of been 200 pages less to get the story across. God Emperor of Dune was really cool too. I love how Herbert describes the changes of Arrakis into Rakis over the millenia. This book does a great job in describing the changes. Heretics of Dune: the most fast paced, action-packed book of the series. This one was a real page turner. Chapterhouse: Dune was an okay story but the book doesn't get interesting until you've read about 300 pages, 3/4 of the book. To me it seems when the Bene Gesserit are in the picture the story slows down quite a bit. I thought there was too much Bene Gesserit philosophy in this book. Overall, how do I rank all six books? Well, the first one, Dune, will have to be my favorite because it is a classic and it is the most intricate book of the series. Herbert really did his homework for this book. It's easy to tell. Book Five is a close second. Book Four is a third. Book two is ranked fourth. And I'll have to say Books three and six tie for last because they seemed the slowest of them all (however, I lean more toward Children of Dune being better because I think Leto II's "transition" was fun to read). Since then I've read two nonfiction books (one on the Alamo) and today I finished Clive Cussler's Serpent. "Now what?" you might ask. Well, I've been wanting to read some more fantasy since high school. The only fantasy I've read are Tolkien's famous four books and C.S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia." Now I'll read Piers Anthony's first Incarnations of Immortality book "On a Pale Horse" and then start reading some Xanth novels. Until next time...

Rating:
Summary: Very imaginative, vivid images, quite a fantastique world
Review: This is one of those situations where I actually preferred the movie to the book. Although the book gave much more background than the movie, it was much easier to follow the book after having seen the movie. I think if I had read the book first, I would have been lost completely. The movie is also part of my permanent collection. I mean, who could resist Kyle McLachlan as the Kwizatz Had'arrach?

Rating:
Summary: The Sleeper Has Awaken
Review: Herbert's classic masterpiece "Dune" expertly interweaves a science fiction future world with socio-political and religious theory to construct a compelling, although sometimes confusing, novel. The telling of the transformation of Paul Atriedes from young, innocent ducal heir to the Kwisatz Haderach is engaging and at the same time, disturbing. We see him both prepare for and fear the on-coming storm of the Muad'Dib jihad across the universe. Taken by itself, this story seems lacking at the end, but it must be read in concert with "Dune Messiah" and "Children of Dune" to fully appreciate Herbert's efforts.

Rating:
Summary: Not so much a book as another universe captured on paper
Review: Usually in science fiction, some compromise is made between those who want explorations of humanity and social dynamics at the expense of hard technical accuracy and those who want the opposite. As brilliant as some authors in this genre are, they tend to borrow their scenery and supporting casts from established conventions of spaceships and near-magical technology that follows no rule of science of which we are currently aware.

While this is foremost a story about the lives of individuals, the subtle and overt variances between life in this world and the one Herbert envisions give life and strength to _Dune_. You understand the value of a cup of spilled dishwater on Arrakis as easily as you understand the fear of Big Brother in Airstrip One, because Herbert and Orwell support their world's differences throughout the entirety of their books.

What Herbert does is to postulate several things, incredible to us now, that mark his created world as very different from our own:

1) A ban on artificial intelligence leading to the rise of humans trained to compute with the speed and accuracy of a machine; 2) A universe where democracy does not exist to any significant degree; 3) A universally consumed product that everyone wants to prolong life and health that permits a small percentage of its users to perceive the future.

Many of the secular inheritances of empirical thought, from the early Greek mathematicians and philosophers to the present, are strangely gone from this universe. We assume that computers shall take more and more of a dominant role in mechanisms of labor and society; we assume that all humans are fundamentally equal and that class divisions of a feudal nature are nonsense; we assume that precognition is speculative and a fantasy yet unproven by any science.

These alterations lend dimensions of interest to a book which would otherwise be an exploration of an alternate ecology, of the preternatural desert of Arrakis and the means by which its human residents cope with the hellish if scientifically plausible conditions.

Don't misunderstand me - the saga, the medieval melodrama still fascinates me years after initially reading it during slow afternoons in sixth grade. What locks this in your mind is the vast differences between this world and the one that Frank Herbert describes, and very few have the sheer imaginative faculty to equal his achievements.

Rating:
Summary: Depth and Grandeur
Review: What can be written about this book that hasn't made its way into a critical essay, somewhere? The thing I find truly remarkable about this work is how it stands up to the tests of time and repeated reevaluation. Like the protagonist of this story, the author seems to have had a certain amount of clarivoyance. This book bears repeated reexamination and discussion, and will until the current year and the books year coincide (around 10,000 AD or so, I think...) On a personal note, I find the idea of the best warriors in the universe using primarily blades, not guns, to be an interesting futuristic anachronism. Not to mention very cool.

Rating:
Summary: Superb, enigmatic, and incomparable
Review: When I first read Dune, a couple years ago, I was enthralled by it's wonderful writing style. It seemed as though Frank Herbert preserved the freshness and vitality of Dune and whenever I open it up I get that freshness. With all of this pulp science fiction nowadays, it's nice to be able to unlock the times of old. Paul Atreides is one of the most fully realized character in any book I've read, and the Baron is evil but not cartoonish. The Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, with their special breeding programs, and the Guild with their plots and plans,make Dune a realistic, thought provoking, and fun book. Read this or the sand worms of Arrakis will come looking for you next.

Rating:
Summary: if you haven't read this, you must be illiterate
Review: the first time i picked up this book, i had the hardest time reading it and put it down several times until i finally gave up.

the second time, i couldn't understant why i hadn't finished it. i turned pages breathlessly and eyed the list of sequels with a sense of relief that i would be spending much time in the dune universe.

the third time i picked up the book i wondered what was going on in david lynch's mind when he made the film. i, once again, found myself making excuses to read pages here and there. managed to miss some bus stops and find reasons for a few long plane flights.

needless to say, i'm a fan. the rich universe. the vivid imagery. the unpronouncable names. it all adds up to one of the most fascinating reads around. try it if you already haven't and revisit it if you already have.

Rating:
Summary: Sheer Brilliance
Review: Dune is clearly one of the greatest novels ever written in the history of mankind. Herbert's sheer brilliance and excellent writing style make for a treat. I felt for the characters, Paul Muad'Dib seemed like a true hero, and I loathed the Harkonnens. The character development is excellent, and the plot is truly captivating. I found myself turning pages very quickly. A complex epic with Politics, philosophy, ecology, etc.. all are presented in this great book. I recommend it to anybody who is literate and has a decent attention span. (you'll find yourself wanting to read all six books.) Definately check this one out.

Rating:
Summary: The intrigue of interstellar politics
Review: Upon a haphazard move by the Duke Atreides, his people are relocated from their fertile home planet of Caladan to Arrakis, the forbidding desert sphere also known as Dune. Thus protagonist Paul, the duke's protectively raised son, is suddenly cast into a hostile and forbidding environment. However, his surprising resourcefulness brings about a turning of the tables, and appoints the fallen duke's son as a both spiritual and tactical leader of the planet's devout natives, the Fremen. These are a humble, underrated Bedouin-like people who, of course, turn out to hold the key to power over Arrakis.

The story begins with Paul at 15 years of age and yet emotionally immature. The family's preparations for the move to Arrakis render him curious and anticipative of novel experiences. Upon the Atreides's arrival on Dune, a treachery of the family doctor puts Duke Leto's fate in the hands of his ruthless nemesis, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.

Stripped of their possessions, the ducal heir and his mother are compelled to flee from their home into the desert plains, where they find themselves constantly confronted with the planet's insidious surprises. Yet while pampered Jessica becomes helplessly dependent on their good fortune, her prodigal son rapidly masters the situation, and soon fathoms Dune like - and practically in - the palm of his hand. Amidst the Fremen, he commences to organize a good old-fashioned battalion aiming at the overthrow of House Harkonnen.

Thanks to Herbert's rare storytelling acumen, such a monumental literary aspiration - at least in this first installment - never veers away from believability, no matter how unfeasible the current scene. The consistently no-nonsense prose firmly keeps _Dune_ on this side of pretentiousness, a compliment that cannot be given to the novel's adaptation to the screen. Far from your regular hodgepodge of droids and ray guns, this is a political statement that, no matter when and where it is read, stirs up an uneasy feeling of déjà vu.