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Summary: A CLASSIC!!!
Review: Okay, so how many people have read Dune and thought it was a great book? Practically everybody who has read it. Don't even mention the movie (which had and still has potential, but wasn't realized). Great imagery, detail, and a familiar but still compelling story. I read this book when I was ten-and who's into reading at that age? But I loved it...it became my Koran (since I'm Muslim-I read the Koran too on occasion, but I still go back to Dune). It is an epic classic!!!
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Summary: One of my all-time fav's
Review: The book Dune and the series that followed is to me the best sci-fi ever written. I originally read Dune 25 years ago at the age of 15. (Before sci-fi was considered cool, or received big-budgets for films) It really blew my mind then and opened my eyes to the use (and abuse) of power and religion. When I heard that a movie was being made of it, I eagerly awaited it's release. While the effects were great, I feel that because of the scope of the book, the movie never really got off the ground. And when I saw what they had done to the character of the Baron von Harkonnen, I almost left the theater! To take the darkest, most evil, powerful and cunning of villians ever created and turn him into a prancing, drunken idiot really pi**ed me off! I felt that the director must never have read the book to so completely miss the mark! Well, that aside, a close tie for Dune itself is the last in the series: Dune:Chapterhouse
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Summary: Dune is the best sci-fi ever!
Review: Dune by Frank Herbert is a wonderful book. From the water rich oceans of Caladan to the soaks and sinkwells of Dune (Arrakis), Dune is the best sci-fi ever. It's sister books, the rest of he series, end the story of the Atredies, but Dune can be read ovver and over again.
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Summary: One of the greatest epics of all science fiction genre.
Review: I first read "Dune" when it first came out around 20 years ago (yes I could go get one of my several copies and look up the exact date, but I am in the basement and they are upstairs--I know you understand). I have re-read the book so often that I have worn out four copies of it. I waited for was years for Frank Herbert to write another book on the Dune saga. I am sorry that he is dead and there will be no more--at least from his mind--I would not mind being a ghost writer for him and continue the saga. What I especially like about Dune are the religious factors brought into play, the emphasis on mental powers instead of technology--even though that was very advanced; the Bene-Gesserit, the Emperor Shaddam and his daughter Irulin, the Freman, the spice, and of course the mighty sandworms. I appreciate the writing ability of FRank Herbert and his drawing on many historical, scientific, cultural, and religious sources to create memoralble plot and characters. I especially love his use of delightful irony--like the fact that the deadly sworn enemies like Harkonnens and Atreides are really very closely related. As are the Freman and the Saudakaur troops. Any way, if you saw the movie and did not like or understand it, read the book and then see the movie again--Patrick Stewart make one heck of a Gurney Hallick. And there are many other recognizeable faces--if you like twin peaks, famous german and swedish actors, etc. The whole series is good, but the first book "Dune" is best with the third one, "Children of Dune" very good as well. I do not like the 2nd becuse I do not like what Herbert does with Paul. If you at all like science fiction or historical drams, you will really enjoy "Dune". If you really thought it sucked and are willing to have an open mind about it, e-mail me, and I will try to change your mind.
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Summary: Best science fiction ever.
Review: I think that this is by far the best of the series. Though the other books may have had more "depth" or "philosophy," or whatever makes a reader feel smart, none of them really examined humanity as did Dune. All the while, Dune tells a gripping and deeply moving story with real characters (the bad guys were not, but it was a first novel; I'll give Herbert a break) and a thought-provoking plot. The examination of what happens to a man made a god is one of the most universal themes to be discussed in science fiction and offers grim insight into human nature and our deepest emotions and fears. Above all, the book shows the interconnectedness of everything--politics and economics, love and war, even ecology and religion, with a magical descriptive vividness that creates an atmosphere more perfect than that in any other science fiction I have read. I will always remember the thoughts and images in my mind as I read Dune, and I guarantee that you will too. The mere sound of music I was listening too while reading it brings pictures of the Fremen to my mind, and I saw at least one other reviewer say the same thing. So read Dune! I envy those about to discover this universe for the first time.
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Summary: like ocean
Review: The story is talking about desert and dune, but the book is actually like ocean, with not only bellowing plot surface, but also unfathomable thought-provoking depth. Actually I read three sf books in a row in two months: Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card, Blood Music by Greg Bear, and this Dune by Frank Herbert. The first one was disappointing, and the second one was just so-so, compared to the third one, the real masterpiece in sci-fi world. The highest score is 10? I'd rather give it a 12. :)
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Summary: Greatest series of books ever written.
Review: The indepth detail and overall picture that Herbert paints throughout the Dune series is spectacular. I first saw the move when I was 10, when I found out it was a book I read it, and continued (over the next 14 years) reading and re-reading the next series of books(God Emperor, ChapterHouse.) I am know 24 and have read the Dune Books at least twenty times. Only Star Wars comes close to creating a Universe so real. I am the biggest fan of the Bene Gessrit order, perhaps one day humans will posses the abiltiy to function in the manner of a B.G. witch. I can see where Herbert got some of his ideas for the B.G. training(Yoga, eastern meditation) I wish Mr. Herbert was still alive so he could create a T.V. series, don't get me wrong the mind is the besst place to see Dune but a T.V. series would bring it to life.
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Summary: Wonderful!
Review: Herbert puts a whole world into one book. Every time I read this book I catch something new. The wonderful part is that you can read it very superficially or VERY deeply and enjoy the book every time. Paul Muad'dib is such a fantastic character who is not just a man in himself, but a figure bred out of millennia of selection for salvation of the entire human race or the tool of a select group of religious fanatics. Herbert cunningly leaves this dichotomy for his readers' judgement. The introduction of the Orange Catholic Bible and the Butlerian Jihad allows the book to move away from the static placement in time that troubles many other great novels of this century. Our only loss in this series is the untimely death of the beloved author before its completion.
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Summary: Only for the humans of the world
Review: I noticed the mixed (hah! that's an understatement) reviews in here and am therefore putting in my two cents. DUNE is a masterpiece. People who know why, I don't have to tell. But the complaints I want to address. 1. boring To each his own; but to understand Dune's complexity you have to be unfortunately aware of a lot of general knowledge. 1st of all, nothing in Dune is entirely fictional, not even the sandworms (though their size is, of course). The language is Arabic, Hebrew and occasionally Latin (aba, Shai-Hulud, Alia, Mahdi, and of course Jihad). When you realise the whole story is in reference to our existing history, you get more out of it. 2. pretentious Herbert is writing on many different levels; and remember this is a RELIGIOUS book, which is unusual even in sci-fi. He's writing a Bible in postmodernism. Look closely. Who is Paul? Who is Jessica? Why are the Bene Gesserit a 'sisterhood' of pseudo-priestesses? You don't write a Bible with Gary Larson. 3. cliched The point of reusing the old formulas was to take those same formulas to a higher level. The story isn't about monarchies, space, aliens, drugs or mind manipulation. It's about how people can mistake another ordinary man for a god - and how he actually DOES become one. Again - it's the Bible in 10 191. Look beyond your noses, folks. Don't read it once and pan it. You're missing out on a lot if you do.
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Summary: THIS MAN IS A GOD!
Review: It is sad for me, that I saw the movie frist. the movie SUCKS. And only in a few aspects does it match the greatness of the book. When I found the book in my father's library I thought "sure why not." At least I had heard of the name DUNE before (unlike many of his other books) When I read blew me away. A universe so detailed and so well crafted that for those few days that it took me to read it, IT WAS REAL. This man has vision. I went on to re-read DUNE 6 times in the past 5 years and have read the entire series twice. the first is definatly the best. But the REALITY of this place is consistant in all of the books. This is not some mindless good vs. evil story. this is a deep probing look into this world's society and the REASONS why people do the things they do. One of the things that makes this world so successful is what some people call "the history of the future." that is, A story set so far in the future that it traces its roots back though its history (which is still far on our future) alowing the reader to see this long and imaginative timeline which, if we trace backwards, will lead back to us. This gives us a connection to the story. And makes the entire story more emotional for us. DUNE does this. This is a book that will OPEN YOUR MIND to new ideas. READ THIS BOOK! NOTE: of the 6 books. 1 is the best. 5 and 6 are very good too. 4 is the worst in the series (i would give it 7 on the amazon rating so its not a bad book either) #4 is a little more philosophical.. thus being trier. not much action.
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