Dune (Dune #1) in War Nerd Reading List

Feb 07, 2021 Ezra rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I reread Dune in anticipation of the Denis Villeneuve movie that's supposed to be coming out soon. The last time I read it was at least 20 years ago so most of it was essentially "new" to me. The biggest thing that stood out to me was Paul's role as a Chosen One, foretold of in prophecy. He basically goes through the Orientalist trope of a "civilized" (white) guy who goes to an exotic land and masters it better than the locals, even becoming their leader. He is the toughest among the inhumanly t ...more

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Aug 22, 2020 Charlie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

What i'm Dune is causing Arrakis ...more

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Dec 11, 2020 Rashid Yasin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, fiction

Short answer: Dune is great! It's not a story about the characters or the science, it's a story about a place. There's been a huge amount written about Dune because of its respected place within the sci-fi genre. There's a *lot* to critique about it, but it's on par with Lord of the Rings in telling a fantastic epic in a fleshed-out and enthralling world. I enjoyed it, and I think it's well-worth reading. I read it in a week and *wanted* to keep reading.

The ecology of Dune is fascinating. I reme Short answer: Dune is great! It's not a story about the characters or the science, it's a story about a place. There's been a huge amount written about Dune because of its respected place within the sci-fi genre. There's a *lot* to critique about it, but it's on par with Lord of the Rings in telling a fantastic epic in a fleshed-out and enthralling world. I enjoyed it, and I think it's well-worth reading. I read it in a week and *wanted* to keep reading.

The ecology of Dune is fascinating. I remember being somewhat aloof at the beginning, hearing about these huge sandworms - what do they eat to get the energy to move so much mass? Why are they so large? But that's somewhat directly addressed in-universe because Herbert tells the reader what they eat and the way that they work within a larger ecosystem to produce the Spice that fuels Dune's interstellar travel and economy. It's surprisingly well-handled for something that could have easily been "here's a big monster on the planet".

The Fremen are an exaggerated caricature both of Bedouin Arabs and barbarians in general. Luckily, a historian has written better than I can about the nature of that caricature and what it means for societies who talk about the phenomena of toughness arising from harsh conditions on the frontier: https://acoup.blog/2020/01/17/collect... That such depth can be drawn from the archetypes weaved into the story, I think gives good reason to read the book even if the end result is not an accurate reflection of how martial societies have generally developed historically.

Similarly, modern readers will find the treatment of women off-putting. The 'easy' answer is that there's an in-universe reason for this, with the culture representing a return to feudalism and all that pertains to, including regressive gender politics. But in-universe reasons are ultimately unsatisfying because there's no strong reason for Herbert to have had to write them that way. It's one of the few failure of imagination of the series to keep the gender politics so rigid and still with a strong patriarchal 'reality' with special powers reserved exclusively for men.

The writing of Jessica (the protagonist's mother) is critiqued both rightly and (imo) somewhat overly so. I think she actually is an interesting and well-motivated character in her own right. But also that she is fundamentally placed into a subservient role due to the book's (and Herbert's) broader politics. Her motivations, while real, are always in service to the men around her: it's similar to if Tolkein had made Samwise Gamgee a woman. However, while she (and Chani) are not particularly deeply-written and realistic characters, neither are anyone else. As I said at the beginning, this book is not about characters (aside from maybe Kynes). Paul [and as an aside, why in a book with such fantastic and inventive names, is the protagonist called Paul!?] isn't motivated by anything other than revenge and a generic desire to restore his house/establish his power. He is not a character, he's a generic protagonist drawn forward by fate. Gurney, Vladimir, and Duncan are barely more than sketches of individuals. Stilgar and Chani are more symbols than they are people. And no one talks like a human being. Which I actually found interesting because while some of it is probably a stylistic deficiency, I think the other piece is actually a reflection of the hierarchical nature of all the relationships in the book: no one is a peer to anyone else, and the stilted, overly formalistic language is a reflection of how none of the main characters ever truly feel at ease with one another.

So, yes, the book's a little orientalist and a heap misogynist in framing. But while I often find that off-putting, I'm willing to overlook a lot with Dune because it was written in a particular social/historical context, I had fun reading it, the universe has so many interesting pieces to explore, and because the semi-Muslim characters are displayed as noble protagonists in the first book (even if there's a latent danger of an orientalist Jihad below the surface that I'm sure pops up more in the sequels even though I haven't read them yet). I'm sad I didn't read Dune as a child, because I would have love to have had this setting in my head for more of my life. ...more

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Jun 28, 2023 Keenan Calhoun rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Dune, a book that lives up to all the hype. No world in all of science fiction can match the imaginativeness and coherence of Arrakis, the empire, and the forces that put them into conflict. A tear down of the white savior trope that can only really be understood fully if one follows it up with the sequel, Dune Messiah. I love this series and even though the latter sequels are pretty weak, I wish we could have gotten more stories set in this universe, written by Frank Herbert and not his coattai ...more

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Dec 26, 2021 Nike Melson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I finished this before the movie came out. Maybe October?

Needless to say… my fellow Washingtonian Frank Herbert is easily up there as one of the greats.

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