Dune (Dune #1) in Fantasy-Faction.com

Sep 14, 2017 Joel rated it it was amazing

Shelves: hard-copy, audiobooks

FULL REVIEW ON MY BLOG, TOTAL INABILITY TO CONNECT

I know, I know.

As one of those “FANTASY PEOPLE”, I’m supposed to have read Dune, right? Right? Everyone has? EVERYONE!

I hadn’t, so I finally broke down and took the plunge. Anytime there’s a book like this, a classic, a quintessential piece of sci-fi/fantasy, I can’t help but go in with some preconceived notions. I knew very little about Dune prior to the book, to be honest – I could name some of the quotes from it, I understood some of the ‘spic ...more

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Apr 05, 2017 Seán rated it really liked it · review of another edition

There are no direct spoilers here, but I do discuss main plot points that are best avoided if you want to go into this completely fresh.

It is difficult to not be impressed by Dune. It is one of the most complete and passionate examples of world-building I’ve come across, layered with a vast history and fascinating ideas. However, this is not a book that was enjoyable from start to finish. There are many sections that are unnecessarily drawn out, and I felt that Herbert’s writing slipped into dr There are no direct spoilers here, but I do discuss main plot points that are best avoided if you want to go into this completely fresh.

It is difficult to not be impressed by Dune. It is one of the most complete and passionate examples of world-building I’ve come across, layered with a vast history and fascinating ideas. However, this is not a book that was enjoyable from start to finish. There are many sections that are unnecessarily drawn out, and I felt that Herbert’s writing slipped into dryness at times when the narrative needed to be advanced.

It says a lot that the most enjoyable sections of Dune for me where the Appendices placed after the narrative ends. It is in these sections where Herbert’s writing comes alive and we can see the passion and command that went into his creation of Arrakis and the extended universe. The first two-thirds of the book where we witness Paul’s rise to Muad’Dib are where I feel Herbert’s narrative writing is exposed as being on a lower level than his world-building skills. Scenes drag out with a plodding inevitability and the writing often slips into ‘clinical’ – it gets the job done but is lacking in the passion that we see when Herbert is writing as an anthropologist/ecologist.

Paul himself was a major issue for me, and I will spend a bit of time explaining my problems with him as they are the only major ones I have with Dune. Paul is established at the beginning of the book as a Messiah figure, and that is pretty much all the character development we get. Sure, plenty happens around him as the book progresses, but the Paul we meet at the beginning of the book is the same static image of Paul Muad’Dib we are left with at its end. I found it difficult to connect with and care about his journey, because we know – like he himself does - that he could never not succeed right from the start. A good chunk of the book focuses on Paul, but he is never interesting. What is going on around him – now that is where the interest lies. But Paul is Herbert’s narrative lynch-pin he can use to tell us all about Arrakis, and the Empire, and the Spice Economy, and these various fascinating elements of the Universe that would be less interesting if they weren’t delivered to the reader through a narrative structure. Herbert needs a narrative to effectively reveal his world to the reader, but for me Paul and his journey just wasn’t engaging enough and showed to me where Herbert’s strengths and weaknesses lie.

This may make it sound like I didn’t enjoy the Dune, but this is not the case. I enjoyed the majority of what I read – I said at the beginning that this is world-building at a complete level, and I stand by that. Characters are well-written and virtually all of the main characters begs you to ask further questions about their pasts. The final few chapters of the book do deliver some solid payoff in terms of resolution, and there is an energy to the final chapter that was missing throughout the majority of the book. I would have read twice and more again Appendices on the various histories and factions, and I am emboldened to start looking into the successive books in the Dune universe as I want to know more.

Ultimately, this is a masterpiece in world-building that is hindered by its communication to the reader through a narrative that is often dry. Does the good outweigh the bad? Definitely. Can the slower sections be excused as me being personally picky? I genuinely feel that most readers will notice things slow down, and by the time you reach Book 3 you will lament that there are so few pages left when it looks like things are only starting to pick up. But by the time all is said and done, you will be left with the sense that you have journeyed to someplace different and that the experience was a unique one. I recommend that anyone who feels like the middle chapters of the book are work persevere, because when all is said it done it will feel like work that has paid off. I feel somewhat cruel not giving this a 5-star rating, but I think my reasons for that are justified. This is definitely a review I will return to with some hindsight to see if anything has changed – but for now, I’ll stand by a solid 4-stars overall.
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