Dune
By: Frank Herbert
An epic novel with a complicated mother figure? A space witch of sorts sold to a powerful Duke for breeding who falls madly in love with him and therefore screws up the breeding plans…
Yeah I bet you can guess my favorite character.
Though I’m betting the writers of the upcoming Dune movie treat her adaptation better than Cat over on Game of Thrones but that’s a whole other story.
So I was worried I wouldn’t read Dune in time for the movie. Turns out that wasn’t an issue. Also I’ve heard mixed things about this novel over the years about Paul Atreides whose family is sent to rule over the Uber-powerful spice world and there betrayed by an old grudge and another powerful family.
I come down on the side of… I liked it. It’s a surprisingly easy read.
But I can also easily recognize the problems and I think it’s one of those books where the ideas presented take on more of a life of their own even outside of the books so it gives you so much to think about that it kind of papers over the cracks.
The cracks being a poorly paced second half and characters that tend to become more figures as the book goes on and so the dialogue gets a lot iffier. Yes I can understand to that the book really throws you into it I have to admit being highly interested in the movie I knew a lot of the information already and you may want to check out some Dune videos on-line. Quinn’s Ideas has some of the best information I found.
For me I love how Herbert did the ideas of prophecy, religion and a chosen one. I’ve already seen some white savior claims that are making me sigh. I definitely think before people start going off on the movie they should read the book.
So Dune is not going to be the best written easiest book you’ve ever read. But it is a journey that gives you plenty to think about. And that made it worth it for me. I’m going to continue the rest of the (Frank Herbert) written books in the series.
Recommend: Yes.
When I was a teenager I tried this book out once when I took it from the Library. For some reason I couldn’t really get into it. Having read this post, and of course with the movie coming up, I’m definitely planning on giving it another go though!😀
Yeah I fully admit I tend to have an easier time with some books when there’s a movie in the offing 🙂
‘Dune’ is one of those pop culture forces that I’ve always floated around but have been hesitant to jump into. It feels like there’s so much history to it and so much to read that beginning feels a little intimidating (like Stephen King’s ‘The Dark Tower’ series (or ‘Doctor Who’ (although the Doctor is not a great example as I jumped in years ago and can’t stop watching and rewatching it (or reading the novels (or the comics (or thinking about listening to the audio dramas…))))). But I just KNOW I’m going to be upset with myself if I see the movie without first having read the novel…or at least the first one. I’m impressed/a little envious that you tackled this!
It did help a great deal to have the movie to look forward to 🙂
I have so much stuff to do I’m only at 10% of the first novel so I will probably manage to just read the first one until whenever the movie comes out. I have no idea how they will show how powerful the witches are with the carefully planted cultivated legends and people being in fear and awe of them. We know all of this through Jessica’s internal monologue
I don’t know why but the lettering on the cover bugs me and yet I ‘m intrigued as to why it was done . What or how does it represent the book.
I don’t think the style represents anything in the book. Maybe they just wanted lettering that would really stand out?