“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

Dune is yet another book that I wouldn’t have picked up if it wasn’t for bookstagram. It always seemed too intimidating, too complex... maybe even a snooze-fest? Basically, it wasn’t for me. How wrong I was!

Dune is set on the desert planet Arrakis, where water is precious and the only thing of value is the “spice” melange. Paul Atreides is the heir to a noble family tasked with ruling this inhospitable planet. That is, until, the Atreides family is betrayed...

While writing this review and thinking about the journey that was reading Dune, I am overwhelmed with the NEED to continue on with the series. The world-building is fucking incredible, the characters are complex and captivating, and the political feuds are so intricate and gripping. Oh, and the pièce de résistance, those sandworms. Dune is a triumph!

Whilst the depiction of women is somewhat problematic in the Dune universe, I found myself most intrigued by the female characters. From Lady Jessica herself, Paul’s powerful and fearsome mother, to Alia, the most fucking badass toddler to ever exist in fiction possibly. I appreciate that although Paul is “The Chosen One”, he is still complex and flawed, and I don’t find myself actually liking him that much? Yet I still want to know more. I weirdly enjoyed the Harkonnen scenes the most, the most vile and villainous of villains that ever did exist.

I’m a little in awe of what Herbert was able to achieve - there’s just SO MUCH going on, yet all of the different themes and concepts are given equal weight. It’s literally impossible to break down everything I want to fangirl over and comment on in one single IG caption.

In summary, do not be intimidated by Dune. Let the spice flow. 4.5 stars.

n  History will remember us as wivesn

2021 update: Reading this at 16, at the age of Paul Atreides, was a brilliant book. Reading this at 23, is all about relating to Jessica. This has aged like fine wine and I cannot wait for the movie.

What a book. The science fiction version of Lord of the Rings, but with the politics and intrigue of Game of Thrones. I'll have to reread it again sometime.

Edit: It's 2021, the world is in flames. There is no better time to read this book. Fear is the mind killer. There's not much to say that hasn't been said about this book - masterful, artful, anthropological, ecological before its time; a character study, fleshed-out female characters and a story that will be remembered as Muad'Dib was.

P.S. Also Denis Villeneuve is going to knock this one out of the park. Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 are two of my favourite films of all time - I see no reason that Dune won't be among them.

[UPDATED]
I reread Dune for the first time in several decades and immensely enjoyed it. I also went back to watch the original cult feature film by David Lynch and had quite mixed feelings - while it was close to the overall aesthetic that Frank Herbert describes with the gorgeous desert sets and the terrifying worms, the parts of the story that were necessarily culled out was disturbing (that and the woeful special effects at the time trying (and IMHO failing) to visualize the personal shields that the characters wear in hand-to-hand combat).

For those who are just discovering Dune for the first time, it is essentially a messianic story on a desert planet (think of Jesus or perhaps Mohammed on Tatooine) in a universe dominated by a cartel (the Guild also known as CHOAM) with a monopoly on a drug (called mélange) derived from a rare material (spice) available only on the desert planet Arrakis (Dune). This drug is so powerful that it allows the Guild (and later Maud'dib) to leverage space-time singularities to defy the speed of light and travel anywhere in the universe. Overlaid on this foundation, the epic battle of the feudal houses of the noble Atreides and the evil Harkkonen houses rages, the betrayal of the former by the latter explicitly endorsed by the Emperor (himself an almost impuissant pawn of the Guild as well). All that to say that the fabric of the story is multilayered and as complex and complete a universe as you will find in George RR Martin or Dan Simmons.

There are several enhanced human species running around: the Mentats who have been cerebrally enhanced to be able to calculate like supercomputers (computers themselves having been banned!) and each then uses their predictive analytics for their assigned Dukes (or the Emperor) and the Bene Gesserit cult who are a sort of quasi-religious non-celibate nuns who have honed perception and language to the point of having developed nearly superpower-level strengths of persuasion which are almost universally feared and vilified as sorcery in the rest of the universe. Paul Atreides, heir to the throne, is born to Jessica, a Bene Gesserit, possessed some of these powers and when the family moves to Arrakis (part of the aforementioned Harkkonen plot) from their home planet Caladon, he appears to the native Freeman population as perhaps a fulfillment of their messianic prophecies and hopes.

In perhaps the most critical departure from the book, the Lynch movie does not really show Paul questioning the awesome power that he possesses and his assumption of the mantle as the Arrakis Messiah, the Maud'dib (something that the 2021 film by Denis Villeneuve does thankfully address). In the book, one aspect that I loved was how Paul struggled with this messianic destiny and did everything he could to subvert it. One of the unique gifts he received, presumably as the rare and unique offspring of a Bene Gesserit, was the ability to see possible outcomes (like a Mentat) and thus he could take decisions based on the most likely foreseen outcome. It made for great reading.

The other great thing about Dune is the aesthetic of this desert planet with impossibly huge worms under the surface who are mysteriously connected to spice and pose a danger to all creatures in the desert except for the Freeman. The still suit which recycles body water in the deep desert was brilliant as was the ever-present obsession with "water debt" of the Freemen. I really felt like I was walking unevenly (must not attract the worms!) through the sand with Jessica and Paul before their fateful encounter with the Freemen.

Dune is a well-deserved classic for all the reasons I mentioned above and probably much more that I missed. I have read it twice and gotten almost entirely different things out of it each time. I have since read all the canonical Frank Herbert books in the series and enjoyed it all immensely.

[UPDATE] I am looking forward to Denis Villeneuve's Dune in October 2021. The previews I have seen so far seem to be quite coherent with respect to the book. I was a fan of Lynch's Dune and am curious to see what Villeneuve does with this one. Feel free to comment below.
[UPDATE] Villeneuve’s 2021 film covers half of the book and does a fantastic job as both an homage to Herbert’s book and Lynch’s film. The casting, costumes, CGI, and script are all top-notch. Dune lovers have every reason here for rejoicing. One key difference from the Lynch film is that we do not see the Guild Navigators, so we can hope that they show up in the second half!
[UPDATE 2024]
I loved the 2nd DV adaptation especially the use of color and black and white as well as character arcs. There were a few deviations from the original, but nothing as idiosyncratic as Lynch’s rain on Arakis
In 1984. I can’t wait to see what he does with Dune Messiah.

Fino's Dune Reviews
Dune
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
God Emperor of Dune
Heretics of Dune
Chapterhouse: Dune

"Dune" is full of great ideas, many of which have been copied by other sci-fi books and movies. The most notable copycat is Star Wars. As I read "Dune", I was amazed by how much of the story was directly lifted by the Star Wars movies.

Of course, "Dune" is much darker than Star Wars and more epic in scope. The world-building is very well done, and Frank Herbert does a brilliant job addressing the philosophical and practical implications of trusting the fate of a world to a single messiah-type figure. Do the ends justify the means? Herbert leaves this as an open question.

Why only four stars? I subtracted one star because of the clunky writing style, which is a barrier for fully enjoying this work. This may be sacrilege, but I think this is a case where collaborative writing would have improved the work. With Frank Herbert as the ideas guy paired with someone who is devoted solely to writing, I think "Dune" could have risen to even greater heights.

Does the world need another Dune review? I very much doubt it needs mine but that never stopped me before, saturation be damned!

Dune in and of itself, in isolation from the rest of the numerous other Dune books, is by general consensus the greatest sci-fi novel of all time. You may not agree, and one book can not please everybody but statistically Dune comes closest to achieving just this. Witness how often you see it at or near the top of all-time best sf books lists.

I never read Dune with the intent to reviewing it before, it makes for a more attentive and actually more enjoyable reading experience. When I first read it in my early teens I did not really appreciate it, I thought it was good but overrated. There are just too much depth for my young mind to handle. I got the gist of the story just fine but the richness of the novel completely escaped me.

What makes Dune superior to most sf books is the quality of the world building. Frank Herbert went into painstaking details of Arrakis without ever bogging down the story. During the main body of the novel (excluding the appendices) he did not once resort to making info dumps. How many modern day sf authors can do that? Still, world building alone can not possibly account for the legendary status of the book. Herbert places equal emphasis on the characterization, plot and prose. The book is full of memorable characters from the badass Lady Jessica, to Paul Atreides who starts off as a fairly generic Luke Skywalkerish “chosen one” kid to a messianic figure always ready with a sage comment for every occasion. The villains are even more colorful, especially the super-sized Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, so fat he needs anti gravity devices to help support his girth (cue worthless yo papa so fat he needs suspensors jokes). And his psychotic nephew Feyd-Rautha who is a ruthless natural born killer and seems kind of gay for some reason.

When I read it as a young lad the book seemed very long, but by today’s gigantic epic sf/f books standard Dune’s 896 pages length does not seems like much of a challenge if you take into account almost 100 pages of appendices and glossary. It is a highly readable and accessible book that transports the reader to a very vividly realized place. If you are looking for a bit of escapism you can not beat reading Dune for the first time.

That's enough review I think, I just want to make a few random observations for people who are familiar with this book (more than half the people who read this review imagine):

- Most memorable scene for me is the “Gom Jabbar” test where Paul Atreides has his humanity tested by the Reverend Mother. What is yours?

- I love the little quotes from all those Muad'Dib books by the Princess Irulan. How many are there? Is there a “Muad'Dib’s Cookery Without Water” or perhaps a Muad'Dib popup book for the kids?

- The stillsuits are great, I want one!

- What is with all the “ah-h-h” business most (lesser) writers make do with an "ah!" or an "aha!". Are the characters having orgasms?

- Don’t skip the appendices, they are well worth reading.

- Last but not least, do check out Dune - Book Summary & Analysis by Thug Notes on Youtube, preferably after you have finished Dune; it's funny, insightful and informative. Come to think of it, if you are having any difficulty getting through Dune you may want to watch this.

My new favorite sci-fi

In my head, the purpose of this review is very clear. It is to convince YOU to read this book. Yes, you! Waste time no more. Go grab a copy.

Machiavellian intrigue, mythology, religion, politics, imperialism, environmentalism, the nature of power. All this set in a mind-boggling, frighteningly original world which Herbert ominously terms as an "effort at prediction". Dune had me hooked!

First impression

The very first stirring I felt upon opening the yellowed pages of Dune was that of stumbling upon an English translation of an ancient Arabic manuscript of undeniable power and potence which had an epic story to narrate. The tone was umistakably sombre and I realized Herbert was not here to merely entertain me, he was here to make me part of the legend of Muad'Dib. It was intriguing and challenging and heck, since I live for challenges I decided to take this one up too, gladly. The challenge was the complexity and depth of the plot, which left me perplexed, in the beginning. I knew there were dialogues which meant much more than their superficial meaning and was unable to grasp at it. I felt a yawning chasm between Herbert's vision and my limited understanding of it. However, of course, I plodded on and could feel the gap closing in with every page much to my joy and relief.

The Foreword

"To the people whose labours go beyond ideas into the realm of 'real materials'- to the dry-land ecologists, wherever they may be, in whatever time they work, this effort at prediction is dedicated in humility and admiration."

The foreword makes it pretty clear that Frank Herbert isn't kidding around. This is a serious effort at predicting how our world is going to look two thousand years from now and by God, it's a bloody good and detailed prediction. However, the real merit in this effort lies in the commentary on our lives in the present.

Why Frank Herbert is a genius

The setting of the book is arid futuristic. the plot is driven by political mind games reminiscent of The Game of Thrones. The issues he tackles are as modern as the colour television. Herbert's genius manifests itself in his ability to combine the past, the present and the future in one sweeping elegant move called Dune.

Plot and Setting

Dune is set in a futuristic technologically advanced world which after the Butlerian Jihad (the bloody war between Man and Machines) has eliminated all computers and passed a decree declaring "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a man's mind". Since there are no computers, the essential working of the galaxy is still medieval and feudal with heavy reliance on men and their dallying around. Lots of thriller potential right there. Men with superhuman analytical abilities called Mentats have taken the place of Computers. On the other hand, we have the Bene Gesserit, an ancient school of mental and physical training for female students (it gives them superhuman intuitive powers) who follow a selective breeding program which makes them feared and mistrusted through the Imperium. Their desired end product of this breeding program is the Kwisatz Haderach, a superman who’ll be able to glimpse into the future. How he’ll be able to do this is rooted in Herbert’s idea of determinism: given that one can observe everything and analyze everything, one can effectively glimpse the future in probabilistic terms. Quantum physics anyone? The Kwisatz Haderach is the proposed solution to the male-female dichotomy, between the analytical and intuitive.

The plot of Dune is almost wholly set on the desert planet of Arrakis (also referred to as Dune), an arid wasteland where water is so scarce that men have to wear stillsuits which recycle human moisture for further consumption. The source of the galaxy’s interest in the planet is Melange, a spice which bestows upon one longevity and prescient powers. Everything on the planet is permeated with the spice, the air, the sand, the food. Everybody on the planet is hopelessly addicted to the spice, their only hope for survival being their continued intake of the spice. The Spacing Guild, the economic and trading monopolistic arm of the Galaxy badly needs the spice for interstellar transport. This is because their frigates travel faster than the speed of light and hence travel backward in time. The spice is the only way they can look into the future and see their way ahead. How cool is that! All the powers on the Galaxy are out to mine the spice, braving the sandworms, their name merely an euphemism, for they are gigantic 200 metre long creatures which always come digging through the sand whenever spice mining is undertook. Always. There’s also another little glitch. There exist on the planet, the kickass native desert tribal Fremen, whom the foreign powers look down with suspicion and disdain. The Fremen ethos is one of survival and scarcity, driven by tribalism and egalitarianism. Okay, I’ll stop right there. No more spoilers about this. Except that they value water to the extent that spitting on a person is the highest honour they can bestow upon him.

Our protagonists are the Atreides family, consisting of the Duke, his Bene Gesserit concubine Jessica and their son Paul, who have been entrusted the stewardship of Arrakis. We discover the alien planet of Arrakis along with them, firstly with fear, suspicion and wonder and ultimately, love and respect. Paul Muad’Dib, however is no ordinary prince. There’s a teeny weeny chance he might be the Kwisatz Haderach, something which troubles him constantly and gives us our conflicted hero. The poor chap trips balls over the spice and has visions of black hordes pillaging and murdering around town bearing his flag and sees his dead body multiple times.

My favourite character, however has to be the Baron Vladmir Harkonnen, the most evil character I’ve ever come across in my literary excursions. He is ruddy ruthlessness, he is virile villainy, he is truculent treachery. He executes the inept chess players in his employ which says oodles about his badassery and his fondness for cold-blooded logic. He sees everything in simplistic chess terms. What is my best move? What is my opponent’s best move? Is there anything I can do to completely squash his move? Is there a tactic which leads to mate in three?

Themes

In this setting, Herbert does so much, it’s unbelievable. Religion, politics, the dynamic nature of power, the effects of colonialism, our blatant destruction of our environment are themes which run parallel to the intensely exciting and labyrinthine plot. He shows the paramount importance of myth making and religion for power to sustain over long periods of time. Man, as a political animal is laid completely bare.

Real life

Now these are my thoughts about what Herbert could have meant to be Arrakis-



It makes perfect sense. Herbert draws heavy inspiration for the religious ideology of Muad’Dib from Islam. He says “When religion and politics ride in the same cart and that cart is driven by a living Holy man, nothing can stand in the path of such a people.” which is the philosphy of the politics of Islam. Islamism in a nutshell.

The spice, much desired by everyone, is the oil. Baron Vladmir Harkonnen is symblomatic of the wily Russians. The Desert foxes Fremen are representative of the native Saudi desert-dwelling Bedouin tribe who have a strongly tribe-oriented culture and undoubtedly value water in equal measure. And the ultimate loser is the environment.

Why do good books get over?

I almost forget this is a science fiction novel, it’s that real. It is also scary and prophetic. It is a reading experience that will leave you dreaming of the grave emptiness of Arrakis and make you wish you were there to brave it all in the privileged company of the noble Fremen. Frank Herbert achieves the pinnacle of what a sci-fi author aspires to rise to; authentic world building.

RTC…maybe

He disfrutado con este libro exactamente lo mismo (o más) que la primera vez que lo leí.
Las aventuras de Paul Atreides, destinado a ser un auténtico mesías y salvador de Arrakis, me han vuelto a emocionar y sorprender.
Simplemente este libro tiene todo lo que me gusta:
-Personajes muy carismáticos (destacando OBVIO Jessicca, la princesa Irulan, el barón Harkonnen y Alia)
-Un worldbulding original y muy bien desarrollado (Desde la creación de Arrakis y los Fremen con su cultura tan particular, compleja y creíble, al universo galáctico, esos Harkonnen tan romanos decadentes, esas Bene Gesserit pérfidas y maravillosas)
-Una trama que crece y no se estanca nunca (llena de giros, sorpresas, acción... pero no falta de pensamientos metafísicos)
-Juegos de poder (intrigas palaciegas y trepidantes movimientos políticos)
-Una intención final crítica (sobre la manipulación religiosa, la figura del mesias, el ecologismo..)

Vamos, este libro para mi sigue siendo un buen ejemplo de lo que es una historia bien contada, original, entretenida y que consigue al mismo tiempo darte que pensar y dejar poso.

Sin duda voy a seguir con la saga, esta vez sí, el universo que crea Herbert es tan rico e interesante que no puedo quedarme así (aunque el final de este libro es completamente cerrado).

Is it space opera? Is it political commentary? Is it philosophical exploration? Is it fantasy? _Dune_ is all of these things and possibly more. One thing I do know: it's a kick-ass read!

I've loved this book since I first plunged into it's mightily constructed, weird and obscure world. Of course it's hailed as a classic, and I am one of those that agrees. The sheer magnitude of Herbert's invention, his monumental world-building tied with an exciting story of betrayal, survival, rebellion and ultimate ascendance are more than enough to guarantee that.

His characters too, are worthy of note: Paul Atreides the young heir to not only a ducal throne, but the hopes and desires of the oppressed population of an entire planet and the strange otherworldly powers of prescience and command that are his unique birthright; his mother Jessica torn between devotion to her family and her pledge to a generations-long plan spawned by a secret order bent on controlling the universe from behing the scenes; Chani and Stilgar the wild yet honourable representatives of a dangerous people just waiting to burst their chains and explode onto an unsuspecting universe. Add to these heroes the malign Baron Harkonnen and his debased nephews Feyd Rautha and "the beast" Rabban, the spiteful and covetous Emperor Shaddam IV, masterminds of the fall of Paul's House, and we have the recipe for an exciting contest of wills with no less than the future of humanity at stake.

Even without an exciting story to drive it, the book is almost worth reading just to experience the world created by Herbert. 10,000 years in the future mankind has experience the "Butlerian Jihad" wherein all "thinking machines" were destroyed and the hatred of the technological has a religious conviction. In their place there are the Mentats, the "human computers" able to utilize the human mind to nearly it's full potential, drawing accurate inferences and conclusions with minimal data. There is the Sisterhood of the Bene Gesserit, a community of women who have honed their mental powers to the point of a near magical ability to coerce, tied with a training in politics and influence that would make Machiavelli proud. Finally is the Guild: a community of mutated humans, the sole "pilots" able to bend space and foresee their path amidst the void and thus keep interstellar trade and community together.

Both the Siterhood and the Guild owe their great powers to the mysterious spice Melange, the only product of the planet Arrakis (known colloquially as Dune) and the society of the Empire in general also depends on it for its "geriatric qualities". Dune is thus the linch-pin for all Imperial power. Without the spice, travel ceases, trade stops, life ends. He who controls the spice controls the universe.

Upon this stage is born Paul Atreides, the son of the Duke who is to take control of Arrakis as a fiefdom for the emperor. Paul is not merely the heir to political power though, for he is the last link in a chain of breeding that has been going on for generations, part of a plan created by the Bene Gesserit in the hopes of breeding a superhuman whom they could control. But Paul was born too early, his mother's rebellion against her orders have brought about an unforeseen occurrence. Now in the midst of political betrayal and the loss of all he has known Paul must also fight for survival amongst the most merciless tribe of humanity the universe has formed. Greater powers than any human before him has known will be thrust upon the young man, and the mantle of messiah will be his to accept or reject.

Did I mention that I love this book? Well I do. I highly recommend it to any and all. I must admit that there is the occasional infelicity in some of Herbert's prose (and a too-heavy reliance on inner monologues to either state the obvious or convey information to the reader), but overall I can forgive him this for having crafted such an excellent tale. Woven into the story of a tottering space empire are real questions about ecology, responsibility and human life that are well-worth thinking about. Politics is not just a veneer, but the lifeblood of this story and, to me at least, it makes it all the more exciting.

I'll admit right here that I am one of the few who actually likes all of the original Dune books, though I must admit that after the original trilogy Herbert seems to lose some of the strands of his narrative thread and my admiration is mostly due to the character of  Duncan Idaho  and the world-building. (But please avoid the prequels and sequels written by Herbert's son and Kevin Anderson in an attempt to cash in on the franchise, they are worse than anathema.)

Also posted at Shelf Inflicted

Inevitably, everybody seems to be revisiting Dune in some way or the other.

I don’t have too much to add to all the discussion, other than to remind anybody who is interested that the book was initially published in the 1960s (and by a publishing company printing automotive manuals, no less, since nobody else seemed interested).

The rest is history, of course.

Dune has since gone on to become one of the highest selling Science Fiction novels of all time, and has received numerous critical accolades over the decades. Chances are that just about all of your favourite Space Operas (in whichever form or format) would never have existed if it had not been for this book.

Dune has aged extremely well, possibly because of the way it skirts the subject of A.I. (or computer technology). It’s worth noting that this was not an omission on the author’s behalf. Without going into spoilers, “thinking machines” are prohibited in the Dune universe (there is a reason for this, but I won’t waste your time with details).

Or, it could just be because Herbert was such a fine writer.

As a side note, there are those that push the boundaries of the above prohibition, so there are some technologies that make appearances as the series progresses.

The 2021 film obviously shows a lot (it is gorgeous to look at for the most part) but it tells very little. This can be either good or bad, depending on your bent as a movie-goer, but if you are a reader, you owe it to yourself to read this book (even if it is just to give you the right to critique). There is so much more going on beneath the surface.

Herbert explores a number of themes, and the book is as poignant as it is exciting. It’s remarkable that all the events taking place here is accounted for in one book.

Recommended.
All the stars.
Favourites.

I never wrote much of a review for Dune – since I had read it before the Goodreads era – but…
Original “review” below:

This is such a magical book for me. I’m not even going to attempt to write an objective review. I simply don’t have the words.

Yes, this rating is based on emotion and on how this book affected me and my reading evolution over the years. And, frankly, that’s the best way to gauge it, anyway.

Long live the King!

I liked Dune. After taking a day to digest wtf I just read.

Now I can truly find meaning in my favorite Anakin Skywalker quote: “I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating — and it gets everywhere.”