I can't explain what attracted me to Dune--the 1965 science fiction epic by Frank Herbert, winner of the first Nebula Award and (in a tie, with This Immortal by Roger Zelazny) the Hugo Award--any better than T.E. Lawrence could explain what attracted him to the Arabian Peninsula. The book's prestige among genre fans was a factor, as were admissions by many that they read it in junior high school and found Herbert accessible. As inclined as I am towards local coffeeshops, perhaps Herbert's head space while writing the novel in Santa Rosa, California from 1959-1965 appealed to me most. I could almost smell the incense burning.



The galactic intrigue begins in the year 10,191 with excerpts from writings by the Princess Irulan, daughter of the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV and a holder of literary pretensions. The princess offers some perspective at the beginning of each chapter, hipping the reader to what's happening behind the scenes. We're introduced to Paul Atreides, the 15-year-old heir of Duke Leto Atredies, a charismatic planetary governor of Caladan whose popularity among the noble houses of the universe has garnered the attention, and jealously, of the emperor. Setting a trap, he offers Leto the planet of Arrakis, the most valuable real estate in the universe.

Arrakis is inhospitable to all but titanic-sized sandworms and a fierce tribe of desert dwellers known as the Fremen, but produces the priceless spice melange. In a future where mankind no longer relies on computers, the spice is a transformative agent that expands consciousness: empowering the navigators of the Spacing Guild who travel through space, the savvy Mentats who advise heads of state and the bewitching Reverend Mothers of the Bene Gesserit sect who see the future. Leaving their ancestral home on the verdant Caladan for Arrakis with Paul is his mother, the Lady Jessica, the duke's concubine and a Bene Gesserit, who is a black sheep among the Reverend Mothers.

Thus spoke St. Alia-of-the-Knife: "The Reverend Mother must combine the seductive wiles of a courtesan with the untouchable majesty of a virgin goddess, holding these attributes in tension so long as the powers of her youth endure. For when youth and beauty have gone, she will find that the place-between, once occupied by tension, has become a wellspring of cunning and resourcefulness." -- FROM "MUAD'DIB, FAMILY COMMENTARIES" BY THE PRINCESS IRULAN

On moving day, Paul is visited by the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, Jessica's teacher, for a rite of passage and a test. The old crone confronts Jessica, who defied the Bene Gesserit order that she bear a daughter the sect intended to marry off to Feyd-Rautha, heir to the House Harkonnen, the industrious enemies of House Atredies. The Bene Gesserit believed the progeny of such a pairing would have produced the Kwisatz Haderach, a male with the power to see through space and time as they do. Jessica opted to bear Duke Leto the boy he wanted instead. The Reverend Mother sees some potential in Paul, but offers no hope his father will live to an old age.

Paul's education is overseen by his father's advisors--Thufir Hawat (a Mentat), the troubadour-warrior Gurney Halleck, the swordmaster Duncan Idaho and Dr. Wellington Yueh--but mostly by the Lady Jessica, who has trained her son in Bene Gesserit meditative techniques. Arriving in the garrison town of Arrakeen, Jessica encounters a housekeeper named the Shadout Mapes who is full of Fremen superstitions, intrigued as to whether Jessica may be the One, mother to the messiah who their prophecy holds will lead their people out of slavery. After Paul saves the housekeeper's life from a Harkonnen booby trap intended for him, she confides to the boy that there is a traitor among them.

Duke Leto forges an alliance with the Fremen, using imperial planetolgist Liet Kynes--who's gone native on Arrakis--as a liaison. Operating with the blessing of the Emperor and the assistance of his Sardaukur troops, the gluttonous Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and his Mentat, Piter De Vries, attack Arrakeen after the traitor in the House Atredies lowers the garrison's shields for them. The Baron exiles the Lady Jessica and Paul so he can claim plausible deniability in their deaths, but mother and son find refuge with the Fremen, with the tribe's revered leader Stilgar and Kynes' daughter, Chani. Paul learns of the prophecy of Muad'Dib, the desert mouse, who the Fremen hold as their messiah.

Muad'Dib could indeed see the Future, but you must understand the limits of his power. Think of sight. You have eyes, yet cannot see without light. If you are on the floor of a valley, you cannot see beyond your valley. Just so, Muad'Dib could not always choose to look across the mysterious terrain. He tells us that a single obscure decision of prophecy, perhaps the choice of one word over another, could change the entire aspect of the future. He tells us "The vision of time is broad, but when you pass through it, time becomes a narrow door." And always, he fought the temptation to choose a clear, safe course, warning "That path leads ever down into stagnation." -- FROM "ARRAKIS AWAKENING" BY THE PRINCESS IRULAN

Dune held me for over 616 of the paperback's 794 pages (appendixes, a map and an afterword by Brian Hebert stretch this edition to 883 pages) and in spite of its headlong dive into anticlimax, distilling the novel's pleasures have reminded me of what a fantastic trip it is. What separates Dune from the work of most of Herbert's peers is the finesse of its prose and the depth of its characters as well as its ideas, which in a novel of this size, are plenty. Rather than write a novel in six sleepless nights as many before and since have done in this genre, Herbert took six years to research and write his science fiction, and the quality control shows.

Names like "Beast" Rabban or Count Hasimir Fenrig materialized to form clear images of Herbert's characters in my mind, and I liked how each of them--whether noble, assassin or servant--served their institutions and played their part in this galactic intrigue to their end. No one in Dune remains static; there is work to be done or movement to be had at all times. The novel is like a chess game and the faster it plunged toward its climax, these characters did begin to resemble game tokens instead of humans. Herbert also writes entrances much better than he does exits--a symptom of book one in a series, perhaps--but envisions a wealth of roles for women in his universe.

Dune is science fiction and if you're in the market for having your imagination stretched, you came to the right place. I found Herbert's ideas to be vastly compelling, many of them explored in detail and at length with fluid prose, as if the author were an anthropologist reporting back on a real universe: A future where expanded consciousness is more powerful than any machine. A matriarchal religious sect steering the genetic future of mankind. A consciousness expanding spice exploited as a commodity. A planet so arid that special suits are required to retain the body's moisture and tears are a phenomenon. There's even song verse!

"This was a song of a friend of mine," Paul said. "I expect he's dead now, Gurney is. He called it his evensong."

The troop grew still, listening as Paul's voice lifted in a sweet boy tenor with the baliset tinkling and strumming beneath it:

"This clear time of seeing embers--
A gold-bright sun's lost in first dusk.
What frenzied senses, desp'rate musk
Are consort of rememb'ring."

Jessica felt the verbal music in her breast--pagan and charged with sounds that made her suddenly and intensely aware of herself, feeling her own body and its needs. She listened with a tense stillness.

“Night’s pearl-censered requi-em …
’Tis for us!
What joys run, then—
Bright in your eyes—
What flower-spangled amores
Pull at our hearts …
What flower-spangled amores
Fill our desires.”

And Jessica heard the after-stillness that hummed in the air with the last note. Why does my son sing a love song to that girl-child? she asked herself. She felt an abrupt fear. She could sense life flowing around her and she had no grasp of its reins. Why did he choose that song? she wondered. The instincts are true sometimes. Why did he do this?

After several abandoned attempts to adapt Dune to film, particularly in the wake of Star Wars, a big screen version produced by Raffaella De Laurentiis and written and directed by David Lynch opened in December 1984. Notable today for being the first big budget motion picture produced by a woman (with a production price tag of $40 million) and a rare studio assignment from the visionary who'd give the world Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, the film was a commercial disappointment and was nearly universally panned by critics, but has resurfaced as a cult movie.

Shot in Mexico, the eclectic cast featured Kyle MacLachlan as Paul, Francesca Annis as Jessica, Jürgen Prochnow as Duke Leto, Freddie Jones as Thufir Hawat, Patrick Stewart as Gurney Halleck, Richard Jordan as Duncan Idaho, Dean Stockwell as Yueh, Kenneth McMillan as Baron Harkonnen, Brad Dourif as Piter De Vries, Sting as Feyd-Rautha, Linda Hunt as Shadout Mapes, Max Von Sydow as Dr. Kynes, Everett McGill as Stilgar, Sean Young as Chani and Virginia Madsen as Princess Irulan. Herbert's ideas are evocatively translated, but Lynch's commitment to imagery over story is an acquired taste.

n  n    “there is no escape — we pay for the violence of our ancestors.”n  n

a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

dune is widely regarded as the progenitor of the (modern) sci-fi genre. mixing the political intrigue of feudalism with philosophy, environmentalism, and a classic hero’s journey, the story centers on the atreides family as they journey to one of the most fought-over planets in the galaxy: arrakis.

this desert planet is hostile in every meaning of the word: in its harsh climate and dangerous fauna, its native population of tough-as-nails fremen, and in the presence of atreides’ rival house harkonnen. all are factors that pose a risk to atreides’ control of the planet.

thanks to an omniscient narrator, we’re keenly aware of any character’s thoughts and motivations throughout the story. our main protagonists, however, are undoubtedly paul atreides, a 15-year-old boy rumored to be a child of prophecy, and lady jessica, paul’s mother, a powerful leader with superhuman abilities that she’s also taught to her son.

a lot of elements of this story will feel like known classics. we witness paul’s growth from boy to man as he accepts the mantle of leadership, and passes several tests of adulthood. not only his family and his father’s trusted lieutenants act as his teachers, but so does the planet itself. we know he’s gotta stumble and fall before he can take his rightful place as his father’s heir.

however, i was very pleasantly surprised by the level of sophistication in the themes that herbert weaves into the story: profit versus environmentalism (see also: a metaphor for oil) with a side-serving of ecology and terraforming, the possibly violent combination of mysticism/religion and politics, and the level of manipulation that’s often required to move about in a rigid world like that of dune.

it’s a constant give and take, though, which i thought permeated every single aspect of the story. one or two things are really, really cool and then whatever accompanies those things is decidedly not cool.

let’s take the characters. where paul and jessica feel like very complete, flawed, and complex characters, a lot of the others are like… it’s not even cardboard. hot air, then? i mean, we have a fat, gay, pedophile antagonist, for god’s sake. and paul’s love interest is just there for only that.

same goes for cultural aspects: the way the fremen culture is fully based on the preservation of water, working its way into language and customs and misunderstandings, is amazingly immersive. but then the rest of their ways are just a very obvious, butchered rip-off of a westernized perception of the imazigen, the indigenous people of north africa (with some buddhist-esque sayings thrown in).

then there’s the rigidity of the patriarchal aspects of the galaxy’s feudalist society: we see lady jessica defy them and play around them in a myriad of clever, powerful ways that establish her agency and her ability to function beyond any sexist female archetypes. sure, she might’ve birthed a messianic figure, but she’s a smart political advisor and she can whoop any warrior’s ass because she’s a superb fighter, too.

and yet all the other women in the story are either (1) background fodder, (2) making babies, (3) thinking about making babies so bloodlines can be manipulated in a very creepy eugenics way, or (4) servant, concubine, wife or pleasure slave.

meanwhile, paul is out there literally defying the rigid view (and conflation) of sex and gender to a point where the subtext argues he’s neither man nor woman, but all the other characters remain firmly entrenched in their subscribed roles (which is easy, here: man = battle, woman = birth).

and oh, arrakis, you were done dirty too. a hostile desert planet with something as amazing as sandworms! and spice, the product that shapes galaxy-wide profit systems and changes the very fabric of the people consuming it. and yet the book never seems to move beyond Generic Sandy Places and has a complete lack of engaging descriptions. i also can’t believe i got baited by such a cool terraforming plot and then it NEVER happened. shame on you, herbert!

see what i mean? it’s inevitable: in this book, you cannot have your cake and eat it, too. do you want to have a cool thing? sure, but you’ll also have to accept a very uncool thing alongside it. so whether you’ll enjoy this book probably depends on how well you can stomach the free bad stuff herbert is handing out alongside his interesting concepts.

but when it’s good, it’s Pretty Damn Good. the quotability of this book is off the charts. philosophically, there’s so many interesting discussions going on about identity, responsibility, revenge, defying existing systems. and unlike most reviewers out here, i actually loved the dialogue -- which is great, because that’s about 80% of the book.

(the other 20% are cursory descriptions, prophetic visions, and terrible action scenes.)

the impact of this book cannot be denied. does it have problems? yes. myriads. the orientalism and white savior stuff probably being some of the worst offenders.

did i still have an unexpectedly good time reading it, which might have been tinted by my nostalgia glasses? also yes.

i like tortured heroes and women who are so confident in themselves that they’re like, fuck you, i’m powerful enough to create the messiah so i will. i like it when bad guys get stabbed and when scientists have beautiful, romantic dreams about terraforming.

at the end of the day, this book is kinda like star wars, but with more substance. or wait, is it the other way around -- and star wars is like dune, but with less substance…? either way, both have more than enough sand.



✎ 4.0 stars.

As a teenager, ‘Dune’ blew my mind. I fell into the story and loved all the grandiose ideas. Over time, I reread the novel at least a half dozen times and read the follow-on novels. Looking back over time, I idolize it a bit less, recognizing some flaws, but it will always have a special place in my literary heart. For me, it's still one of the very best.

“A beginning is a very delicate time.”

From a literary standpoint, my favorite thing is how it throws us in the middle of a universe 20,000 years in the future and makes no attempt to explain the backstory. And there is an incredibly rich backstory. There is a spacefaring Old Empire, which became corrupt and fell. There was an AI Superintelligence that enslaved mankind, only to be overthrown, itself, leaving a universe where technology is used scarcely and carefully such as human computers knows as mentats. There is the founding of the Bene Gesserit religious cult, a collection of women whose goal is to manipulate mankind towards stability and enlightenment. None of this is clearly explained in the original novel, which really pushes the reader to deep curiosity and to make many inferences. It’s this iceberg approach which gave me the most joy when reading it.

“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."

From a science fiction standpoint, it’s filled with wonderous ideas – alien creatures (sandworms), space travel, cool ornithopter craft, and of course the trippy, psychic power-inducing spice! So, despite having to infer all the intricate backstory, we do get to experience firsthand an imaginative, fully realized alien future.

“He who controls the spice, controls the universe.”

So, what are the flaws? Well, perhaps the biggest, which it shares with many epic western stories (Last of the Mohicans, The Last Samurai, Dances with Wolves, Avatar, etc.) is the ‘white savior’ trope. I think it’s a valid criticism, but in Dune, Paul embraces the Fremen culture and does not try to change them or tell them how to live. This is addressed more deeply in the follow-on novels, as well. Another is treatment of women (largely - through the Bene Gesserit) as conniving and manipulative. In addition, women are used for marriage to develop alliances. Finally, one could make a case that the book explores eugenics, possibly the most problematic issue. It’s not far off from the concerns in Star Wars with midichlorians and the Skywalker bloodline. I personally find it difficult to defend any type of eugenics as an ethical plot device.

“Irulan shall be my wife, opening the way for an Atreides to take the throne.”

However, on the positive side, the plot has some real strengths. It’s clearly anti-colonialist and pro-environmentalist long before it was cool to be those things. It questions the powers of church and state and examines the implications of culture-clash. It examines how religion affects politics, and politics affect religion. Capitalistic greed is cast in a very ugly light. One might even call it anti-western thinking. There are strong female characters with intelligence and real power. And, through its backstory, it also examines the dangers of overreliance on technology.

“The willow submits to the wind and prospers until one day it is many willows—a wall against the wind. This is the willow’s purpose.”

Despite what your jeweler will tell you, no diamond is truly flawless. ‘Dune’ remains a masterpiece, in scale, ideas, and storytelling. It’s not perfect, but it’s influential and entertaining. Five sand blown stars for this epic, complex, and well-told masterpiece.

Ok, my only reference for Dune was the 1984 movie with Kyle MacLachlan. And, honestly, it was the main reason I've always wanted to read this book.


Ohmygod look what that fake-looking piece of plastic shit is doing to poor MacLachlan's nose? How was he even able to act with that thing pushing his nostrils to the side of his face? I can't stop looking at it!

Anyway.
I remember loving that movie when I was young. Ahhhh. I honestly didn't remember much about it other than it was sorta weird, there were giant worms, a bunch of people had glowing blue eyes, and Sting was in it.



After listening to this audiobook, I decided to rewatch the movie and relive the good times.



Wow. Just wow.
What in the holy hell did I just watch? Because whatever it was, it certainly didn't have much to do with the actual book. There were some fucking weird changes that they made to the movie that really didn't do anything for the plot. Like that gross dude with the shit in his face that flew around in that goofy air suit?



In the book, he's just a fat dude!
And that thing they do where they all have drain plugs attached to their hearts?
Not in the book, either!
In fact, none of that fucknut crazy/gross sci-fi shit is in the book.



Blowing shit up with their voice guns? Nope.



Bald Bene Gesserits? Nope.



Bugs with butthole mouths? Nope.



Mentat's with clip-on eyebrows who drink juice that gives them herpes lips? Nope.



Captain Jean-Luc Picard going into battle with a pug? Fuck no!



The list goes on and on...

Not that it should matter.
But it does! Because I was expecting something realllyreallyreally different, and if you go into this (like me) you may end up...well, not disappointed but maybe shocked?
Having said that, I think the book was definitely better.
There was no reason for ass-mouth monsters or oily rock stars in weird rubber underwear. It just makes a lot more sense the way Herbert wrote it.
It's a magic is science tale set in space with an incredibly interesting look at how politics and religion can hold hands with each other and make war babies. I can see why people rave about it. It's honestly an incredibly insightful novel.
You know, if you're into that sort of thing...



A little dense, but worth it.
But dense. That's worth saying twice because this thing is massive and you may get lost in it if giant word monsters aren't your jam when it comes to reading.



I listened to the Audible version which is 21 HOURS (and 2 minutes!) long and might be the way to go for anyone looking for the easy way out.
And I am ALWAYS looking for the easy way out.

Omg! I found a Folio Society Edition a bit cheaper and brand new! You can see all of the art online but look at this cover! Now I have this and Little Women I actually got from their site. I need to get more as I can

TW: pedophilia and rape off page

Although this is discussed as a highly influential work in scifi, now having read it, I do think we have evolved past the need for this to be part of the canon. This book was a bit of a mess with the characters, world, and plot all feeling a bit disjointed and half baked. The world, while interesting and obviously very detailed, is barely explained to the reader and relies heavily on the appendix without actually providing context in the story (with the exception of a few things like spice and the worms). These characters all felt a little flat and/or underutilized. The plot felt like two separate books, while being peppered with themes of glorifying colonialism, white saviors, and lack of agency for most of the women. Although I understand that is a product of when it was written, it still points to how there are much better works that have been written since even if they were influenced by this. I’m interested to see what they do with the movie adaptation. I’ll have a review and discussion on my channel coming up.

“Fear is the mind-killer.”

by now i’ve made it known how much i loved the second movie, so i impulsively decided to read the book. i honestly don’t even know how to explain the story since there’s so many moving layers and characters within Dune, but i’ll try my best lol. just know that i enjoyed this and have gained way more insight into the minor details and character manuevring that was left out in the movies.

“Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.”

Dune follows Paul Atreides, Duke of a noble family on the inhospitable planet of Arrakis. the main source of power comes in the form of Spice— a drug that can enhance consciousness while also extending lifespans. there’s multiple pov’s: Paul, his mother Jessica, the rival families the Harkonnens and Fenrings, along with the desert people called Fremen. they all have separate motives and act accordingly to their respective plans to gain power. there was so much i wasn’t aware of and the ending honestly pleasantly surprised me. i’m so curious to continue the books eventually and the world building was so expansive beyond what i was originally imagining.

➛ Florence Pugh and Zendaya got me reading this book since the second movie was so good !! i already started listening to the audio and the full cast and sound effects ?! Ok production