Dune
1965 • 704 pages

Ratings1,437

Average rating4.3

15

I started reading Dune in preparation for the up coming adaptation by Denis Villeneuve. I had heard a lot of good things about it but I was never a fan of the science fiction genre so I wasn't drawn to it.
That was until a read Frank Herbert's masterpiece.

Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, a young boy that, along with his family, travel to a planet call Arrakis, also know as Dune. Here, Paul's journey becomes one of growth and adaptation, understanding a different culture and becoming a leader.
But Frank Herbert's work subverts expectations of what a hero's journey is and uses it in favor of the overall theme of the book.

With a particular development of his protagonist, along side of the universe and cultures of his world, Herbert achieves an unique and deep worldbuilding as I only seen a few times.
He uses his main characters in a way that lets you in on the mental process of their desitions, telling you what they are thinking, even in conversations between them. This makes for some of the best parts of the books and I could only wish he did it more often.

At the beginning it can be difficult to understand all the information it contains, mainly because Herbert doesn't stop to explain more than the necessary for the particular scene and even then there're times when one can feel lost, but that feeling fades with the more you read.

But the most important part of Dune is the plot, the story. And Frank Herbert doesn't let anything get in the way of what his trying to tell. Dune goes to the point, everything in the book is for the story to move fowards, even with this unique universe to explore.
This sometimes can make the development of some side characters a little flat but being a saga I hope that this gets better deeper in the subsequent books, but it is a point that I have to highlight.

In conclusion, I think Dune is an unique and interesting book with a very good prose that Herbert utilize to develop his characters and universe. Sometimes it can get a little bit confusing and some characters feel flat but everything else in the book makes up for it.
I only hope that it can improves on his not so high points and expand this world and characters in the rest of the saga.
I wasn't a science fiction fan but once I got hook to Dune I couldn't let it go and I can't wait to read Dune Messiah and beyond.

April 28, 2021Report this review