Dune

Not gonna lie, I struggled a lot getting through this book as its pace became dreadfully pedantic at certain points of the story.

I found the protagonist to be rather bland and one-dimensional throughout most of the story, as it's made clear he is “The Chosen One” on top of the fact that he has an ability that almost strips him from being in peril. On the other hand, the construction of the antagonists and the way they executed their plans was enthralling, which gave you insight to what the protagonist would face in the future as well as providing the reader with worldbuilding (which is splendid, but at the same time challenging).

Yet (after pushing myself to continue reading), at around 78% into the book the protagonist does a complete 180 and surprised the shit out of me. All this build up, all the thoughts of people telling you he was incredible, all the people praising him, truly paid off. I say this because I couldn't believe he was the same character, as he suddenly delivers killer dialogues, takes smart and intelligent decisions, and completely destroys (verbally, spiritually, and physically) every single antagonist, person who tried to manipulate him, and those who underestimated or took him for granted; I mean, holy shit, it was EPIC, not because characters were telling you, but because you could see it; Suddenly, I could see just why the protagonist and novel are praised.

It turns out that many readers and critics also acknowledged that the book is hard to get through, mainly due to the surplus of themes that are delivered. So, after multiple readings, the novel improves. The prose itself was also quite challenging, as I found myself revisiting paragraphs many times to figure out what exactly happened, the more so whenever action “scenes” took place; it takes time to get used to. Nevertheless, I must say that Frank Herbert did create a phenomenal epic that definitely deserves the praise, but it's not one I would recommend to a casual reader unfamiliarized with the genre.