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2010-02-27 18:09:53

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Dune by Frank Herbert review

What can I say about Dune that hasn't already been said? The book has been out there for more years than I have been, and it has been made into a couple of movies, one in 1984, the other version in 2000. It's a good book. I remember thoroughly enjoying the book when I read them 18 years ago when I was 12.

That being said, I gotta admit that I found it a little difficult to read this time. Could be that I read mostly at night when my mind is pretty exhausted already, or it could be that I'm just not as smart as I thought I was. Either way, there were times that I thought that Herbert was beating me to death with big giant words, and then I'd just have to put the book away for the night. The first 20 pages or so were rather akin to being dumped naked in the woods blindfolded. I was tired, and lost, and so confused about what was going on. So for the next two days, I read the appendices and studied the map in the back, then spent countless hours reading through the handy “Terminology of the Imperium” glossary at the front. That made reading the book a whole lot more enjoyable for me. I suggest that when you read the book, you start with those things as well, or at least the glossary, so you don't have to spend quite so much time flipping to it while trying to get into the story.

Being a rather visual reader (I get mental pictures of the characters and scenes in the book as I read) I struggled a bit getting into the book every night. I could picture the people and places okay, but only because I've seen the 1984 movie several times. To top it all off, things I remember from the movie and from reading it when I was 12 either weren't in the book, or I just totally missed them. I did read books 2, 3 and 4 back then too, so maybe I'm just remembering stuff from those books. I very vividly remember there being a part about some Guild guy -a pilot I wanna say- in a tank of some sort, and that was completely missing from this book.

While it is a pretty good book, I recommend getting at least the first few books in the series, rather than just this first one. It doesn't really stand on it's own all that well in my opinion. Again, it could be because I read some of the others many years ago, and I know there is more to the story, but I felt like there was so much missing. I suppose that's how a sequel got written. Either that, or I've just gotten too accustomed to reading soft fiction and having stores tied up in neat little packages at the end. It didn't really leave you hanging or anything, I suppose you can infer what happens next all on your own, but there was just this feeling of “There's more to this, I know there is, where are the rest of the chapters??” at the end.
/ [hanhepi]

More book reviews

2010-02-28 [Paul Doyle]: The wormlike Third-Stage Navigator confronting Emperor Shaddam IV at the beginning of the 1984 film was movie-specific. You don't really "see" a Guild Navigator until Dune Messiah. This would be Edric.

The first Dune novel was a pain in the ass for me to read, at first, because I was constantly flipping back and forth from the story to the appendices in the back of the book. I didn't really start appreciating the novel until the third time through, when I finally fully understood what was happening without resorting to the flip-flopping. The six-novel sequence is worth finishing, even if it does become extremely bizarre by Chapterhouse: Dune. The prequels and sequels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson are easier to read, but they completely lack Herbert's vision, power and passion (and unique style)! At worst, they wholly desecrate Frank Herbert's universe. What they did to Daniel and Marty . . . *shakes a fist at Brian Herbert*

If you haven't seen the miniseries, see them. They do take some liberties, but nowhere near as many as they do in the 1984 flick ("weirding modules" my assd!) and are worth the extended watching time.

2010-02-28 [hanhepi]: that certainly explains why i didn't see them here! XD (there were navigators at the end of book 1, but they were normal looking, if kinda portly, humans, with a limited ability to see the future)

oh, good it wasn't just me!

i'd like to read the entire series. i was only able to get the first one last time i bought books (hooray local thrift store and their 25 cent book sale!) though, so it's going to be a while before i can order/buy the other 9 books.

the mini-series... that was the one from 2000, right? i think it aired on Si-fi? i saw it when it came out. i'd really like to watch both the original movie and the sci-fi one again. (but especially the original. mmmm Shirtless young Stiiiiingggggg. *drools*)

i wondered what was up with the guns. they talked about projectile weapons, but there was soooo not a scene in the book where Muad'Dib was a word that made them fire.

2010-03-01 [Paul Doyle]: Gahh, Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen looked nothing at all like Sting! He looked a lot more like the Feyd-Rautha in the miniseries, though they made him too "pretty" (well, OK, so Baron Vladimir Harkonnen was very gay, but Feyd was much more into women!) The miniseries came out in 2000 and had William Hurt miscast as Duke Leto Atreides (Duke Leto looked much more like the German actor who played him in the 1984 movie . . . kind of like a black-haired/bearded Burger King). Most of the Guild people did not look as distorted as the Navigators, who got that way from consuming incredible amounts of melange which aided their prescience and their abilities to fold space without the benefit of computer technology (which was banned in the series for thousands of years, dating back to the Butlerian Jihad).

2010-03-01 [hanhepi]: looking like him or not, he's still hot in that movie. XD but yeah, i got the impression he was the same age as Paul, or really close to the same age, and both of them looked waaaay older than 15-17 in the movie, and the miniseries.

yeah, one of the appendixes explained the Jihad, and how it contributed to the development of the Mentats, Bene Gesserit, and Guild, as well as the OC Bible. after reading those, it really does help the flow of the story a whole lot.

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