Reviews

Dune by Frank Herbert

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celticdragonfly333's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

danimal_crackers's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This book would be amazing if not for the pacing. This book almost took me out.

taplo_crono's review against another edition

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4.0

Really I would give it 4.5/5 stars. There’s a reason this book is so influential and considered to be “to science fiction what the Lord of the Rings is to fantasy.” Frank Herbert’s background as an ecologist truly shows in this book, as the planet of Arrakis is so detailed and well thought out that it is easy to imagine this planet and the culture around it could exist somewhere out there.

I will say that starting the book is kind of like putting a toddler at the bottom of the Mariana Trench and expecting it to swim to the surface. It’s quite daunting, and it got to a certain point where I just had to accept that some things I just wouldn’t understand immediately, and would just have to learn through exposure. Once I finally got a grip on the lore behind this story, I was able to thoroughly enjoy the plot and what was happening.

However if I had to criticize anything, I would have to say that for me personally, a lot of the characters fell a bit flat for me. Now there were obviously some standouts within the story like Jessica, Stilgar, Leto, and Gurney being a handful of characters that I truly came to appreciate and root for. However the villains of the story unfortunately just felt evil for the sake of being evil, and didn’t have much of a presence that ever truly made me care about them or worry for the protagonists. Another character that unfortunately fell flat for me was Chani, because despite having a relatively good moment at the end of the story, I just had a hard time feeling anything for her character or her relationship with Paul. Now as for Paul, I find him to be interesting. I see a lot of what Frank Herbert was trying to do with his character, and while I understand the point behind his character may not necessarily be to like him, outside of a handful of moments I just struggled to really care him. While to some degree I can understand his motives, I feel that is mostly from being told what the motives are, and never really seeing them. I have a lot more to say about Paul’s character, and while I sometimes enjoyed his pov sections, I feel like I enjoy Paul more as an idea than as an actual character. The idea is one that Frank Herbert clearly strongly believes in and feels is important to share. However as far as the ways Paul really interacts with the plot, I would’ve personally liked to see more of the struggle between his humanity and what he has to become (which one of my favorite scenes in the book towards the end of part 1 we actually do get to see this, but very rarely ever again).

Ultimately, the book was thoroughly enjoyable nonetheless, took a second to get into, but was definitely worth it. Part 3 of the book was genuinely engaging for a majority of the time, and I look forward to seeing how it was adapted for the screen. Will I read the rest of the series? One day. For the moment, I think Dune by itself works just fine as a standalone story if needed. Although I would be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little bit interested in where the story goes next.