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nicolepaul_ine's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Child death, Death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Slavery, Torture, Pedophilia, Fatphobia, and Murder
yorgosson's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Child death, Blood, Death, War, Rape, and Violence
Moderate: Fatphobia and Addiction
Minor: Child abuse
serafinam's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Dune follows Paul Atreides, heir to his father's title, as his family moves to the planet Arrakis and is plunged into chaos.
My biggest complaints about the novel come from how minority characters are depicted and treated. Women in Dune are subservient to men, very manipulative, and are often depicted as slightly less intelligent than their male counterparts. While some of this can be explained by Paul's youth and the wickedness of some characters, none of the female characters are treated as equal and it does make the book harder to enjoy as a woman. The Fremen are more often that not depicted as mystical fanatics with outdated, or even primitive ways of living. Without their existence the entire plot would fall apart, and yet they are not treated with the respect they deserve, both as fictional people and as those based on an actual minority group. My final, and perhaps greatest issue, is with the Baron Harkonnen. It cannot be denied that he is a wicked, evil man--facts easily gleaned from his attempts to exterminate the House Atreides and his treatment of other characters. the inclusion of his penchant for young boys is wholy unnecessary to show just how evil he is. This is especially compounded by the fact that he is the only character we see to have same sex attraction.
I have a love/hate relationship with this book, though it does lean more towards love. I found the politics of the novel to be fascinating and the character motivations keep me guessing at who to trust at every turn. While the style of writing, lore introduced, and involved of the spice lends itself more similarly to high fantasy, it thrives as a solid science fiction novel. The time jumps and perspective changes could be a bit confusing at times, and I often found myself a little perplexed as to the importance of some characters, but I would still recommend this to anyone who loves works like Lord of the Rings, The Wheel of Time, or Brian Sanderson.
My biggest complaints about the novel come from how minority characters are depicted and treated. Women in Dune are subservient to men, very manipulative, and are often depicted as slightly less intelligent than their male counterparts. While some of this can be explained by Paul's youth and the wickedness of some characters, none of the female characters are treated as equal and it does make the book harder to enjoy as a woman. The Fremen are more often that not depicted as mystical fanatics with outdated, or even primitive ways of living. Without their existence the entire plot would fall apart, and yet they are not treated with the respect they deserve, both as fictional people and as those based on an actual minority group. My final, and perhaps greatest issue, is with the Baron Harkonnen. It cannot be denied that he is a wicked, evil man--facts easily gleaned from his attempts to exterminate the House Atreides and his treatment of other characters. the inclusion of his penchant for young boys is wholy unnecessary to show just how evil he is. This is especially compounded by the fact that he is the only character we see to have same sex attraction.
I have a love/hate relationship with this book, though it does lean more towards love. I found the politics of the novel to be fascinating and the character motivations keep me guessing at who to trust at every turn. While the style of writing, lore introduced, and involved of the spice lends itself more similarly to high fantasy, it thrives as a solid science fiction novel. The time jumps and perspective changes could be a bit confusing at times, and I often found myself a little perplexed as to the importance of some characters, but I would still recommend this to anyone who loves works like Lord of the Rings, The Wheel of Time, or Brian Sanderson.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Eating disorder, Colonisation, Death, and Fatphobia
Moderate: Violence, War, Xenophobia, Misogyny, Murder, and Pedophilia
Minor: Grief, Incest, and Gore
noahoha's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault, Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Pedophilia
teamstarburger's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
3.75
The pacing was a little off to me. I understand the reason behind it but felt like the first half dragged and the second half flew. I would not have finished it without the desire of seeing the movie to motivate me. I didn't think I would want to read any more in the series, but after finishing it I do wonder about some of the characters and may end up reading the second book at some point.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia
spw14's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Pedophilia, and Fatphobia
Moderate: Homophobia
asof's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, War, and Violence
Moderate: Pedophilia and Fatphobia
b0ygenius's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
mild spoilers ahead ??? kinda ???? i tried to be as vague as humanly possible
after spending a literal month reading this book i am finally done. oh my god.
book 1? show stopping jaw dropping i was gagged the whole time omfg. THE END?????? no like i was screaming. it was so intense from start to finish. and tbh that is all bc of my man duke leto atreides omfg. i was rooting for him from the start simply because he is played by THE oscar isaac in the 2021 movie and tbh i think he was my favorite character. like he came he saw he SERVED!!!!!!! this part was sooo good based on this i thought dune would become one of my all time favorites but unfortunately. this was most definitely the peak of this book and tbh i was thinking of giving this like a 3.5/5 but i loved book 1 so much that i can’t give it anything lower than a 4
book 2 tho…. omfg. soooooo sloooowwww i literally spent like a week reading book 1 and a week reading book 3 and then book 2 took me two weeks bc it was just so BORING omfg the first like 150 pages were just [redacted] and [redacted] wandering around the desert and it was boring. and one of my main problems with this book is that some things weren’t explored as thoroughly as they should’ve been like some side characters were given such a large role in the beginning of the book and then had 0 appearance for literally 400 pages only to appear at the end of the book briefly again. and some characters had such unsatisfying deaths especially the ones at the end like it just felt like we never got a satisfying ending to the arcs of a lot of the characters who died.
book 3 was also kinda boring the end was alright but again i thought it was so unsatisfactory. like we spent, not even an exaggeration, like 350 pages building up to this so you would think it would be some grand dramatic end but it rlly wasn’t. go girl give us nothing. paul at the end was cool tho he was rlly badass and kinda hot tbh 😦 i was so conflicted abt him for a lot of the book i kept flipping back and forth between liking him and not liking him but in the end i think he had a really great arc and his development was done pretty well but his like prescient awareness or whatever stuff was kinda hard to follow. and it was hard to follow his the development of his abilities.. like it was hard to tell just how powerful he was he would do things or have some vision or whatever and i would be like “damn since when can he do that???????” maybe that was on purpose but either way i did not like it. paul was kinda giving me whiplash but whatever
i can definitely see why this book is considered one of the greatest sci fi books of all time and i could see how this influenced later sci fi stuff like star wars and i definitely do not regret reading this but this definitely isn’t for everyone bc it is very very long and it can be hard to follow at times and there is a Looot of world building (but tbh i didn’t mind the amount of world building as much as i thought i would, i rlly liked how intricate and immersive and thought out the world is). i personally did not find it that hard to read and i think that’s because i learned some of the basic background info abt the characters/the world/the politics/etc before i started reading. like the house system, the main characters, the spacing guild, bene gesserits, the butlerian jihad, etc etc and i think that really helped me so if you want to read dune i would recommend looking at some beginner’s guides there are plenty online
after spending a literal month reading this book i am finally done. oh my god.
book 1? show stopping jaw dropping i was gagged the whole time omfg. THE END?????? no like i was screaming. it was so intense from start to finish. and tbh that is all bc of my man duke leto atreides omfg. i was rooting for him from the start simply because he is played by THE oscar isaac in the 2021 movie and tbh i think he was my favorite character. like he came he saw he SERVED!!!!!!! this part was sooo good based on this i thought dune would become one of my all time favorites but unfortunately. this was most definitely the peak of this book and tbh i was thinking of giving this like a 3.5/5 but i loved book 1 so much that i can’t give it anything lower than a 4
book 2 tho…. omfg. soooooo sloooowwww i literally spent like a week reading book 1 and a week reading book 3 and then book 2 took me two weeks bc it was just so BORING omfg the first like 150 pages were just [redacted] and [redacted] wandering around the desert and it was boring. and one of my main problems with this book is that some things weren’t explored as thoroughly as they should’ve been like some side characters were given such a large role in the beginning of the book and then had 0 appearance for literally 400 pages only to appear at the end of the book briefly again. and some characters had such unsatisfying deaths especially the ones at the end like it just felt like we never got a satisfying ending to the arcs of a lot of the characters who died.
book 3 was also kinda boring the end was alright but again i thought it was so unsatisfactory. like we spent, not even an exaggeration, like 350 pages building up to this so you would think it would be some grand dramatic end but it rlly wasn’t. go girl give us nothing. paul at the end was cool tho he was rlly badass and kinda hot tbh 😦 i was so conflicted abt him for a lot of the book i kept flipping back and forth between liking him and not liking him but in the end i think he had a really great arc and his development was done pretty well but his like prescient awareness or whatever stuff was kinda hard to follow. and it was hard to follow his the development of his abilities.. like it was hard to tell just how powerful he was he would do things or have some vision or whatever and i would be like “damn since when can he do that???????” maybe that was on purpose but either way i did not like it. paul was kinda giving me whiplash but whatever
i can definitely see why this book is considered one of the greatest sci fi books of all time and i could see how this influenced later sci fi stuff like star wars and i definitely do not regret reading this but this definitely isn’t for everyone bc it is very very long and it can be hard to follow at times and there is a Looot of world building (but tbh i didn’t mind the amount of world building as much as i thought i would, i rlly liked how intricate and immersive and thought out the world is). i personally did not find it that hard to read and i think that’s because i learned some of the basic background info abt the characters/the world/the politics/etc before i started reading. like the house system, the main characters, the spacing guild, bene gesserits, the butlerian jihad, etc etc and i think that really helped me so if you want to read dune i would recommend looking at some beginner’s guides there are plenty online
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Addiction, Blood, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Drug use, and War
Moderate: Body shaming and Fatphobia
ryan_ggaur's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
The world of Dune is designed with care from the smallest atom up, but Frank Herbert’s writing style and complex, political plot makes the book as cold and unwelcoming as the titular planet.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia, Homophobia, Pedophilia, and Misogyny
he_slaughtered's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Slavery, Kidnapping, and Suicide
Minor: Sexual violence, Fatphobia, and Homophobia