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mnrondi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Fatphobia
Moderate: War and Death of parent
Minor: Drug use, Homophobia, and Child death
naomi_k's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Murder, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Colonisation, Death of parent, Death, and Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Xenophobia, War, and Torture
Minor: Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, and Fatphobia
parenthesis_enjoyer's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, Grief, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Classism, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Drug use, Racism, Colonisation, Addiction, Sexism, War, Mental illness, and Violence
Minor: Alcohol, Homophobia, Excrement, Sexual assault, Child death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Genocide, Sexual violence, and Torture
the Baron is a depraved gay stereotype in the extremeeurypterus's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-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
4.0
Classic for a reason. Great world building, lots of intrigue though Herbert's dialogue is kinda odd at times.
Game of Thrones but with space drugs and giant desert worms.
Game of Thrones but with space drugs and giant desert worms.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and War
Moderate: Homophobia
camelliagwerm's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Did I finish Dune (1965) or did Dune (1965) finish me?
(This book has definitely not aged well and some of it truly is Whack but the 2.5 stars are for the girlboss Lady Jessica and the worms. The worms are awesome.)
(Also I'm now Dune-pilled.)
(This book has definitely not aged well and some of it truly is Whack but the 2.5 stars are for the girlboss Lady Jessica and the worms. The worms are awesome.)
(Also I'm now Dune-pilled.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Homophobia, Slavery, Fatphobia, and Pedophilia
Minor: Incest
Probably one of the worst villains I have ever had the displeasure of experiencing in any form of media. Vladimir Harkonnen is the nastiest depiction I've encountered and is pretty much why I've flagged this book for half of the aforementioned content warnings. Depicting your villain as acaladbolg's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Homophobia, and Racism
Moderate: Violence and Pedophilia
Minor: Xenophobia
conniex2016's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-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? No
3.0
Dune is long. And the beginning is a slog through world building exposition. The villain is dark and evil but there’s a lot of monologue talking that can feel boring but it does demonstrate the villain’s scarily evil brilliance. Get past the first half and it starts to get interesting. The last third of the book is what saves it. I hope the second book brings more of the same and it might actually be a good series.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape and Homophobia
There is a reference to the villain raping a young male. The author is pretty homophobic but it isn’t something that’s always obvious. But to be fair that content shouldn’t be in there at all in my opinion.nozomi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Classism, Sexism, and Cultural appropriation
Moderate: Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Slavery, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Islamophobia, Fatphobia, Addiction, Drug use, Pregnancy, and Colonisation
Minor: Pedophilia, Homophobia, and Child death
thebookbin's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
tense
slow-paced
3.0
So I just finished Dune. I first read it in 5th grade and I’m glad I took the time to reread it but also... not.
A lot of the hot takes of this book is the “white savior” narrative but this book is a criticism of the white savior narrative. The only problem is that to criticize it, it includes the white savior narrative.
Paul, the main character, is the villain of the story. The interesting thing is that his opponents are also villains: imperialism has rendered the universe flawed with no good options.
Paul is definitely a white boy power fantasy. He is trained in all manner of fighting and his mother’s magic, but of course he surpasses her and eventually can see all of time: past-present-future. What starts as a boy’s quest to avenge his father becomes a new emperor’s takeover of the universe.
The first half of the novel is unbearably slow. So much time is dedicated to politics and such tiny machinations it comes as a shock when they are betrayed and the house falls to ruin. It really feels like the stakes are so high because we as the reader were invested in these politics only for them to become useless. But then the book just blasts forward so fast and abandons that attention to detail in order to skip ahead in time all of the sudden Paul is married with a baby. We don’t get to witness his rise of power within the Fremen, which makes sense if you’re looking at this story through the anti-white-savior lens. The story focuses on Paul’s rise to power as an evil dictator, so the politics of the Fremen aren’t really as important, but it’s such a jarring switch of pace.
It also completely escaped me the first time, idk how because it’s not subtle, but the lesser baddie is gay, but not really. The evil Vladimir Harkonnen, who enslaved and entire planet and who is the colonizer supreme has a taste for little boys. This is supposed to highlight his unnaturalness: at one point he tells his men to drug a slave boy and put him in his room because he’s “not interested in wrestling”. That and the fact that he’s fat are supposed to signal to us that he’s evil, and it just really doesn’t sit well. Yes, gays can be evil, but you get the sense that this isn’t that—we’re supposed to be disgusted with the fact that he’s gay. For me it was the fact that they’re just boys, but you just know how the author thinks about it.
But on the other hand, it’s strangely progressive. One of the main characters, Lady Jessica, is one of the most powerful characters in the story and has a lot of her own agency, and yet at the same time how Herbert treats women really doesn’t sit well. Lady Jessica is a witch of the Bene Gessirit, who has cool powers and is part of a religious order. Her storyline is awesome. But although she physically fights a few times, again it’s very clear how Herbert views women. There are no female soldiers or just regular women around—even when they are physically capable they are still limited to other roles: mother, wife, priestess. There are just no regular women they way there are men.
Yet the final lines of the book are dedicated to the women: Lady Jessica, although beloved by the Duke, was never married to him and only a concubine. Minor spoiler: When Paul marries someone he doesn’t love at the end of the book, his mother consoles the one he does love: “We who carry the name concubine, history will call us wives.”
End spoiler.
I am fascinated by Dune's portrayal of religion: in that it’s entirely skeptical. In the book the Bene Gessirit are an intergalactic organization that want to bring about a powerful being through complicated breeding and genes. In order to do this, they go to planets and seed religions, and both Paul and Lady Jessica know this. Paul’s position as the Lisan al Gaib is literally a fake religion that the Bene Gessirit planted in their culture thousands of years ago and—even though both Paul and Lady Jessica know this, Paul actually begins to think he is the Lisan al Gaib and Jessica just kind of….lets him.
And Paul is so sure he’s the messiah and his visions are accurate but there’s literally no indication he’s actually seeing the future, he’s just kinda really confident
All in all I enjoyed the macro political machinations and the really cool worldbuilding of Arrakis. But as someone who grew up religious I also think this book is too subtle. Paul is the villain but I guarantee 85% of white men who read this will come away thinking he’s the hero.
I understand what it was trying to do, I just don’t think it did it completely successfully. And while I understand it’s considered a classic and revolutionary in the genre, I’m not interested in reading a straight white man’s take on politics and the universe when there’s so much out there that interests me more.
3/5 stars
A lot of the hot takes of this book is the “white savior” narrative but this book is a criticism of the white savior narrative. The only problem is that to criticize it, it includes the white savior narrative.
Paul, the main character, is the villain of the story. The interesting thing is that his opponents are also villains: imperialism has rendered the universe flawed with no good options.
Paul is definitely a white boy power fantasy. He is trained in all manner of fighting and his mother’s magic, but of course he surpasses her and eventually can see all of time: past-present-future. What starts as a boy’s quest to avenge his father becomes a new emperor’s takeover of the universe.
The first half of the novel is unbearably slow. So much time is dedicated to politics and such tiny machinations it comes as a shock when they are betrayed and the house falls to ruin. It really feels like the stakes are so high because we as the reader were invested in these politics only for them to become useless. But then the book just blasts forward so fast and abandons that attention to detail in order to skip ahead in time all of the sudden Paul is married with a baby. We don’t get to witness his rise of power within the Fremen, which makes sense if you’re looking at this story through the anti-white-savior lens. The story focuses on Paul’s rise to power as an evil dictator, so the politics of the Fremen aren’t really as important, but it’s such a jarring switch of pace.
It also completely escaped me the first time, idk how because it’s not subtle, but the lesser baddie is gay, but not really. The evil Vladimir Harkonnen, who enslaved and entire planet and who is the colonizer supreme has a taste for little boys. This is supposed to highlight his unnaturalness: at one point he tells his men to drug a slave boy and put him in his room because he’s “not interested in wrestling”. That and the fact that he’s fat are supposed to signal to us that he’s evil, and it just really doesn’t sit well. Yes, gays can be evil, but you get the sense that this isn’t that—we’re supposed to be disgusted with the fact that he’s gay. For me it was the fact that they’re just boys, but you just know how the author thinks about it.
But on the other hand, it’s strangely progressive. One of the main characters, Lady Jessica, is one of the most powerful characters in the story and has a lot of her own agency, and yet at the same time how Herbert treats women really doesn’t sit well. Lady Jessica is a witch of the Bene Gessirit, who has cool powers and is part of a religious order. Her storyline is awesome. But although she physically fights a few times, again it’s very clear how Herbert views women. There are no female soldiers or just regular women around—even when they are physically capable they are still limited to other roles: mother, wife, priestess. There are just no regular women they way there are men.
Yet the final lines of the book are dedicated to the women: Lady Jessica, although beloved by the Duke, was never married to him and only a concubine. Minor spoiler: When Paul marries someone he doesn’t love at the end of the book, his mother consoles the one he does love: “We who carry the name concubine, history will call us wives.”
End spoiler.
I am fascinated by Dune's portrayal of religion: in that it’s entirely skeptical. In the book the Bene Gessirit are an intergalactic organization that want to bring about a powerful being through complicated breeding and genes. In order to do this, they go to planets and seed religions, and both Paul and Lady Jessica know this. Paul’s position as the Lisan al Gaib is literally a fake religion that the Bene Gessirit planted in their culture thousands of years ago and—even though both Paul and Lady Jessica know this, Paul actually begins to think he is the Lisan al Gaib and Jessica just kind of….lets him.
And Paul is so sure he’s the messiah and his visions are accurate but there’s literally no indication he’s actually seeing the future, he’s just kinda really confident
All in all I enjoyed the macro political machinations and the really cool worldbuilding of Arrakis. But as someone who grew up religious I also think this book is too subtle. Paul is the villain but I guarantee 85% of white men who read this will come away thinking he’s the hero.
I understand what it was trying to do, I just don’t think it did it completely successfully. And while I understand it’s considered a classic and revolutionary in the genre, I’m not interested in reading a straight white man’s take on politics and the universe when there’s so much out there that interests me more.
3/5 stars
Content Warnings
Moderate: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Homophobia