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gvstyris's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
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
4.25
When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong - faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thoughts of obstacles and forget the precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it's too late.
It goes without saying that Dune is a masterclass in science-fiction. Herbert's rich world-building truly makes this book, and encouraged me to persevere despite his often inconsistent pacing and flat characters. The conlangs, historical references and various excerpts 'provided' by Princess Irulan...I aspire to have a fraction of Herbert's imagination. I also very much looked forward to the Harkonnens' chapters and was fascinated by the complexities of Lady Jessica's character.
That being said, this book is far from accessible. My reading experience was very much enhanced by my pre-existing interest in the recent adaptations, and I would honestly argue that both films do a better job than the novel of explaining whatever the hell is going on. I'm glad to have finally read Dune in its original form and will likely try my hand at the sequel, but will definitely be primarily recommending Villeneuve's films going forward. I'm not much of a science-fiction reader, though, which definitely played a role in my disinterest.
I think it's also worth pointing out where Dune ages poorly. Namely, the primary antagonist being a fat, gay pedophile (:sob:) and the pervasive misogyny in Herbert's social structures. This is where the movie again finds more success, given how Chani is both influential and an outspoken critic of Paul.
This review has turned out to be more critical than I'd originally intended, but I am very proud to have conquered something so far out of my reading comfort zone. I suppose Lord of the Rings is next...
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Violence
Moderate: Racism, Slavery, and Genocide
Minor: Rape and Sexual assault
mylittlehappynook's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Murder, and War
chelsea_bosbyshell's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual assault
biobeetle's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- 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
Graphic: Death and Violence
Moderate: Misogyny and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child death and Sexual assault
emmajones20's review against another edition
medium-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? Yes
3.75
this is a very dense and political read, but very interesting! The world building is unmatched.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual assault
giuliana_ferrari's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
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? It's complicated
4.25
As a book written in the 60s, Dune carries a modern touch to it that is quite surprising, unless you forget that's the appeal of science fiction: to imagine worlds and systems where technology has advanced to levels we normal humans wouldn't dream of. Another interesting aspect was the "ecology" of Dune, put in quotation marks given that the biological science behind it wasn't as well explained as I would've liked. Still, my own knowledge of ecology allowed me to pierce together the importance of the sandworms and that was quite an exhilarating reveal to achieve. The overlying theme of colonialism and fighting back for your own land was refreshing, with tactful care to portray the Fremen as humans as worthy as the Greater Houses, another refreshing aspect when considering how the myth of the good savage can spread so pervasively on literature. It was a book definitively ahead of its time; after reading it I finally understood the appeal of the story and I'm interested in reading the rest of the Chronicles, which is an excellent sign. My only complaint, which is not to the detriment of the book because it's obvious it was the author's choice, was the fact that many important details of the story are not explained, and one has to pierce together fragments of information throughout the book to fully comprehend what's happening. Doesn't remove the interesting world-construction of the book but definitively makes its first pages very confusing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Sexual violence, Colonisation, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, Slavery, and War
leeyongjin's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Violence
Moderate: Classism, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Emotional abuse, War, Colonisation, Death, Grief, and Hate crime
Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Genocide, and Drug use
catgirlsithlord's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
This book got me into reading as a hobby and made me a scifi fan, it changed how i view the world and I highly recommend it
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and War
Moderate: Child death and Colonisation
Minor: Alcohol
theliteratewalrus2's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
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
5.0
This book is just so good. Even if you don't like sci fi that much I recommend you read this, if you like classics or fantasy, or just good worldbuilding in, than you'll probably like this book. Just a warning though, this book is slow, it's exposition phase alone is longer than most full-length novels.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Addiction and Sexual assault
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