Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Dune by Frank Herbert

174 reviews

goldenluck'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Dune is a classic, and its spot on every sci-fi fan's shelf is well earned. The writing is dense but compelling, sucking you in like the whirlpools of the deserts of Arrakis. Every writing decision in here that I could critique I understand the reasoning behind it. The time skip between parts 2 and 3 is off-putting (and a personal pet peeve), but understandable. Walking through all those 3 long years would have extended the book unnecessarily and made it go from slow-paced to downright molasses-like. The switching between internal thoughts can be difficult to keep track, however it does add to the tension of the novel, and best explains the political maneuvering without being blunt about it. 

Honestly, if you have any curiosity about this book at all, I recommend you pick it up. If you're a fan of fantasy political novels, I also recommend picking this up, as I would call it more science fantasy with a dash of hard science. It is, in a word, fantastic. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and Incest

Minor: Pedophilia

macliffe's review against another edition

adventurous informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Death of parent, Murder, and Torture

Moderate: Pregnancy, Medical trauma, and Violence

Minor: Racism and Ableism

mardana's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Drug use, Genocide, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fatphobia, Addiction, Cannibalism, Violence, War, and Blood

Minor: Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, Infidelity, Kidnapping, and Colonisation

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

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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 extreme

lunacurlypaws's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Excellent worldbuilding, a little slow to start, a good balance of character study and political intrigue, has some very 60s ideas about race and gender that make the book a little dated. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Fatphobia

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Trafficking and Slavery

Mentions of eugenics, sexism, gender-essentialism, detailed fat-phobic description of a character, possible use of tropes that appropriate or exoticize middle-eastern cultures.

bettysbookishworld's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

Literary masterpiece! I fell in love with Arrakis so much. Herbert created another reality of this planet by establishing its own politics, race, economics, culture, religion, and environment. 

The worldbuilding is the most complex aspect of the book and described imaginaries of Arrakis fell so real. 

The political story was very compelling and engaging. The characters have complex personalities and chatacteristics. All these aspects made Dune the genre defining literary piece with a story told on the existential level of Arrakis and other planets. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Genocide, Murder, Violence, Colonisation, and Drug use

Moderate: Drug abuse, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, and Grief

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.)

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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 a

grossly obese gay man who is a sexual predator towards young men (drugs then rapes them - the act itself always happens off page, but you unfortunately have to read him thinking about it) and even has incestuous thoughts about his teenaged nephew and grandson

is certainly a Choice that felt like a floating hate crime.

kylieqrada's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

Ok but this lived up to the hype!! Frank Herbert very clearly had Tolkien-level worldbuilding skills, and much less random exposition. I'm definitely not smart enough to pick up on all of the themes at play here, but the edition I read had an Afterword by Brian Herbert that helped explain some things. A banger.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Fatphobia, Child death, and Pedophilia

Minor: Rape and Slavery

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Addiction and Sexual assault

wxshwa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Death

Moderate: War, Murder, and Death of parent