Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Dune by Frank Herbert

84 reviews

philosopher_kj's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad 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

4.25


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johnathanwet's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Wow, another true classic under the belt, and I couldn’t be happier to have finally read Dune. This was almost a 5 star read for me here. The vast majority of this book is just conversations between people who are all constantly trying to hide the truth from each other, but never quite succeeding - until it suddenly becomes an action move in the 3rd act. 

I found the pacing quite surprising with that 3rd act; this is a famously ‘slow-paced’ book, and I would say that is almost true. The first act is certainly slow, and the 2nd act is closer to medium, but it still waltz through the story it is telling. The 3rd act feels like the author ran out time or was told to drastically reduce the word count. I feel like we could have spent much more time with these characters in between the time skip. I feel like the some of the Barons story gets cut, especially considering he is a major POV character with all of these plans. 

I would be remiss not to mention the way Herbert uses POV in Dune. It is fascinating. In each chapter there is a character that we follow, and we mostly see the situation through their eyes - but we see the situation through glimpses into everyone else’s experience of the situation too, little thoughts that they have to themselves, reactions that they try to hide from others. The POV structure puts you into Paul’s shoes, who sees everything that could happen or is happening; how other characters cannot hide from him in any meaningful way.

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dani_mac13's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0


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valos's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0


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dramagnu's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective 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

5.0


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leannanecdote's review against another edition

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challenging emotional 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

3.5


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infinite_harness9030's review against another edition

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

3.5


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pkm48's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

3.0

 I can see why this book gets the praise it does, because it has a well constructed plot with great world-building and elegant writing. However, this book wasn't exactly my cup of tea, and perhaps I also missed the bigger picture of the novel as it extends to the real world which I felt the author was trying to convey.

In general, my biggest struggle was that it was difficult to find a character I could relate to and root for (even Paul). Everyone is pretty much painted as cold and calculating, with fairly little emotional depth to make them more human. The only exceptions to this seemed to be the characters of Lady Jessica and Gurney Halleck (and thus they ended up being my favorite characters). The overall story was gritty, dark, and violent which also added to the struggle of getting through the book. I'm grateful for the glossary at the end of the book because while the writing was easy to follow, the terminology as it relates to the fictional world of Dune was complex and often without any context. 

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becksusername's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

It took me almost a full year but I have finally read Dune. Still can't get over the main characters being called Paul and Jessica. And in my head "Chani" is pronounced "Zendaya"

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lqne's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5


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