Reviews tagging 'Cultural appropriation'

Dune by Frank Herbert

14 reviews

multech's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Colonisation, Pregnancy, Child death, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Slavery, Death, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Grief, Racism, War, Death of parent, Drug use, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Violence, Classism, Cultural appropriation, and Gore

banned_book's review against another edition

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? No

2.0

The ideas presented here must have been mind-blowing during the time it was published for the impact it made on modern culture. I can recognize that. But the prose was insultingly basic, and gave no room for the characters to grow beyond cookie cutter tropes. The dialogue was a painful slog to get through, and almost exclusively constructed of as-you-know-Bobs. I heard for years that the worldbuilding was dense and difficult to follow. No. Herbert drives information into your skull repetitively as if you could not grasp it the first time. This book has not aged well.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Slavery, Misogyny, Fatphobia, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Drug use, Colonisation, War, and Cultural appropriation

luminifera's review against another edition

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

4.5

I find some of the characters very annoying for many different reasons, but the worst for sure is Chani. She simply

has no personality outside of being Paul's love interest

, which is kind of outrageous.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Murder, Slavery, Blood, Drug use, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Alcohol, Colonisation, Death, Physical abuse, War, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Addiction, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Violence, Death of parent, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Xenophobia, Racism, and Sexism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Genocide, Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, Vomit, Incest, Cursing, Gun violence, Medical content, and Miscarriage

It's about the colonization of a planet, and the main character is The Chosen One. Expect violence, war, and of course plenty of misogyny - this book is from the 1960s and was written by a man. Some things are simply offensive.

joan_zyaire's review against another edition

adventurous informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Dune required heavy emotional back lifting for me go care about the characters, especially for Paul and his mother. I was surprised when I read the final page because I expected more. More character depth, more world building and yes, although this is the first book in the series, it didn't feel like it did a lot plot wise. I was intrigued about the politics and the Benne Gesserit mythos. This is the only reason why I will consider reading the other books. A majority of the story takes place on Arrakis but I didn't feel immersed on that planet. The timeskips didn't help with that. Perhaps the other Dune books go more into depth but this book was more of a setup. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, War, Pedophilia, and Xenophobia

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

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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

ldmbuch's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism and Cultural appropriation

nemappelezpasnono's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Let's just say that it is a product of its time

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, War, Rape, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Cultural appropriation and Racism

sanaa's review against another edition

1.0

After sitting with this book for a long time, and annotating it fully to get my thoughts out, it has become evident that this a 1 star book. Worldbuilding…good (although as a science major the ecology in this book is absolute shit). Anything else that is supposed make up a book (characters, pacing, writing, plot, etc) was not only mediocre but truly horrendous. This book is the definition of telling not showing. Frank Herbert refused to allow a single drop of nuance in this book. So open your gullet and read this book if you love being spoon fed terrible writing!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, and Fatphobia

tinyjude's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Cultural appropriation, Racism, Homophobia, and Fatphobia

prouvaire's review against another edition

adventurous reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

i kind of forgot that i actually managed to finish this. 

several lasting impressions:
- the characters are interesting. they might annoy me, i might not care about their survival, but i definitely want to know them.

nooo liet kynes don't die, tell me more about the ecology of arrakis, of your long term plan before paul and his mother co-opt it for their pseudo religious purposes...nooo

 

- in dune, to know more about a character is to know more about the world in which the story takes place, which for me is the best way to inform the reader of your cool, cool worldbuilding

- and yes dune's world is cool. herbert knew his stuff. it's fascinating how realistic the world feels, you can imagine how the economy and political systems grew from and adapted to the confines of the ecological landscape

- weird to see terms that i associate with religion pop up here as...well, religious terms, of a kind...

- something something reading this in 2021 is sobering (sorry future historians but i'm not elaborating)

favorite scenes:
- when liet kynes was going to fix paul's special desert shoes thingy, and found out that paul had worn his shoes perfectly, as if he was NOT wearing them for the first time (which he was). that was chilling
- the many, many vision sequence of paul foresighting the jihad

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Cultural appropriation