Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Dune by Frank Herbert

91 reviews

nils_0's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious relaxing 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Slavery, Violence, and War

Minor: Alcohol, Child death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Slavery, Torture, Gore, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

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

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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

phantomgecko's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

3.5

Classic, impactful, science fiction novel but anticlimactic.

The novel before the two year time jump lives up to expectations, but the last section just seems rushed compared to the careful world building previous. (More specifics under the cut)

Take the Baron. In the beginning he really seems to be a competent and formidable enemy. Sneaky, smart, whatever. But then he becomes more and more pitiful until he's finally murdered by a literal four year old. And I get that the Emperor shows up as a bigger badder guy™, but still. Underwhelming.

The Emperor only gets to be the bigger badder guy for like half a chapter anyway. Ostensibly he gets to return as the antagonist in later books.

I understand that Paul is a literal CHOSEN ONE and all that, but he's pretty OP. Being able to molecularly change a poison administered to him seems like cheating.

Also not a big fan of Paul's son dying. I feel like that was needlessly depressing. Character development or whatever bs.

idk, I guess the takeaway is that this is not a strong standalone novel. It's impotent without the rest of the series.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Genocide, Pedophilia, Violence, War, Death, Drug use, Death of parent, and Drug abuse

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.

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

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.

scrubsandbooks's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Death of parent, Body horror, and Violence

Moderate: Pedophilia

Minor: Rape and Slavery

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

solouncapitulomas'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

4.25

Amazing world building and god even tho it’s long it is so fantastic, definitely not a five star but a great book nonetheless. Some reviews here just didn’t get it and I’m sorry…for you

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, Fatphobia, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Rape, Slavery, and Pedophilia