Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Dune by Frank Herbert

170 reviews

nils_0's review against another edition

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

bo0kf4n2's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use

Moderate: Death of parent, Colonisation, Genocide, and 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

eurypterus's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.0

Classic for a reason. Great world building, lots of intrigue though Herbert's dialogue is kinda odd at times. 
Game of Thrones but with space drugs and giant desert worms.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and War

Moderate: Homophobia

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

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