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suppressingreality's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, War, Murder, Violence, and Death of parent
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Rape, and Pedophilia
Minor: Colonisation
aguattery's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
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? No
4.5
For me, it lived up to all the hype. There were so many conflicts going on at once that there was always excitement going on. I think that the religious and political overtones got their message across.
Cons:
1. I'm not super imaginative so even though the world building was great and I bought into it I struggled to imagine even simple things like stillsuits.
2. The first 100 or so pages are mostly setup and they can be difficult to get through. Once you push past that it really picks up.
Cons:
1. I'm not super imaginative so even though the world building was great and I bought into it I struggled to imagine even simple things like stillsuits.
2. The first 100 or so pages are mostly setup and they can be difficult to get through. Once you push past that it really picks up.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, War, Death of parent, and Addiction
Moderate: Child death, Fatphobia, and Slavery
Minor: Grief, Adult/minor relationship, and Classism
twiceaselegant's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
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
4.75
I thank whatever possessed me to make myself read this dense monument of sci-fi literature within a month, but I did it!
I don't have many coherent thoughts to say on it though, and by that I mean to say that the second half blew me away so many times and in so many ways that by the time I'd finished the last page (having reread it a handful of times to let it sink in) my brain, too, had become a roiling nexus of information insofar as I write this review with a self-inflicted headache that came from trying to piece together the themes and meanings in the epic I just read.
I don't have many coherent thoughts to say on it though, and by that I mean to say that the second half blew me away so many times and in so many ways that by the time I'd finished the last page (having reread it a handful of times to let it sink in) my brain, too, had become a roiling nexus of information insofar as I write this review with a self-inflicted headache that came from trying to piece together the themes and meanings in the epic I just read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Death
Moderate: Child death
pellepanda's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Classism, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Violence, and War
Moderate: Addiction and Fatphobia
will_cherico's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-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
5.0
A beautiful blend of mysticism, politics, environmentalism, and thoughts on heroism compacted into a little under 700 pages. It flawlessly brings the reader into the world of Arrakis and the struggle between the Atreides and the desperate and failing empire while incorporating in-universe concepts and slang without becoming too confusing. The story itself, while somewhat basic in concept (Paul's story very much aligns with the Hero's Journey) the prose is so beautiful and majestic that it feels completely fresh. I'm writing this just after finishing it so I'm very much in the high of just finishing something fantastic and I'm not thinking incredibly critically, but this is easily one of the greatest entries in the genre of science fiction media I've ever consumed.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug use, Death, Murder, Death of parent, War, and Violence
Minor: Pedophilia, Blood, and Child death
lems135's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death
bidoofenergy's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Violence, Xenophobia, Death of parent, and Death
Moderate: Pedophilia, Fatphobia, Rape, Child death, and Addiction
while technically aliens, the culture of the fremen is very clearly based off middle eastern culture and there is a lot of prejudice against the fremen.jilly00's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
halconde's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death and Violence
Minor: Pedophilia
brnineworms's review against another edition
adventurous
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
“Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic.”
I didn’t really know what to expect going in. I knew it was a science fiction classic featuring a young man called Paul on a desert planet that may or may not be called Dune, and I knew that there were big worms and something to do with spice – a rough outline, nothing more.
I think Dune can best be described as sci-fi for history buffs. It’s full of political intrigue, factions and dynasties, empire building, and so on, but also of note are the incessant spoilers courtesy of Princess Irulan. We are told who these characters are and what they will go on to do, to the extent that it sometimes feels like watching a reenactment of what happened or a dramatisation of a well-known legend rather than events unfolding in real time. At first I was thrown off by it but I adjusted and learnt to accept the writing for what it is instead of getting hung up on what I thought it would be.
Dune is, above all else, a story about expectations and adaptation. Having to adjust my own perspective in response to this curveball of a novel meant there was a neat parallel between my own reading experience and the experiences of the characters on the page having to adjust to life on Arrakis – a good avenue for sympathy and connection.
Paul, our protagonist, is entirely shaped by the expectations placed upon him. He takes on various names and titles over the course of the story (Duke Paul Atreides, the Kwisatz Haderach, the Lisan al Gaib, Muad’Dib, Usul) and these personas seem to supersede any true sense of self he may have once had. His identity fractures and frays at the climax; not only does he flit back and forth between multiple selves, he also refers to them in the third person and assigns them different motives and personalities (“You have the word of a Duke [...] but Muad’Dib is another matter.”) I don’t know if I’d insist that Paul is plural, but his selfhood is certainly compromised and complicated by all these assumed identities.
Of course, while I’m on the topic of identity, I have to talk about gender – this book is riddled with it. I wouldn’t be the first to point out that women exist in this narrative only as they relate to men, and that they’re portrayed as intuitive, emotional, nurturing, and, above all, passive. I also wouldn’t be the first to note the queerness inherent to the Kwisatz Haderach, a boy with access to powers normally possessed only by women, who can see “both masculine and feminine pasts” – “the male who can truly become one of us.” Paul has a drug-induced epiphany late in the novel wherein he claims women are givers and men are takers, and that he himself is “the fulcrum” who cannot give without taking nor take without giving. That moment serves as a good demonstration of Dune’s strange synthesis of essentialism and transgressiveness. And I must say, the fulcrum quote really resonated with me as a genderqueer person.
I’ve talked about Paul, now it’s time to talk about Baron Harkonnen. He starts off as a vague force of evil that influences the actions of others, only becoming a fully fledged character after the betrayal of Duke Leto. Herbert could not have made it any clearer that this guy is a villain we’re supposed to loathe. Not only is he a power-hungry capitalist, he’s also an incestuous pedophile and (even worse!) he’s very fat. Yeah, the fatphobia is... not great. And that’s not the only thorny issue here. Dune is inseparable from its Orientalist manner, genocide is treated as set dressing, and eugenics (though criticised) does seem to be granted some legitimacy within the narrative. I don’t want to dwell on these problematic elements but at the same time I can’t disregard them.
Does Dune deserve four and a half stars? Probably not. Am I going to give it four and a half stars anyway? You bet. It’s not beyond criticism (far from it) but I thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless. I’m curious to see where the story goes from here and I’ve already ordered Dune Messiah, but I won’t be reading it just yet because I have quite a backlog of unread books to work through first.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Fatphobia, Kidnapping, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Torture
Moderate: Genocide, Addiction, Child abuse, Ableism, Incest, Sexual harassment, Body horror, Colonisation, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, and War
Minor: Self harm, Islamophobia, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Cannibalism, Child death, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, and Homophobia