Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Dune by Frank Herbert

97 reviews

leeyongjin's review

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Drug use, Genocide, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Slavery

alexiconic's review

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-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? Yes

3.0

The danger with reading a book that inspired many other, newer stories, is that the original just doesn’t seem as revolutionary anymore. I am not the biggest sci-fi fan so my thoughts might be biased by a whole “I’m not super into space” attitude, to be fair. 

Dune had things that were absolutely great. It’s clearly a well thought-through world, the environment and the history are very well constructed and it works well. We enter a world where it’s clear the author knows what is what. The mystical elements of the Bene Gesserit, the planet’s ecology, the political factions and their motivations: these are solids. 

I’m a bit in the middle on the writing. Having switching POVs and a kind of omniscient narrative is not that popular anymore, and it took some getting used to. But I ended up appreciating it. I didn’t really enjoy the time jump midway in the book: it removed too much buildup and context, and Dune was already going to be a long, long book, which would have been better if we had a little more insight in the “between” period. 

What really let the book down for me were the characters. Most weren’t very fleshed out, and while that was the point to a certain extent, it also lessened the impact. I truly didn’t understand why Paul was this great charismatic leader, for example. There were also some tensions in the characters goals:

if Paul wants to stop the jihad, why would this pretty smart dude not consult his mother, who we know is also quite smart? Why would he still surround himself with the exact conditions that make a jihad likely?

And then there are the let downs on the few characters that bring some diversity to the book, especially Jessica and Chani.

They are women, and the book treats them as though they would therefore be perfectly happy  taking a side-kick role while the others (the men) are glorious - and really, is being reduced to “mother” and “concubine who maybe if she’s lucky gets to be a wife” even side-kick level? It’s a shame because we see glimpses of these women being incredible, knowledgeable, strong, and well-respected, and the roles they have are in strong tension to these glimpses of power and competence. And then there’s the Harkonnens, who should be evil and fearsome. The Barons portrayal as a gluttonous ruler with a preference for young boys is… less than great. The insistence on this factor and his posture to make the reader disgusted with him doesn’t work out great. His homosexuality is completely irrelevant, and making your villain the only gay (and coincidentally also a pedophilic) character reeks of rather uncomfortable homophobia. His posture is almost a joke. And the worst thing is that it’s discrediting to the great work Herbert does on establishing the Baron as a nefarious, well-planning political actor. The nephew also suffers from the time jump, which makes him transform from a petulant child to a fearsome fighter with some wits in two pages; a shame, because he’s a rather intriguing character.

 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Drug use, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, Pregnancy, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

mnrondi's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent and War

Minor: Child death, Drug use, and Homophobia

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

---

Content Warnings

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

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

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use

Moderate: Genocide, Pedophilia, Death of parent, and Colonisation

connortal's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Death

the spice is a drug/has the properties of one

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

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Genocide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infidelity, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Colonisation

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. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, Genocide, Violence, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Death of parent

plume_de_renarde's review

adventurous slow-paced

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use

Moderate: Fatphobia

Minor: Pedophilia and Rape