Reviews with content warning for Grief - Dune

I finished it! A very layered, complex books that was quite difficult to get into but rewarding after about a third. I am quite pleasantly surprised by the female characters (although gender essentialism remains). Big warning for fatphobia though, the villain is essentially described by his size as an incarnation of cruelty and greed in upsetting ways (add to that that he is gay and a pedophile, UGH). But otherwise, the deeper themes are very compelling, the writing is difficult but I think entirely on purpose, some sentences blew me away, and I hope to re read it some day. It is also interesting to couple this read with The Parable of the Sower, which also counts the birth of a messiah / goddess, but her theology is so communal, built on discussions with others, and faces greater difficulties than Paul does in this book. I would like to delve into that analysis a bit more some day...

In the end, this book is not even that long for the depth of the universe it presents. Onto the next one!

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elizlizabeth's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

As good as the first time I read it five years ago. Even if you don't like scifi there's so much to Dune that you're bound to find something worth reading among its pages.

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chaotic_ratcoon's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-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

4.5

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owenwilsonbaby's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

I really liked this book! It's the first book I've read for fun in almost two years and I think it may have reset something inside my brain. It is very long and the pacing drags at times but the plotting and narration more than make up for it.

I would definitely say I found the first two sections of the book - Dune and Muad'Dib - much more interesting. I think that might just be my personal preference for

tragedies and survival narratives

but the last part felt comparatively weaker, mainly owing to strange pacing, as information was released very slowly and then very quickly. I LOVED the themes of self-loathing and foreboding around an individual's own capabilities. In particular, the

dark prescience and subsequent self-loathing

Paul experiences. The

burdened with 'a great and terrible purpose' line

feels like it was specifically written in for my angsty tastes!

I did struggle with the scope of the world building. Often, in order to motivate myself to keep reading, I would just have to accept that I didn't really grasp all of the wider political and social contexts for the events of a scene. I also had to make peace with the fact that it's a book from the 1960s, so sometimes it's tricky to tell if it's pro or anti capitalist, and also that sometimes its Islamic influences can read a bit islamophobically. Also the blatant homophobia of having the villain

be the only camp and queer coded character but also a paedophile!

Overall it's definitely a good book and a well-deserved classic - I'm more excited for the movie now I kind of understand the plot and world! It is going to be interesting to see how Villeneuve cuts the book in half. I definitely think the first two sections are stronger and will make an excellent film, but I'm not sure the final third will work as a standalone.

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bookcaptivated's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective slow-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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