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pellepanda's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Child death, Classism, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Violence, and War
Moderate: Addiction and Fatphobia
brnineworms's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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
literarydumpling's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Death of parent, War, and Death
Moderate: Grief, Genocide, Child death, and Fatphobia
Minor: Incest and Rape
saintsunshine's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: War, Violence, and Colonisation
Moderate: Slavery, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Grief, Child death, Classism, Kidnapping, and Fatphobia
samdalefox's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
5.0
For such a famous and epic book there are plenty of detailed reviews for you to peruse. I'll only highlight the themes I identified and top line likes and dislikes about the book.
Themes
- Commentary on ecology and Earth's environmental crises
- Investigation into different sorts of power e.g. resource control (spice production, a clear metaphor to oil in the Middle East), 'soft' political control (bene gesserit and other religious sects), 'hard' militarised imperial political control (classism with the Landsraad, Emperor, salusa secundus, and racism against the Freman).
- Eugenics lack of morality e.g. the bene gesserit breeding program, and 'race conciousness'. I can see why the fascists love it so much. I read the book as criticising rather than advocating this point though.
- Beware of 'heroes'/'Messiahs/Leaders - Keynes's last words were explicitly that Dune did not need Paul the Hero. The Freman would have been better liberating themselves on their own terms with their own ecology and power plan.
- Investigation into the powers of the mind, mental capacities, and different ways of seeing. Perhaps influenced/inspired by 60s psychodelic drugs?
Likes
- I enjoyed this as an opposition to Assimov's Foundation series where everything is determined by computers and tehcnology and statistics etc. Dune felt like the mirror image demonstrated in the powers of the mentat and the butlerian jihad.
- Finally, women power! The bene gesserit. The Fremen women. Even Princess Irulan to a degree. Ok, they're not morally 'good' and don't have a lot of power, but women, with some agency, in a book from the 60s!
- The whole world building was beautiful and swept me up. Though detailed, long, and written a long time ago, I found it very easy to read.
- The three appendices: ecology of Dune, religion of Dune, Bene Gesserit motives and purposes.
Dislikes
- Alia. Just weird. I suppose that's the point of her, but, just nope.
- I find it difficult to believe that the missionaria protectivia planted the religious seed of The Prophet. Although reasonable (and possibly a shrewd criticism of religion in general), I get the niggly sense that this may have some unconcious bias or tinged racism to it. The fact that an entire people (brown, Islamic inspired people) so easily adopted this narrative of an outsider arriving to be their saviour... just I don't know, it was the only thing I thought hmmm really, sounds a bit off? I'd like to read reviews from Middle Eastern people to hear their opinions about whether Dune is racist or not.
- Outdated homophobia painting Baron Harkonnen as a depraved homosexual. The film made a good call in updating this aspect. On this point, the film adapted the book brilliantly. It was largely true to the source material and anything it left out or embellished was to enhance the core story and update the text beyond homophobia, sexism, racism etc. So, bravo! I look forward to watching part II at the cinema when it's released.
Moderate: Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, and Colonisation
Minor: Child death, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, War, Blood, Violence, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, and Slavery
dontforgetthelights's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
3.5
Moderate: Pregnancy, Violence, Drug use, Grief, Addiction, Blood, Death of parent, Death, and Slavery
Minor: Rape and Child death
paigesbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Classism, Colonisation, Death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Murder, Genocide, Grief, Violence, and War
Minor: Addiction and Slavery
kaadee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: War, Genocide, and Murder
Moderate: Death of parent and Grief
ivybaggs's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death of parent and Death
Moderate: Drug abuse, Addiction, and Grief
serafinam's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
My biggest complaints about the novel come from how minority characters are depicted and treated. Women in Dune are subservient to men, very manipulative, and are often depicted as slightly less intelligent than their male counterparts. While some of this can be explained by Paul's youth and the wickedness of some characters, none of the female characters are treated as equal and it does make the book harder to enjoy as a woman. The Fremen are more often that not depicted as mystical fanatics with outdated, or even primitive ways of living. Without their existence the entire plot would fall apart, and yet they are not treated with the respect they deserve, both as fictional people and as those based on an actual minority group. My final, and perhaps greatest issue, is with the Baron Harkonnen. It cannot be denied that he is a wicked, evil man--facts easily gleaned from his attempts to exterminate the House Atreides and his treatment of other characters. the inclusion of his penchant for young boys is wholy unnecessary to show just how evil he is. This is especially compounded by the fact that he is the only character we see to have same sex attraction.
I have a love/hate relationship with this book, though it does lean more towards love. I found the politics of the novel to be fascinating and the character motivations keep me guessing at who to trust at every turn. While the style of writing, lore introduced, and involved of the spice lends itself more similarly to high fantasy, it thrives as a solid science fiction novel. The time jumps and perspective changes could be a bit confusing at times, and I often found myself a little perplexed as to the importance of some characters, but I would still recommend this to anyone who loves works like Lord of the Rings, The Wheel of Time, or Brian Sanderson.
Graphic: Death of parent, Eating disorder, Colonisation, Death, and Fatphobia
Moderate: Violence, War, Xenophobia, Misogyny, Murder, and Pedophilia
Minor: Grief, Incest, and Gore