A review by giuliana_ferrari
Dune by Frank Herbert

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

4.25

As a book written in the 60s, Dune carries a modern touch to it that is quite surprising, unless you forget that's the appeal of science fiction: to imagine worlds and systems where technology has advanced to levels we normal humans wouldn't dream of. Another interesting aspect was the "ecology" of Dune, put in quotation marks given that the biological science behind it wasn't as well explained as I would've liked. Still, my own knowledge of ecology allowed me to pierce together the importance of the sandworms and that was quite an exhilarating reveal to achieve. The overlying theme of colonialism and fighting back for your own land was refreshing, with tactful care to portray the Fremen as humans as worthy as the Greater Houses, another refreshing aspect when considering how the myth of the good savage can spread so pervasively on literature. It was a book definitively ahead of its time; after reading it I finally understood the appeal of the story and I'm interested in reading the rest of the Chronicles, which is an excellent sign. My only complaint, which is not to the detriment of the book because it's obvious it was the author's choice, was the fact that many important details of the story are not explained, and one has to pierce together fragments of information throughout the book to fully comprehend what's happening. Doesn't remove the interesting world-construction of the book but definitively makes its first pages very confusing.
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