Dune

[Stephen Speicher 0]

Book suggested for rating by Cicero.

[Joss Delage 0]

I give it a 10. This is one of my top 5 books, and I have read it more than 15 times. I actually know some passges by heart, silly enough. The character development, story telling, realism, and the sheer depth of the world is matched by nothing else I've read except The Lord of the Rings, another top 5.

Philosophically, it is far, far from perfect, but I think Objectivists will relate to the core story - that of a young man seeking justice from the treason that cost his father's life.

[Cicero 0]

I loved this book. It was probably the first true science fiction book I ever read, so the technology described in it amazed me. Although it is a bit heavy on religion and mysticism, the protagonists in the story are overcoming that, so it is not that bad. I found especially enjoyable the focus on logic and reason that were present in the heroes. However, I do not recommend the sequels, as they left me feeling very depressed due to the feeling of helplessness the characters seem to suffer from. Thankfully, that is not as present in this one, so I heartily recommend it!

[Bill Bucko 0]

Contrary to my usual practice, I loved the (original theatrical) movie

and hated the book.

The movie is replete with what I can only call a sense of wonder ... more than any other science fiction movie I've ever seen.

Though I'm appalled that anyone could envision primitive religion surviving that far into the future ... not to mention the feudal system!

Does anyone remember the classic Isaac Asimov novel, I think it was The Stars Like Dust, in which inhabitants of a future feudal society search for a long-lost document that can save the galaxy? And find it, guarded in an ancient crypt? Its first words read: "We, the people of the United States ..."

I wish more writers had as good premises as Asimov.

As for Dune's sequels ... doesn't unleashing a jihad that kills 50 billion people strike you as a moral obscenity? Don't you wish that maybe the guys on Dune had been defeated ... compared to those #%&* fremen, the Harkonnen weren't really that bad?? Is evolving into a giant worm really all that great a future?

I do have reverence for the beautiful care with which the movie ... the script, scenery, special effects, and richly evocative music were crafted.

But the irreverent streak in me compels me to add:

"The Quitzach Shaderach [excuse my misspelling; I don't have the book handy]? I call him the Knick-Knack-Paddywhack!"

[punk 0]

This has been a favorite book of mine for a while now.

I believe an earlier poster was correct for commenting on the feeling of helplessness in the characters in the subsequent books, although I would add that it appears in "Dune" as well.

My understanding of "Dune", "Dune Messiah", and "Children of Dune" (Herbert intended these as a trilogy and wrote some parts of the second and third books while still working on the first) is that Herbert was writing a basically dystopian novel about people losing/giving up their freedom.

First, it was intended as a commentary on fascism. The idea being that people lose their freedom and identity by giving them over to a charismatic leader. Paul is something of a messiah, madhi, and fuehrer. He has an all-encompassing vision of history which carries humanity along with it to destruction. Paul although a hero by most conventional literary standards is really an anti-hero and villain by the standards of most anyone living in his imperium. The jihad is really a horror his vision unleashes on humanity that should lead to its eventual destruction. His son Leto works to free humanity from this vision.

Second it was a commentary on oil. The spice is really a metaphor for oil. In this case it is about humanity becoming enslaved to a single resource and producing a civilization that cannot exist without it. Again human beings lose their freedom as individual and become enslaved to whatever needs to be done to preserve the resource.

Actually the last book concludes with people finally becoming freed from all this and being able to exist as individuals.

[Henrik Unné 0]

This is just a personal note on Dune.

Dune was my favorite novel when I was a boy in the USA, back in the 1960s. I read it when I was in 6th grade, in the spring of 1966. I loved the vision of one individual, Paul, fighting for what he saw as good. I was put off by the idea that feudalism could survive in the distant future, and it struck me as absurd that a feudal society could carry out space travel. But the story was so colorful, I thought that the politics was just an insignificant detail.

I really hated my English teachers in Junior High School, for making me read the "life as a sewer" school books of modern literature (e.g. The Harvester in the Rye, The Trial, A Separate Peace) when literature could be as exciting as Dune. I regarded most of what I was required to read by my English teachers as being sheer trash (I refrain from using expletives here, since this is not an appropriate place to do so).

I read Dune before I read Lord of the Rings, my second favorite piece of fiction before I read Atlas Shrugged, some 14 years later. In fact the reason that I purchased The Lord of the Rings was that the blurb on Dune said something like - "This book [Dune] is the best book that I have read except for Lord of the Rings". Since the blurb on Dune compared it to Lord of the Rings, I reasoned that Lord of the Rings must be a good story too.

But of course nothing compares to Atlas Shrugged, not even The Fountainhead, in my opinion.

[rtg24 0]

I think it unfair to rate just Dune.

The astonishing thing about Herbert was Dune 1-6. I shudder to think just how great Dune 7 might have been. The attempt at commercializing by his son was terrible, but I still endured it to see where Herbert was going. Suffice to say, even via the muddy mess that was Anderson & Herbert Junior's writing, it matched my expectations. An obvious, obvious ending. So obvious. Yet I never once thought about it despite the numerous hints!

I particularly loved the way Herbert managed to expand my mind with every book by expanding the next one's scope.

[Henrik Unné 0]

I think it unfair to rate just Dune.

The astonishing thing about Herbert was Dune 1-6. I shudder to think just how great Dune 7 might have been. The attempt at commercializing by his son was terrible, but I still endured it to see where Herbert was going. Suffice to say, even via the muddy mess that was Anderson & Herbert Junior's writing, it matched my expectations. An obvious, obvious ending. So obvious. Yet I never once thought about it despite the numerous hints!

I particularly loved the way Herbert managed to expand my mind with every book by expanding the next one's scope.

I loved Dune. I was bored by Dune Messiah. I was unimpressed by Children of Dune. I never mustered the energy to read the rest of the Dune series. So I cannot rate the entire suite. I only read the first 3 parts of it.