Review: Dune

Dune by Frank Herbert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Huge disclaimer here, I am far from being an accomplished book reader. Aside from self help books and anything I had to read in school I have never used my time to read books. I wanted to change that in 2016 so I picked a book I have heard about for years. I'm a SciFi addict so it made sense to get something to appeal to that. This review is meant for someone in that situation. Anyone who has read more than a handful of books in the past year will probably find this review quite trivial at best.


So, first up I'm just going to give it away (if the rating didn't already) that I loved this book. I love the story. I grew to love the characters and the setting. I simply couldn't have been more pleased about my first choice of classic science fiction to read. I guess now it's a task of explaining why.

The Story

I'm not sure what is a spoiler and what isn't. I always appreciate going into a story blind so when I glimpsed at the blurb for the book I was shocked at the plain statement of the largest plot point in the first act. For those who know (view spoiler)[ it was the outright statement that Duke Leto dies. (hide spoiler)] and for those who don't know I would recommend avoiding the blurb.

Really though, what a fantastic story. The story serves as an excellent platform to introduce such an interesting world with fascinating characters. It never really surprises the reader but it is never meant to. We are following the prophesy of Muad'dib and that means we are following a story already known. As we read through the book the visions are made clearer to both us and the protagonist and that discovery is what makes the story worth following.

The Characters

The interesting universe of Dune means artificial intelligence is forbidden. The people of this universe had to create the closest thing which is the mentat. A human with super intelligence and logic. These mentats in particular I love. They are cold, calculating and suffer from their own humanity enough to serve as good characters for the story. I am a computer science student and the process at which the mentats perceive the world is highly relatable.

The focus on this story though of course is the fremen. Their society, culture and whole reaction to the world is based on one crucial idea: the conversation of water. As you follow the protagonist to learn their way of life, you begin to appreciate the cruel harmony they have with the desert planet. You learn what such a harmony can make from people.

The 'baddies' of the story, the Harkonnens, are interesting enough. They are creatures of deception and brutal strategists. Frank Herbert does a great job at making a faction you ultimately want destroyed. As a new book reader I appreciated the ability to gain more perspective on their view than a game or film would be able to tell. My one criticism is the leader of the Harkonnens falls too easily into cliché. This is a criticism that may be unavoidable for a story told so long ago and imitated too many times, but there's just too many seemingly pointless 'bad guy' moments. I get that he's a bad person, but do those scenes really add to the character?

The Setting

Arrakis, Dune, desert planet, is a beautiful setting for a story that I would never want to visit in real life. Since water is so sparse on the planet it rules everything about it. Movement outside of the city areas is only done at night and while the awesome ornithopters traverse the sky it is the gigantic dune worms that rule the land. It's fully believable planet that has some real character to it.

The universe itself isn't given too much detail which works well to serve the story. We know of the overall politics of the universe but the details are left aside for us to focus on Dune itself. This isn't for someone who wants a story of space exploration. What is given instead is a perfect story of planet exploration.

The Science Fiction

What amazes me really about this book is the technology doesn't appear dated. You will always have space exploration and laser weapons which are a staple in the genre and those hold up today but the details of the small technology in each usually give it away.

It makes sense that people don't have personal computers that follow a futuristic version of our smartphones in this story. It makes sense that the internet isn't available to produce immediate convenience to someone who needs information. As mentioned before it also makes sense how the threat of AI does not rule each day. This is Dune. The land and the creatures the planet hosts are incompatible to technology which makes simple tools such as a laser weapon or energy shields a huge liability.

The author's aversion to technology ruling the story means it still reads nicely even today. It's cute when old Sci-Fi gets it wrong and is enjoyable in its own right but unfortunately serves as a distraction to the story. I prefer science fiction that I can believe would exist in the future. Dune is an incredible universe, but still remains possible.

The Summary

Overall I believe this book has strength in the characters it builds and how they live in such a fearsome planet. This character interaction really feels organic and was what kept me coming back to read more. Fans of Sci-Fi who are obsessed with technology may be disappointed but this classic deserves to be read by any fan of the genre. Not only I am glad to have made this my first real book to read, but I am so glad I made it my first Sci-Fi to read.

But please, don't watch the film.

View all my reviews