912 pages
English language
Published July 29, 2005
Dune is a 1965 science-fiction novel by American author Frank Herbert, originally published as two separate serials in Analog magazine. It tied with Roger Zelazny's This Immortal for the Hugo Award in 1966, and it won the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel. It is the first installment of the Dune saga; in 2003, it was cited as the world's best-selling science fiction novel.Dune is set in the distant future amidst a feudal interstellar society in which various noble houses control planetary fiefs. It tells the story of young Paul Atreides, whose family accepts the stewardship of the planet Arrakis. While the planet is an inhospitable and sparsely populated desert wasteland, it is the only source of melange, or "the spice," a drug that extends life and enhances mental abilities. Melange is also necessary for space navigation, which requires a kind of multidimensional awareness and foresight that only the drug …
Dune is a 1965 science-fiction novel by American author Frank Herbert, originally published as two separate serials in Analog magazine. It tied with Roger Zelazny's This Immortal for the Hugo Award in 1966, and it won the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel. It is the first installment of the Dune saga; in 2003, it was cited as the world's best-selling science fiction novel.Dune is set in the distant future amidst a feudal interstellar society in which various noble houses control planetary fiefs. It tells the story of young Paul Atreides, whose family accepts the stewardship of the planet Arrakis. While the planet is an inhospitable and sparsely populated desert wasteland, it is the only source of melange, or "the spice," a drug that extends life and enhances mental abilities. Melange is also necessary for space navigation, which requires a kind of multidimensional awareness and foresight that only the drug provides. As melange can only be produced on Arrakis, control of the planet is thus a coveted and dangerous undertaking. The story explores the multi-layered interactions of politics, religion, ecology, technology, and human emotion, as the factions of the empire confront each other in a struggle for the control of Arrakis and its spice.Herbert wrote five sequels: Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, and Chapterhouse: Dune. Adaptations of the novel have been notoriously difficult and complicated. In the 1970s, cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky attempted to make a film based on the novel. After spending almost three years in development, the project was cancelled due to a constantly growing budget. In 1984, a film adaptation, directed by David Lynch, was released to negative reaction. A third film adaptation directed by Denis Villeneuve is scheduled to be released on October 1, 2021. The book was also adapted into the 2000 Sci-Fi Channel miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune and its 2003 sequel Frank Herbert's Children of Dune (which combines the events of Dune Messiah and Children of Dune), a series of computer games, a board game, songs, and a series of follow-ups, including prequels and sequels, that were co-written by Kevin J. Anderson and the author's son, Brian Herbert, starting in 1999.Since 2009, the names of planets from the Dune novels have been adopted for the real-life nomenclature of plains and other features on Saturn's moon Titan.
You are really brough into the world of Dune the book sucks you in with intrigue as it reveals how the world works and how the people of Arrakis live, the book can drag on in some parts but it is well written and gives you a real feel for the world.
He leído el libro después de ver las películas. Sólo puedo decir que qué maravilla de adaptación. ¿Se puede dar el caso en que la lectura te lleve a valorar todavía más la adaptación a la pantalla? Se puede y este es uno de esos casos.
Since I watched the movies first, I was happy to have one of my main fears dissapear completely during the first couple chapters. Many of the plot twists present on both movies are actually things the reader just knows from the start. The betrayal and the plot against House Atreides, the people behind it and the reason for it can be inferred quickly enough.
Herbert’s confidence in the world he wrote can end up being too much to a lot of people. From the beginning of the novel, characters throw around a lot of made up terms that can be confusing, and in a setting where Dukes, Counts and Emperors, Great Houses and Cults are still a thing, alongside intergalactic travel and human calculators, the politics and relationships of it all are quite complex.
The book doesn’t hold your hand at all. There are references and intriguing events from long …
Since I watched the movies first, I was happy to have one of my main fears dissapear completely during the first couple chapters. Many of the plot twists present on both movies are actually things the reader just knows from the start. The betrayal and the plot against House Atreides, the people behind it and the reason for it can be inferred quickly enough.
Herbert’s confidence in the world he wrote can end up being too much to a lot of people. From the beginning of the novel, characters throw around a lot of made up terms that can be confusing, and in a setting where Dukes, Counts and Emperors, Great Houses and Cults are still a thing, alongside intergalactic travel and human calculators, the politics and relationships of it all are quite complex.
The book doesn’t hold your hand at all. There are references and intriguing events from long ago that came and went and help give you an idea of the state of affairs, such as the interesting computers, for example, but a lot is left for the reader to figure out and fill the gaps as they keep reading. I think the movies helped me get through this much quicker too.
The story begins after House Atreides is put in charge of Arrakis, a planet with the most valuable substance in the galaxy, the spice melange. A drug that is essential for space travel, can improve the user’s life-span, awareness and many other things.
The planet is a huge desert, making for a harsh environment nobody would bother to live on, where water is scarce and as valued as spice. Despite this, it is inhabited by the Fremen, people who have managed to tame the desert, and resist the heavy rule of the Harkonnens, who up until then had been the House harvesting the planet’s resources for the Empire.
Our protagonist, Paul Atreides is the son of Duke Leto and Lady Jessica; and he'll finds himself entangled in the middle of prophecies, visions and politics in a path that would lead him to do what he thinks is right, but at what cost?
The novel deals with many different topics, such as the fight over natural resources, the dangers of organized religion, capitalism and freedom and things.
Some people might not like the politics at the start, others will not enjoy the spirituality later on, and a few will find everything weird and confusing and with cringy prose. I kind of loved it, I can see why this novel is among the greats, and how it has served as the inspiration of tons of different works over the decades, and it will keep on giving for years to come.
Every character has their motivations, their perspectives and interactions. There is conflict even between allies, family and friends, and it is simply so intriguing and it all feels like a big disaster and a terrible tragedy, but that is still the best possible outcome of it all.
It was a cool read, I am considering reading the next books by Frank, but we’ll see, I kind of want to read a ton of different authors, which I’ve been doing since the year begun, so maybe next year will be the year of reading full book series for a change.
Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife - chopping off what’s incomplete and saying: “Now, it’s complete because it’s ended here.” — from “Collected Sayings of Maud’Dib’’ by the Princess Irulan
it took me ages to get through this. not because it's bad, probably mostly because i repaired my computer and had.. other things on my mind. but also partly because herbert's style reminds me of tolkien. like, a lot. at least in the sense that herbert really wants you to read his mediocre poetry too.
this isn't bad by any means, and i will surely read on in the future. probably around the time the second movie hits. the characters are fleshed-out and there's surprisingly little overt misogyny for a science fiction book that is, at this point, positively ancient. it's just the constant internal monologuing and then rushing through the actual happenings that gets exhausting after a while.
Entertaining enough, and even better, I could follow it after watching the film!
Not sure I would be able to go too many books further into this universe (maybe with more film support ha!)
Reading this again, I am struck by just how immersive the novel is. The world building is still incredible and so many themes and ideas are so densely packed, that this is a novel that really does reward the reader willing to lock themselves away in order to really spend time on Arrakis.
Great world-building, great story, but only "okay" story telling. Despite being a long book, the ending feels like it rushes to a conclusion.
Important characters are introduced out of whole cloth, familiar characters from the beginning of the book are changed, but in ways that don't feel authentic. The emotional dynamics in this book have potential, but are never explored, because of the need for the characters to be superhumans with exquisite control of their minds and bodies.
The uberman thing is fun for a while, but story lines with them are always limited to "he gains control" or "he wasn't really an uberman." This book has a reputation for being a more "mature" sci-fi book with political machinations and backroom deals, but it didn't seem to follow the rules of politics or human motivation that exist in our world. I think Gordon R Dickson's "Tactics of Mistake" in his …
Great world-building, great story, but only "okay" story telling. Despite being a long book, the ending feels like it rushes to a conclusion.
Important characters are introduced out of whole cloth, familiar characters from the beginning of the book are changed, but in ways that don't feel authentic. The emotional dynamics in this book have potential, but are never explored, because of the need for the characters to be superhumans with exquisite control of their minds and bodies.
The uberman thing is fun for a while, but story lines with them are always limited to "he gains control" or "he wasn't really an uberman." This book has a reputation for being a more "mature" sci-fi book with political machinations and backroom deals, but it didn't seem to follow the rules of politics or human motivation that exist in our world. I think Gordon R Dickson's "Tactics of Mistake" in his Dorsai series paints a more realistic picture. The characters in this book openly scorn the 3 branches of power in their government and do little to offer systemic solutions other than to say with subtext that it'll all be better when our uberman is in control.
Still, I'm looking forward to rewatching the movie and seeing the TV miniseries, now that I have some background, and look forward to reading more stories from this universe... particularly what happened to the machines made with the image of man's mind.
loved rereading this, especially in audio book form. Convinced my son to read it with me.
Yesterday, I was breathing in the aroma of some freshly roasted coffee, thinking, I'd love to be a coffee miner if that's how it was obtained.
I always find reading Dune to be a bit of an odd experience. For the first eighty pages or so, things move quite slowly, a large cast of characters - some more significant than others - are introduced. So much is set up with so little explanation that the novel almost sinks under the weight of its own inventiveness.
Then, somewhere around page 100, everything clicks and I am sucked in until the end of the book - appendices and all.
Dune is one of the very few stories that can genuinely be called epic. In scope and depth, the novel is both massive and brilliantly visualised right down to the smallest detail.
