Dune

Strengths
Dune, put simply, defines 'Space Opera'. The scope and depth of the world that Herbert was able to present within these pages is simply remarkable. Providing a strong contrast to The Wheel of Time, another often lauded titan of world building, I felt that I had begun to understand the world, its scale and cultures, within the first half of the book. Yet, I remain cognisant of the fact that there is so much more to explore. Throughout Dune we explore the cultures of the Fremen, the Atreides and the Harkonnens to some depth, but this is coupled with an incredible political and religious system. The world felt real.

A clear dichotomy between men and women, and their roles, is demonstrated with consistency throughout Dune. However, that is not to say that the book is lacking in either male or female powerful characters. Rather, Herbert demonstrates great mastery of both feminine and masculine power (at least, within the context of this world.) The Bene Gesserit represent a subtle, feminine power through politic, deception and hidden control. This is embodied in the character of Jessica, whose choices throughout the novel arguably cause most of the events, even though she never asserts her power physically. This discipline is contrasted with the Mentats, who are shown to attempt cold, overt rationality, and the male house and tribal leaders, who are shown to prefer physical aggression in attempts to gain and maintain power. Herbert's use of these gender differences throughout the novel provides a great sense of intrigue and complexity, as it was rarely clear who is actually driving the events.

Weaknesses
Though I did give this book 5 stars, I do recognise that some aspects were weaker than others. Firstly, the 'bad guys' opposing our protagonist(s) were basically the most campy archetypal 'bad guys' you could get. They raped young boys, held gladiator fights and killed family members. Weirdly, the 'good guys' didn't exactly contrast this cartoonish representation, as great complexity was shown in their virtue and motivations. Secondly, the pacing was also a little odd, with the last third of the book seeming to contain far more action that the first two. And finally, since the Dune was written in the 60s, there are definitely some characterisations and writing styles that are starting to show their age to a modern reader, but I think that going into the book with the awareness that it was written in the 60s pretty much negates any of those anachronisms.

Već neko vrijeme sam razmišljala da se uhvatim u koštac sa nekom knjigom naučne fantastike, jer sam ih uvjek zaobilazila. Čitanje ove knjige je za mene predstavljalo lični izazov i jako mi je drago što sam istrajala i pročitala je do kraja.
Sa najavom za izlazak nove filmske adaptacije, ja kao i dosta ljudi se upoznajemo sa dijelom za koje se smatra jednim od pionira moderne naučne fantastike. Pri daljem interesovanju saznajem i za druge adaptacije, kao na primer za onu neslavnu Dejvida Lynch-a i Alehandra Hodorovskog i to me još više tjera da se upustim u ovaj svijet, te naknadno odgledam njihove interpretacije ove knjige.
Kao neko ko nije nikada prije čitao ovaj žanr, trebalo mi je dosta vremena da uđem u čitav svijet u koji autor naglo gura čitaoca. Univerzum je sastavljen od velikog broja koncepata i termina inspirisanim jezicima našeg srednjeg istoka, jer se veliki dio radnje odvija na planeti-pustinji. Takođe, čitanje uspori i stalno prebacivanje na kraj knjige gdje se nalazi mali riječnik pojmova, ali mogu da vidim kako to može nekome predstavljati i poseban gušt, jer je karakteristično za ovu vrstu literature (meni je to bio otežavajući faktor jer sam čitala u pdf-u).
Voljela bih da sam se potrudila doći do hardcopy verzije. Čitala sam e-book verziju na hrvatskom jeziku što mi je dodatno otežalo čitanje jer sam jednostavno više navikla na srpske prevode.
Svakako mi se knjiga sviđela, drago mi je da sam baš nju izabrala za probijanje "sci-fi leda", originalna je i jako je interesntno bilo ući u jedan novi svijet.

This was my second time reading this book, and you know, I think I liked it a little better this time. I was able to catch and appreciate some details early on that were important later, and I had a better understanding of what to expect, so some of the more confusing passages were easier to comprehend.

There's definitely some weirder stuff in this book, and I'm not sure I understood everything. Generally speaking, whenever Paul went into a trance and started seeing the future, I got a wee bit lost.

Probably my favorite thing about this book is the world that it's set in; very little context is given (until the delightfully detailed appendixes), but it's glaringly obvious that all of the casually mentioned events from the far past were well thought out and shaped how the world ended up.

I was also extremely impressed by the thinking through of the Guild monopoly; that was a detail that was so fascinating to think through the implications of, and it gave the story so much more realism and put constraints on some of the more obvious simple paths that could have otherwise been taken to solve problems.

So, in short, the worldbuilding is fantastic. At every point it feels so real; you can see that there are problems, that not everything went well in the past. Some authors I read (especially Asimov) have very cut-and-dried, simplified backstories that only exist to set up the story, but in Dune I really saw that a rigorously planned, realistic timeline existed, and it was fascinating to see the story flow around the figurative mountains that created rather than just changing the landscape.

Also, side note: Did you know that the Planitae (plains) and Labyrinthi (pretty much what it sounds like) on Titan (probably my favorite moon or planet in our Solar System) are named after planets from the Dune universe? I love the creativity that goes into Titan's nomenclature. (My favorite is that the mountains are named after Middle Earth mountains--Like Doom Mons! [i.e. Mount Doom])