Dune by Frank Herbert Review

 

Review of Dune 
By: Frank Herbert
I did it, I finally read the infamous Sci-Fi classic Dune, that has been recently readapted starring Timothee Chalamet. The story takes place on a desert planet telling the story of Paul Atreides. His father is murdered and his family is betrayed forcing Paul and his mother to go on the run. It turns out Paul is the prophesied chosen one, but is this such a good thing? 
I almost DNFed this, but I’m glad I kept going and I think only reason was because had I put it down and stopped reading for a few days. It took me a little bit to get back into the story. It was mostly the writing style was somewhat different for me. We were in the characters heads a lot more told exactly what they were thinking, which annoyed me at first. Over time, I had gotten used to it. Herbert seems to hold your hand when it comes to his characters, but when it comes to the world building it’s a different story. He throws the reader into his world without guiding you through and expecting the reader to navigate it on their own. It is fantastic world building though, and the setting is really cool. I am still trying to get into Sci-Fi (literature wise), and this desert setting on another planet is new to me. The sand worms are a fun and scary to see, and the idea of this planet having a spice that you can easily become addicted to is fascinating. The spice is in the air the characters breathe and it practically makes up the planet’s surface. I appreciate when fantasy and Sci-Fi explores addiction plots in an interesting way and I hope we get more of that in the rest of the books. I liked the characters but I had no strong feelings about them, but I did enjoy Paul’s journey from innocent teenage boy to possible tyrant. The story explores the consequences of creating a chosen one to worship and how that can be dangerous. Paul changes but not in a good way that is scary, especially for his mother Jessica. I would love to explore more of Jessica’s Bene Gesserit heritage. As I said before, I had no strong feelings about the other characters, but they do come off as complex people and intriguing enough to keep me interested in their journey’s, along with Paul’s. The ideas were interesting and I look forward to exploring more of them later in the subsequent books.