Review: Dune
My rating: 6 of 5 stars
Brian Herbert, on Dune.
Dune is a modern-day conglomeration of familiar myths, a tale in which great sandworms guard a precious treasure of melange, the geriatric spice that represents, among other things, the finite resource of oil. The planet Arrakis features immense, ferocious worms that are like dragons of lore, with “great teeth” and a “bellows breath of cinnamon.”
It’s hard to find something to say about Dune that hasn’t already been said. It raised for the bar for the entire genre of science fiction. It won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. It combined elements of ecology, politics, philosophy, history, evolution, religion, psychology, adventure, revenge, and more. It’s fantastically layered, lending itself to many different interpretations and explanations. It gave us a world complex enough, with a history rich enough to support 15 sequels, a movie, and 2 TV mini-series.
It can be a slow read at times, demanding close attention from the reader. Herbert introduces a dizzying array of characters, concepts, terms, languages, histories, and peoples. You are, in essence, dropped into a story already in progress and trusted to keep up as events unfold. But, in spite of its occasional flaws, it’s a worthwhile read. From start to finish, the book rewards the reader with an all-engaging universe.
If you have already read Dune, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, you should probably give it a try. It’s a true classic of the genre for many very good reasons.
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