Samantha's Reviews > Dune

Thoughts please.

Why was the title of this book not Spice and Worms? Lol

Totally agree, Samantha!

Wow! This is one of my all time favorites. I own it in 3 formats. Maybe it’s a generational thing

I don't think it's a generational thing I think it's just a matter of taste. I love books like "Foundation" and "Do Andriods Dream of Electric Sheep", yet I really didn't like Dune.

Completely different opinion to yours. I think there are plenty of reasons why this SHOULD be in the canon, nevermind the very complex and "alive" world!

I read Dune when I was younger and before I began to read more critically. I liked it then and still do now, though I acknowledge it has significant problems with its basic premise. However, I also know that this is only the first step in Herbert's saga, and having set Paul on a savior/messiah pedestal in the first book, subsequent books deal with the inevitable corruption that kind of power brings. I've never read past Dune, but have just started my reread with the intent to do just that. I think it will be interesting to see Herbert's vision as a whole (or as whole as it was when he died) and if Dune is an idealized/simplistic/problematic narrative, how does that narrative change as the power Paul holds begins to alter him?

I absolutely agree with you Sam! I read this awhile back when I was younger and hadn't read as much good literature. I loved it then but the more I've sat with it and learned about how it uses certain tropes I've come to not hold it very highly in my heart.
I think it's a book very much of it's time, truly a boys club book. The villian is described horribly: it's fatphobic. Not to mention how many people refer to him as gay, instead of a pedophile. It's not great.

No matter how much people think the plot is good, and I think it's 'okay', this book hasn't aged well in a lot of ways.

Totally agree. I think a bunch of people read it at a young age and have their imaginations totally exploded by it (which is super cool!) but don't realize how much of the cool stuff they remember from it was actually completely filled in by imagination. Herbert effectively describes very very little.

so you’re saying i should just skip this and watch the movie only? bc that’s exactly what i’m gonna do lol

My brother begged me to read this. I’ve been picking my way through it since April, and made it almost half way before I finally called it quits. So glad I did.

Had to read this for an English class I was in. I didn’t even make it halfway. It was NOT good. I faked that I had read it the rest of the time and completely guessed on the exam.

I find it interesting you saw Dune this way. To me I loved how Dune built an entire functioning Empire in the first book while only taking place on one planet, then simply collapsing everything he had built with a protagonist that ended up being arguably one of the worst things to happen to humanity in the previous 20000 years.

I think the great part about Dune is that it doesn't hold your hand (like really it is just so absurdly confusing at the beginning) not just in world building but also in its messaging. I refer to the fact that there is not a single hero in this book. These characters are arguably terrible people and Frank Herbert knew this, however since we are in the characters heads it is not always obvious. But what we are looking at here is not a savior or promotion of colonialism but in fact a dangerous example of what happens when a leader manipulates a population into a blind following and the consequences of such actions. These consequences in this book of course cannot be seen directly by us, however Paul knows because he sees the future and he tells the reader this throughout the whole story. Then by the end he has truly accepted the horrors that will happen under his name and he only accepts the mantle of emperor out of fear at what he has created. Knowing that what he has done will create chaos in the Empire.

The rest of the books in this series focus on the consequences of Dune and Dune Messiah is at least worth checking out a plot summary (although it is very short) only to see what happens of Paul and his empire.

How is it glorifying colonisation? The whole plot of the second half is that Paul is fearful for if the Attriedies get the power he’s trying to get them, they’ll end up becoming colonisers. In fact Paul’s main motives is stopping colonisation. And the white saviours thing???? I’m going to assume this is referring to Paul being the Messiah. Paul is the Messiah for the fremen people, people who are seen to be savages when they’re truly not. So how does this have any themes to do with white saviours? I mean Paul’s race is never mentioned, but if we take it as a metaphor that he is part of a privileged race, he is using his privileges (which is the fact he was able to get a proper education in combat and war tactics) and use that to save and help those who are being oppressed! I’m also not to sure what you mean by the lack of agency for the women. Like seriously I genuinely have no idea what you mean. The only guess I can make, and I truly mean guess, is you might be talking about the parts where the are references of sexual assault made towards Jessica. This is done by the villains, to show that the villains are villains. Someone calls them out and stops them. The person who does that is the hero, they stand up against it because they are the hero. Having characters described as horrible monsters so bad things doesn’t mean that the book thinks those things are alright. Also what’s the point of the TWs? Like I fully support TWs and think they should be used more often, but neither of your trigger warnings are mentioned in your comment.

I’d like to quickly state that Paul isn’t necessarily the hero, and in the later books you definitely see that. But in that one scene he is against the villain and is the one you’re meant to support

Paul is described as dark and there is speculation that his family descends from Greece, making him Mediterranean and not exactly a “white savior”.