The book immediately thrusts you into a Universe that appears on the surface to be
a complicated mess. In the first ten pages the author introduces at least a dozen
characters and at least a dozen places and things that exist only in the Dune
universe. There is a handy glossary in the back of the book. For the first 100
pages of the book you should just have a bookmark in the glossary to look up all
the silly alien planets, objects, and titles. Unfortunately not all of the
characters are listed in the back so you just have to figure some of it out as
you go, which can be tough as the characters are all introduced and referenced in
a clunky vague way. Any time the characters and their situations start to pick up
steam the book takes a break to allow the characters to talk politics. About half
the book is spent with political analysis of the situation in the book's universe.
These parts are unbearable, none of the characters have their own voices in these
sections so it's almost entirely exposition and yet it's unnecessary. There is
really very little going on politically in the story, the entire political
situation of the empire and all of the involved parties in the story could be
summed up in a page or two. Multiple characters rehash the same information we
have over and over, none giving a unique perspective. Occasionally the protagonist
groups, the Atreides and the Fremen, will reveal that the opposing parties are
underestimating them or miscalculating in some way and generally the opposing
parties will then go on to confirm those suspicions in later interactions. So
even the political conversations that bring something new to the table are later
made redundant. Overall the politics of the Dune universe are as shallow if not
shallower than even Star Wars and yet are front and center for half of the book
and every time the book goes into the political snore fest all of the charm of
the story falls away until everyone's done talking politics and the story can
continue again without even gaining the benefit of new information.
Leaving politics aside I'll move onto the characters of which there are a lot in
this book. I like that there are a lot of characters all spread around this planet
and even other planets, it does make this book feel grand in scale. Herbert was
clearly going for a kind of epic odyssey and I'd say he pulled that off, due
largely to the amount of characters and their allegiances and conspiracies. The
dynamics of the opposing and conspiring characters felt like some sort of
Shakespearean play. Even the language of the writing felt very old world and
theatrical, I definitely think he was trying to achieve this effect. Unfortunately
the characters struggled to find their own individual voices and personalities.
There is a position in the Dune universe named "mentat" which is a very calculating
person, they're used essentially as human computers. It's a cool idea but seems to
be totally thrown out the window. The only two mentats in the novel seem to be
horrible to pick up on some painfully obvious conclusions and every other character
seems to be expertly calculating. Maybe this is just how it is in the Dune
universe, everyone thinks like a computer but it fails to give any character a
real voice. Gurney is probably the most unique character in the story and not
really because of his interactions or behavior, only because he plays an
instrument and sings fun little songs. Apart from that he's the same exact
character as everyone else in the story. They're all unwavering in confidence,
they're all expert fighters, they're all extremely manipulative and tactical,
they're all extremely efficient except when it serves the story for them to make
a mistake which always feels phony, they're all super allegiant to their leaders
and traditions. They're all identical cogs and apart from knowing their positions
in the machine I would never be able to read a quote or action from any character
and tell you who it was. None of the characters are really relatable either,
they're robots. You can't sympathize with their decisions or situations really.
For one thing the protagonists are the members of a noble family and their closest
allies and the whole time they're trying to maintain their status. Good luck prince
silver spoon, I hope you gain even more power and prestige. This power struggle at
the top of the food chain that disregards all of the poor waifs living within the
universe is just really hard to care about. There are just a bunch of shitty people
fighting for control of a seemingly shitty empire with a desert planet, a prison
planet, and some opulent ruler planet with gladiator fights. I think the most
satisfying outcome would be for the whole miserable universe to explode. I really
don't care if prince silver spoon becomes the emperor of shit mountain. I don't
care that Paul's some chosen one destined to lead the fremen to rule the universe,
what desirable change will he bring? What's the payoff? The keys to the empire
trading hands from unsympathetic asshole to unsympathetic messianic asshole is of
no interest to me and probably the majority of the people living within Dune's god
forsaken universe. It isn't even interesting watching the takeover happen because
the empire had gotten so lazy and overconfident. The whole book all of the
antagonists are just reaffirming to each other that the fremen are of no concern
and the Atreides line has been severed. We know the whole time that isn't true so
when the empire is like "whoops you got us! I guess we should have been more
careful!" it just isn't satisfying at all. The whole book was leading up to the
climax where you know what the outcome will be but you're just hoping Herbert will
subvert your expectations and then of course he doesn't. It's like the bad guy is
just a mannequin and Paul walks in and pushes the mannequin over and the book ends.
Was I supposed to cheer?
The most interesting part of this book is Paul and Jessica's journey through the
desert and their adapting to a new way of life. Unfortunately this is about 100
pages of the book but it's really neat. This is where you get to really soak up
the cool world Herbert built in the book. You don't have to hear about
administration problems or battle tactics you're just camping out in an endless
desert filled with giant worms. The world building is really cool on Arrakis. The
fremen are a fun tribe of people and their struggles are interesting. The giant
worms and the spice trade are really interesting pieces of the world and story.
The preciousness of water on the planet is a really cool factor that Herbert
really dives into and explores and was probably the single best thing about this
book, though even that got a bit redundant. I swear every ten pages one of the
Atreides remembers that water is precious on this planet. Really? Your body is
covered head to toe in a moisture suit. You forgot? Overall the planet of Arrakis
was a really cool setting and should have been more of a focal point in this book.
The power struggle was shallow and unrewarding, the characters were sterile and
unsympathetic, and the politics were too simple to be such a heavy focus. I sort
of understand why this book is considered a classic, it does almost feel like an
80's sci-fi novel even though it was written in the '60s so you could maybe say
it's ahead of it's time but I still don't feel it's all that remarkable even for
it's time. 1984 came out 15 years before Dune. Good sci-fi was certainly already
happening at the time and I just don't think this is it.
