Book Review/ Podcast 60's Hugo Winner series: Dune By Frank Herbert

Dune By Frank Herbert

Paperback, Special 25th Anniversary Edition, 535 pages

Published 1990 by Ace/Berkley Books (first published 1965)

Hugo Award for Best Novel (1966)

Nebula Award for Best Novel (1965)

Seiun Award for Best Foreign Novel (1974)

Dickheads Podcast bonus episode coming soon.

I know this is not exactly a hot take as Dune is considered one of the greatest classics of Science Fiction but it is really amazing. Like many, I read it first when I was 14 years old and know much of it flew straight over my head. The last time I "read it" was by audiobook shortly after watching the Sci-fi channel mini-series.

The skill with which it was written is only outmatched by the impact it has had on the genre as a whole. World Building, adventure, mysticism, environmentalism and politics. The Themes are not over-explained but perfectly woven into the story. Dune does all these elements with skill that has few peers before except Lord of the Rings and maybe The Foundation books. A reader in this day and age might recognize many of the elements here, they may be tropes now, but remember Star Wars and most of the Space Opera you have read in your life came after Dune.

The story is not a simple one, and I admit I was daunted to jump back into all the royalty and fantasy stuff. Now that brings me to a key point. This book has a lot in common with high fantasy, and while it is fair to say Star Wars is not true Science Fiction, but Dune is at home in both. The ecology of the planet Arrakis alone is enough to qualify as science fiction. OK enough let's get to the story.

The main character of this story is the planet Arrakis, the desert world that is important to the power of everything in the universe is a not so subtle analogy for the middle East. This story set in our far future (we only know this because of one tiny reference to an ancient bible) where families contest for control of the various planets. This is a space-faring era, but thousands of years in the wake of a great war between humans and machines. Thus it gives the world an odd sci-fi midevil feel.

The main characters are the Duke, lady Jessica and their son Paul of the house Atreides. The Space guild has just given them this important planet after years of brutal rule by House Harkonnen. Paul is being trained by his mother who is a priestess of a mystical order known as the Bene Gesserit who believes he might be the Kwisatz Haderach a great leader foretold in prophecy. Once on the planet Paul and Jessica survive an assassination attempt by going native.

The power of this story is in the rich world-building, the attention to detail and the interesting characters and universe. This novel is considered one of the best all-time and it may still be underrated. I will save some of my deeper thoughts for the podcast but I really loved this book all over again.

I also want to add that many reviews online talk about the sequels as not matching this first book. I disagree. Dune Messiah was an unfortunate sequel as it was not meant to stand alone. It is not until the third book that many of the major political themes until the later books, certainly not until book three. Certainly, Herbert took great effort to the first book that was written without expectations.