Book Review and Writing Lessons: Dune by Frank Herbert

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for…

When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.

Series: Dune (Book 1)
Genre: Science-Fiction
Publisher: August 1965, Chilton Books
Page Count: 661 pages

I’ve heard about Dune for a while, but just never got around to reading it. I knew it was some book about a sand planet and sandworms and that’s it. Then I found out that a new Dune movie is supposed to be coming out … someday, so I decided to go ahead and read the book so I can compare it to the film.

The Plot

The story was interesting, but it just took a really long time to do anything. I feel like this is a thing with me but the book could have shed a hundred pages give or take to perfect the pacing. The pacing isn’t abysmal coughs Elfstones of Shannara cough but I feel like it would have grabbed me more if the plot moved a little faster. The inciting incident didn’t happen until over a hundred pages in. And it’s not that I don’t like long books because I liked Mistborn and The Deathly Hallows and those were like a bazillion pages long and had great stuff happening on all of them.

I feel like some of this was slowed down by the amount of politics and economical jargon. I was like, “Yes this is interesting, but where are the sandworms?” It’s a very intellectual book overall, but it feels like the intellectual aspect sometimes slows it down. The first part of the story is more typical fantasy, then it goes into a survival story, and then it goes into an epic sci-fi.

Also, random observation but Herbert used the word “secreted” a lot which sounds a lot like another word that made reading some things awkward. XD

The Characters

This book is written in third person omniscient so it goes into a whole lot of POVs, but I just had a hard time connecting to any of them. They all have pretty neat and engaging backstories, but I couldn’t emotionally connect to them. I know part of the Bene Gesserit creed is controlling emotions, but Spock controls his emotions and I could relate to him more.

Jessica, I guess, I could connect to the most. She loves her son deeply and she also is pregnant with a daughter with whom she also strives to connect. She has a checkered backstory, but in the end, she’s a strong mother who loves her children.

I really wanted to like Paul. He has the power to see the future (which is written in a really trippy way) and he’s the heir of Arrakis, but he goes on a bit of a negative character arc the disconnected me from him. It’s not that I didn’t like him, but I just didn’t care as much about him as I feel like I should.

So in the Dune (202?) trailer, Chani is shown within like the first few seconds of the film, but she doesn’t come in until like the latter half of the book, so I’m interested to see if they change her role in the film.

The Setting

I feel like the biggest appeal to this book is the depth of the world-building. Where Tolkien is the king of fantasy worldbuilding, Herbert is the king of science-fiction worldbuilding, especially since they wrote their magnum opuses merely a decade apart. He even went so deep as to figure out the ecology and economy of the planet. The dude was committed.

Now it took me a while to adjust to this world because there were a lot of made-up words to get used to and I did not know there was a handy dandy glossary in the back. I was a little overwhelmed at first by all of the new terminology, lore, politics, and history because there is A LOT. But it was so in-depth that it definitely felt like Arrakis is a real place out there in the universe.

This was especially evident with the Arabian-inspired Fremen culture. They’re very unique in the way water is sacred to them, how laws are enforced, mourning practices, and so on.

There’s even an appendix in the back of the book that goes to even more depth into the world. Admittedly I only skimmed it, but if you want more info on Arrakis and the character and etc. it’s there.

The Epic Things

Riding a sandworm is pretty dang cool. As well as a weapon is known as a crysknife that’s made of sandworm teeth.

The Theme

Having a handle on one’s emotions is a central part of the story. Part of the Bene Gesserit training is learning to master emotions so they don’t master you. One of their mantras is “Fear is the mind killer.” Another quote is “Worry saps the strength.”

The Content

There’s thankfully not a ton of content in this book. They said d*** a lot of times near the beginning and a** like once maybe. There is some violence, but it’s mostly stabbing. A baby is killed “off-screen” and a four-year-old kills a dude in cold blood. Long story.

The Writing Lessons

Make Sure to Clarify Jumps in Time – At one point in the book, there’s a two-year time leap, but it literally went from one POV, and then boom Paul is in the desert two years later and it took me a few pages to figure out there was a time jump because Paul can see into the future and I thought perhaps this was another one of his visions.

How this applies to writing: Especially when you have characters with premonition powers make sure you define a transition in time. Often it’s best to just write out how much time has passed especially if it’s been years.

The Conclusion

Dune was interesting, but I’m not sure if I’m going to read any further books in the series because I don’t think the writing style is my cup of tea.

Frank Herbert (1920-86) was born in Tacoma, Washington and worked as a reporter and later editor of a number of West Coast newspapers before becoming a full-time writer. His first sf story was published in 1952 but he achieved fame more than ten years later with the publication in Analog of Dune World and The Prophet of Dune that were amalgamated in the novel Dune in 1965.

Have you read Dune? Do you like science-fiction? What are some of your favorite science-fiction novels? What are you currently reading?