I know I am going to get a lot of hate-mail over this one, and people might start looking for my photos to put on effigies (I am well aware of the irony).
If there ever was a book which came highly recommended, it was this one. But for me, the “Dune
Duke Leto Atreides is charged by the Padishah Emperor to take charge of the desert planet Arrakis (also known as Dune). Completely covered by desert, and inhabited by dangerous giant sandworms, and even more ferocious Fremen (local inhabitants), the planet is valuable as the only source of most expensive spice in the universe, melange. With the fiefdom of Arrakis comes the charge of keeping the supply of spice constant (as everything revolves around melange), and the income that generates.
But the fiefdom is not awarded because the Duke is a distant cousin of the emperor, or he has a valiant army. The Emperor is conspiring with the arch-enemies of House Atreides, House Harkonnen, to destroy the Duke (whom he fears is becoming a threat). Duke Leto is well aware of the threat, and is planning to get help from the local Fremen to fend off the attacks. But the trap is sprung too early, and there’s a traitor in their midst.
With his father dead, and the remnants of his army being hunted, the son of the Duke, Paul Atreides and his mother Jessica escape with the help of Imperial Planetologist. They manage to get assimilated by a Fremen tribe. Paul is marked important right from birth because he might be “Kwisatz Haderach“, a male Bene Gesserit (a secretive female sistehood of which Jessica is a member) who can see past and all possible futures. The legend spread among the Fremen by Bene Gesserit years earlier marks him as Lisan al-Gaib, a prophet who will convert Dune into lush green planet. Also, Jessica takes over as Reverend Mother of the Fremen tribe, which marks the importance of both in the tribe.
Paul Maud’Dib (as he is called now) gathers the Fremen together, and leads the fierce resistance against the new Harkonnen administrator of the planet. When the news that he has survived gets out, the Emperor himself is forced to come to Dune to take charge of the situation, which makes it easy for Paul to get revenge for his family’s betrayal.
The book (being the first one of the series) is filled with rich details about the planet, the Houses , the galactic empire and so on. The universe is richly detailed, and pretty interesting. But, on the other hand, I found most (if not all) characters to be very easy to read. That makes the book pretty much predictable, and within a few pages from the start, you can tell which characters are going to survive and which are not. And although I don’t subscribe to George R. R. Martin philosophy of bumping off any character people might have liked, this meant that I could not connect to any of the characters. Indeed, the character I found most human was Duke Leto.
Paul and Jessica’s assimilation in the tribe was a bit too easy for me. Although it shows how deep the religious beliefs and legends have gone in the minds of Fremen, (and although Paul has to kill a person to prove himself), once inside, they achieve importance in the tribe very quickly. After that, Paul sees a future where his army spreads across the universe killing everything in the path. But although we hear that he is taking every step carefully so as to keep away from that path, these are just words, and do not come out in action. Not that he starts on a bloody trail, but we don’t see him doing anything actively to keep away from any path.
There may be thousand ingredients of humour, but I know that religion, politics and desert never make for a fun read. But still, the humour in the book was scarcer than the oases on Dune. In fact, I cannot remember any slightly humourous situations standing out in the entire book.
I sincerely hope that this does not mean that my tastes in Sci-Fi have changed so drastically. It is not often that I read the second book in the series because I want to give the series a second chance. But Dune is one of those series where I want to read the second book because I want to see what all the hype is about, and not because I cannot wait to see what happened to my favourite characters and storyline.
P.S. This is the first book I read for “Book to Movie Challenge“. The challenge will be round-up with next post.
Quote of The Day:
When I die, I’m leaving my body to science fiction.
- Stephen Wright (1955 – )
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- Harry Turtledove
- Robert Jordan
The ‘Good post’ was kinda between quotes. I forgot the quotes. Sorry.
@A Dune Fan: Hope the quotes you forgot weren’t supposed to convey sarcasm.
As you suggested, I tried some detailed reviews (rather discussions) of the books. But the average reader on this site haven’t read the books, and if I don’t give out the story or characters (at least in a short paragraph), I found that it adds to the confusion, and reduces the discussion/interest of people in the article. Of course, if I was talking with fans or people who have read the book I am talking about, then I can give the plot details a miss.
As for the “funny” part, I wasn’t expecting HAHA funny, with jokes and all (I know that religion, politics and desert never make for a fun read.). But even the most serious fiction has a moment or two of dry (or wry) humour built in. I guess that did not come out properly in the article.
Also, my main problem with the story was that this was not a story of a person’s struggle against something. What I was reading is that how a person’s life is shaped by events. Since writing the review, I have also started the second book in the series, and again, I have yet to see Paul do anything actively. That’s why I found it hard to connect to any of the characters in the book, which reduced my interest level as the book went on.
That said, as you said, it is a personal POV and I am not saying anything against people who like this. To each his own, I say…
As for the hype, you are also a part of it now
It wasn’t just one person, but many people I came across.
@Metlin: And people told me that the first paragraph wasn’t prophetic
Unfortunately, when Herbert Sr. died, I hadn’t even learnt my ABCDs, so I have to review the books as I read them. All the time turners were destroyed, you see…
I don’t think any writer writes SF just because he likes to write about robots, or outer galaxies. Every series, every book, every page has a plot which goes beyond the genre. Which is why I tell people that you can easily convert SF into say, fantasy genre without taking out the core of the story.
As for LoTR, I agree that saying that the story is about short people and a ring is as idiotic as saying it is not about them. A casual reader (which most people visiting my blog are) is going to read Dune as about the planet, and the story of Paul Atreides. It is when he gets to the whole series, and starts thinking about the same, is when he sees the society and the “elements” shaping it.
As for the “humour”, read my reply to “A Dune Fan”.
When we say “human”, it goes beyond just the flesh and blood, 2 arms and legs, the whole humanoid shape. It is about the human struggle against adversity, against the conditions, to swim against the current. From what I have read, Paul hasn’t done anything actively, and the story tells me how he is forced by the conditions to do something.
After all, this is my POV. I won’t ever say that an author is bad, or people shouldn’t like a particular book just because I didn’t like it.
P.S. Do you find some conflicting POVs in the paragraph “The whole Dune series is about…” and the penultimate paragraph where you express concern about gene pool?
P.P.S. The articles about submarines and computers are coming up right after the one titled “Newsflash: Fish swim”
Your basic arguments on SF has been disproven by people far better than me — Aristotle, for one. Go read up on structuralist literary theories.
And you are reading Dune with expectations of something that’s about to happen? About Paul “doing” something? Dune isn’t about any one person but the Dune universe.
Dune is about creating heroes and destroying them utterly. Every main character will be ruthlessly killed and will lead a life of oblivion because humanity needs super-men to do great things but doesn’t care much for them.
I’ve no clue about most of the things that you say — it boggles the mind that you actually managed to read the book as you claimed.
@Metlin: Wow, I didn’t know Aristotle wrote about SF. Neither did I know that writers don’t care about underlying story as long as they are writing about spaceships and robots. I guess all those writers who say otherwise were just lying.
Also, I didn’t know there was so much work involved before anybody is worthy to take up Dune. A casual reader (which is most people out there) is not going to read Aristotle and theories about SF before reading any book.
The review is about “Dune”, not the whole Dune universe. In most of Dune, Paul is yet to be a “super-man” and he is not being used by anybody yet, not even Bene Gesserit. From my personal POV, most of what you wrote never comes out in “Dune”, except the foundation of the universe and the politics.
If by the “most of the things”, you meant the P.S. and P.P.S. part, that is my mistake. I shouldn’t have tried humour even after you warned me earlier.