Subject: Review: Dune by Frank Herbert

From: [email-masked]
Date: 05 Aug 2000 16:54:31 -0400

Dune by Frank Herbert
	Review Copyright (c) 2000 Aaron M. Renn

Conclusion: Recommended

My computer crashed, keeping me away from my precious hacking and, in a
strange way, sucking out my life force.  I have been singularly
unmotivated to do anything, including read new books.  All I could bring
myself to do was to re-read a few old SF novels.  Now that I'm back in
business with a new computer, my reviews resume with a series of these
repeat reads.

The first was Dune.  I happened to stumble across a showing of the movie
Dune on the Sci-Fi channel.  I thought it was better than I had
remembered, and it made me want to go back and re-read the book.

Dune is an interesting work, telling the story of young Paul Atreides as
he grows into his destiny and battles the evil forces that threaten his
family and the life he's known.  Dune refers to the planet Arrakis, a
desert world that is the sole source of the melange spice, which extends
life and also has psycho-active properties.  This is the most valuable
substance in the galaxy, and it is nominally quite a coup for the Atreides
family to be put in charge of its production.  Nevertheless, they suspect
a trap laid by their arch-enemies, the Harkonnens.

This book has a few of the cliched sf elements that I dislike, such as the
far future society organized on feudal lines, the Christ-like child of
prophecy come to save the world, the more-evil-than-evil villains, but
nevertheless I thought it was an interesting read.  Herbert clearly put a
lot of work into designing his universe, which has the feeling of depth so
often missing in lesser works.  He cleverly hints at events in the past
that would be interesting to know about, but doesn't tell us about them,
thus leaving us wanting to know more about the world.  I'm guessing
Herbert delivered on that desire, as he wrote many sequels, none of which
I've read.  He also smartly went with the epic feel of re-telling a legend
rather than a straight-ahead narration.  It was pretty obvious what was
going to happen at the end, and by adopting this approach Herbert avoids
making his work look transparent.

Still, this clearly fell a step or two below the masterpiece category for
me, probably because of the elements I outlined above.  Perhaps that's a
bit unfair.  This book was written long ago and for all I know Herbert was
the first to originate all of the cliches I complain about.  Nevertheless,
reading in the year 2000, I can't help but be affected by them.  But as
one of the classics of the field, and a solid, above average work to boot,
Dune is clearly a must read for any SF fan.

BTW: The Sci-Fi Channel is apparently creating a new movie version of
Dune, due out later this year.

%A Herbert, Frank
%T Dune
%I Ace
%D 1990-09 (original publication 1965)
%G ISBN 0-441-17271-7
%P 535 pp.
%O mass market paperback, US$4.95

Reviewed on 2000-07-30

Aaron M. Renn ([email-masked]) http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/