Book Review: Dune by Frank Herbert

He suddenly saw how fertile was the ground into which he had fallen, and with this realization, the terrible purpose filled him, creeping through the empty place within, threatening to choke him with grief.

I first ventured into Dune some five, six years ago. I was young and had discovered my love of stories, and my favorite genre being fantasy, I checked out a lot of recommended lists on the internet. It was not long until I came into the sub-genre of fantasy (I know many would consider science-fiction and fantasy to be siblings): science-fiction, and the name Dune came first and always. So, I tried it, and I failed.

From the beginning, it felt jarring to me. Not because I was  unused to unusual things in books, nor because I could not follow the action, but because I could not picture the settings in Dune. The place where I fell Dune was when the Baron Harkonnen was speaking with his mentat Piter, and his nephew. I couldn't imagine where they were and what kind of globe they were viewing. The language describing them felt alien, and I have heard this is a barrier in many a science-fiction stories where lots of technical terms, real or feigned, are thrown which might not make sense (at first) to the unsuspecting general reader.

That is where I gave up.

Until a good friend of mine mock-mocked me for not being able to finish Dune. Bless her heart! It was enough to drive me to read the whole book which now I have accomplished.

And my verdict: I enjoyed it.

My praise for the book might seem benign, and I, myself, feel so. There are no glaring criticism I can muster against this landmark novel, nor I seem to able to add a successive flourish in its already rich tapestry of acclaim.

It is a wonderful adventure story, a thriller, a coming of age. Characters are well-defined, and conflicts well shown. Everybody wants something, and everybody is in odds with one another, and some of these have led to violent confrontations. The book is quite political, yet never boring, for the politics form as a background where these characters are trying to survive, strengthen, or even escape.

Nowhere this is shown more deftly than with the main character, Paul Atreides, son of Duke Leto Atreides. Without spoiling much, he is entrenched into a political upheaval of the violent, murderous kind. As soon as he hears he and his family will have to leave their ancestral and lush planet Caladan for the dry and 'desolate' desert planet Dune/Arrakis, he starts to feel the coming of a burden, a terrible purpose upon himself. It haunts his waking hours, and he cannot articulate it to the people around him.

This takes a turn for the terrible after he gains an ability where he can see the future. While not perfect, one image is constant in his mind's eye: a great, bloody battle which he himself will lead. Horrified by what he sees, he tries to make 'correct' the course of history, but even with this amazing power of Prescience, he feels powerless to be able to change anything. All the meanwhile, he has to fight against the people who want to destroy him and house Atreides. And it seems Dune holds the key to his problems. Or does it?

The novel is well-written, and it was much easier to understand than what I was led to believe by my abortive attempt those few years ago. I am very thankful to my friend who 'manipulated' me to read Dune. I suppose there is a promising Bene Gesserit inside of her.

I recommend Dune to all. It is a good read.