Dune (Dune Chronicles, Book 1)
by Frank Herbert
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Book Summary Information
Author: Frank HerbertEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1990-09-01
ISBN: 0441172717
Number of pages: 896
Publisher: Ace
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780441172719
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Dune (Dune Chronicles, Book 1)
Book Review: Riding through the Desert on a---erm, *Worm* with no name
Summary: 5 Stars
Let's talk, for just a moment---here, in the shadow of the Citadel, in the instants before the space above us folds in on itself, tears open and disgorges a Harkonnen battle fleet, hopped up on cruelty, girded for war, and ready to blast down the shield wall and unleash carnage.
Nah, don't get up: Doctor Yueh says the Shield Wall should hold, and he *can't* lie---he's got the Imperial conditioning, after all.
Let's talk of space, and time-shifting, and ferociously deadly assassins, of Dukes and Padishah Emperors and plots within plots, wheels within wheels; but most of all, best of all certainly, of Spice and Giant Worms.
Let us speak, for a time, of Dune, of Arrakis, Desert Planet.
Dune is as simple, or as complex, as you want to make it: certainly Frank Herbert has created an epic, which literally spans galaxies and, ultimately, centuries, but it is a curiously, deliciously intimate epic. At first blush Herbert created a classic space opera, the desert world Dune serving as both backdrop and battleground for a vicious, bloody rivalry between two of the Empire's great noble Houses, the Atreides and the Harkonnens.
In THIS corner, the bantam-weight challenge, House Atreides: helmed by Duke Leto, daddy to young, naive Paul, whose mother Lady Jessica is a Bene Gesserit witch. Well, OK, former-witch, or anyway a witch who stopped shaving her head and paying her witch-dues. Atreides hails from homeworld Calidan, a planet of woods and water and decent aesthetics. I hear they even recycle.
And in THIS corner, former heavyweight champ-EE-uhn going out again for the title, House Harkonnen! Headed up by Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, who brings new meaning to the phrase "all up in the air", its homeworld is planet Giedi Prime, whose Three-Mile-Island nuclear disaster ambience is all just part of its charm. House Harkonnen has its hands full ripping out its lackeys' heart plugs and throttling whores, but nonetheless finds time to carry out assassinations and conduct interstellar warfare! Talk about productivity!
So on the surface, yeah, "Dune" is all about this colossal blood-feud between two houses, with the Padishah Emperor Shadam and his masters from the Spice Guild pulling the strings in the shadows.
But you know what hooked me on "Dune", back years ago when I happened upon it at the age of 12? It's all about this wild-eyes, prodigious, utterly self-absorbed little kid coming of age in a truly alien environment.
Back then, I could relate.
I was in the middle of a pretty wild and woolly transition, myself: spirited away from my own homeworld of Oregon, land of woods and water (and recycling, come to think of it), as the result of my dad being transferred by the unimaginably vast, uncaring multinational he worked for (the transfer itself fraught with worries, and machinations, and potential backstabbing). Destination: Utah.
Since my family were to live at the base of the mountains, I initially thought of Utah in Lord of the Rings terms: I would now be encamped at the base of the Misty Mountains.
But having seen my new home from the plane, it was decided: Utah, Deseret, Desert Planet. So naturally, as a wide-eyed transplanted child trying to acclimate to a strange, and fairly hostile, new environment, I *got* "Dune" completely.
The Princess Irulan was right: a beginning is a *most* dangerous time. With that in mind, Frank Herbert carried out a stroke of genius by framing his War of the Worlds from the viewpoint of a young Prince, a young prince who might be human---who would grow up to be a Rebel lord---and who might, just possibly, be the prophesied Messiah, the One who would unshackle the spice melange from the machinations of the Empire and its vassals, and set the Fremen---well, Free.
And ride gigantic sandworms, to boot. Can't leave out the really good stuff.
As to the political implications of "Dune"---a book about a clash of the Great Powers over a vast, arid desert rich with oil---oops, I mean MELANGE!---well, the veil here is flimsy at best. And in our post-9/11 age, some might get a case of the giggles or even the quease over "Dune"'s fixation with messianic warrior-saviors, and oppressed desert rebels, and the prominence of Jihad---getting back control over the vital worm poop that helps the Galaxy keep on truckin'. Maybe it's best to keep this one out of the hands of Osama bin Laden.
But that's all secondary: Herbert has crafted a masterwork of pulpy space opera that nonetheless bores into the deeply intimate and mystical: his is a universe of high deviltry and massive betrayal, of nefarious plots, demonically wicked villains, and impossibly loyal heroes.
Herbert has been chastised for his beefy prose style which some have castigated as ungainly, but I disagree---Herbert was a consummate craftsman with his words, and has a rich, pulpy style that keeps the deviltry moving and never fails to draw you in.
And the little hints of a far larger universe---the sayings of the Prophet, Irulan's own musings on the affairs of her Age, the verses from the Orange Catholic Bible, the origins and shadow-haunted practices of the Bene Gesserit, or the Bene Tleilax (the shape-shifting assassins of Herbert's universe)---all of these prime the hunger for more glimpses of the world beyond the shifting sands of the titular Desert Planet.
For those of you utterly new to "Dune"---its bloodthirsty familial rivalry, its moments of high holy insanity, its monstrous betrayals, its intricate, unforgettable characters---well, I envy you deeply.
The Spice must flow. So will the pages.
JSG
Summary of Dune (Dune Chronicles, Book 1)
Paul Atreides moves with his family to the planet Dune and is forced into exile when his father's government is overthrown. The first book in the series.This Hugo and Nebula Award winner tells the sweeping tale of a desert planet called Arrakis, the focus of an intricate power struggle in a byzantine interstellar empire. Arrakis is the sole source of Melange, the "spice of spices." Melange is necessary for interstellar travel and grants psychic powers and longevity, so whoever controls it wields great influence.
The troubles begin when stewardship of Arrakis is transferred by the Emperor from the Harkonnen Noble House to House Atreides. The Harkonnens don't want to give up their privilege, though, and through sabotage and treachery they cast young Duke Paul Atreides out into the planet's harsh environment to die. There he falls in with the Fremen, a tribe of desert dwellers who become the basis of the army with which he will reclaim what's rightfully his. Paul Atreides, though, is far more than just a usurped duke. He might be the end product of a very long-term genetic experiment designed to breed a super human; he might be a messiah. His struggle is at the center of a nexus of powerful people and events, and the repercussions will be felt throughout the Imperium.
Dune is one of the most famous science fiction novels ever written, and deservedly so. The setting is elaborate and ornate, the plot labyrinthine, the adventures exciting. Five sequels follow. --Brooks Peck
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