Jack Edwards's Reviews > Dune
Dune (Dune, #1)
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While the cultural impact of this book is indisputable, I couldn't help feeling incredibly underwhelmed when reading it. Even the plot couldn't save Dune, since it's spoiled at every juncture by 'Princess Irulan' and her epigraphs before each chapter. Did no-one tell her about spoiler alerts?
From the very first pages, this book plunges you in at the deep-end with an absurd amount of overly complex world-building, which just makes the book laborious to work through. It wasn't for me, and the post-Dune reading slump is real.
From the very first pages, this book plunges you in at the deep-end with an absurd amount of overly complex world-building, which just makes the book laborious to work through. It wasn't for me, and the post-Dune reading slump is real.
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Maria
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rated it 2 stars
Sep 29, 2021 03:20AM

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The reason for this is that the book wants to address ideas of fatalism. It's a huge core theme to the franchise. At least regarding the arc of Paul.
The Bene Gesserit has literally been engineering the Atreides for generations through the breeding programs. The Missionaria protectiva, a sub group of the Bene Gesserit went so far as to engineer a religion around the Atreides by influencing less developed ethnic groups that live in harsh environments such as Fremen as a means to forward the protection and preservation of the Bene Gesserit.
They were pawns from birth and most of Paul's story reflects this. However, to focus on any one character in Dune I feel misses the point a bit. If you were to read on, you would realize the main character is really the world and any character is just means to describe how the ruling classes and populace interact with that world.
Hopefully this gives you a new perspective and possibly a new appreciation for what Dune is to those that love it.
Cheers.







PS - Denis Villeneuve's adaptation is *chefs kiss* and I've seen it twice!




I also didn't quite understand the references to Islam in regards to the freman so perhaps I missed that connection.
I also found it very dated and cliched- bad people are fat and/or gay. Good people are beautiful with green eyes. Women apparently don't make ANY progress in the future- the very few women in the story have super cliched roles - religious wise woman, concubine or princess of few words. Even Chani is completely under developed and is mostly there to provide Paul with a SON as even in fiction stories daughters have little worth ...