Reviews with content warning for Gore - Duna

“Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic.”

I didn’t really know what to expect going in. I knew it was a science fiction classic featuring a young man called Paul on a desert planet that may or may not be called Dune, and I knew that there were big worms and something to do with spice – a rough outline, nothing more.

I think Dune can best be described as sci-fi for history buffs. It’s full of political intrigue, factions and dynasties, empire building, and so on, but also of note are the incessant spoilers courtesy of Princess Irulan. We are told who these characters are and what they will go on to do, to the extent that it sometimes feels like watching a reenactment of what happened or a dramatisation of a well-known legend rather than events unfolding in real time. At first I was thrown off by it but I adjusted and learnt to accept the writing for what it is instead of getting hung up on what I thought it would be.

Dune is, above all else, a story about expectations and adaptation. Having to adjust my own perspective in response to this curveball of a novel meant there was a neat parallel between my own reading experience and the experiences of the characters on the page having to adjust to life on Arrakis – a good avenue for sympathy and connection.

Paul, our protagonist, is entirely shaped by the expectations placed upon him.

He takes on various names and titles over the course of the story (Duke Paul Atreides, the Kwisatz Haderach, the Lisan al Gaib, Muad’Dib, Usul) and these personas seem to supersede any true sense of self he may have once had. His identity fractures and frays at the climax; not only does he flit back and forth between multiple selves, he also refers to them in the third person and assigns them different motives and personalities (“You have the word of a Duke [...] but Muad’Dib is another matter.”) I don’t know if I’d insist that Paul is plural, but his selfhood is certainly compromised and complicated by all these assumed identities.

Of course, while I’m on the topic of identity, I have to talk about gender – this book is riddled with it. I wouldn’t be the first to point out that women exist in this narrative only as they relate to men, and that they’re portrayed as intuitive, emotional, nurturing, and, above all, passive. I also wouldn’t be the first to note the queerness inherent to the Kwisatz Haderach, a boy with access to powers normally possessed only by women, who can see “both masculine and feminine pasts” – “the male who can truly become one of us.”

Paul has a drug-induced epiphany late in the novel wherein he claims women are givers and men are takers, and that he himself is “the fulcrum” who cannot give without taking nor take without giving.

That moment serves as a good demonstration of Dune’s strange synthesis of essentialism and transgressiveness. And I must say, the fulcrum quote really resonated with me as a genderqueer person.

I’ve talked about Paul, now it’s time to talk about Baron Harkonnen.

He starts off as a vague force of evil that influences the actions of others, only becoming a fully fledged character after the betrayal of Duke Leto.

Herbert could not have made it any clearer that this guy is a villain we’re supposed to loathe. Not only is he a power-hungry capitalist, he’s also an incestuous pedophile and (even worse!) he’s very fat. Yeah, the fatphobia is... not great. And that’s not the only thorny issue here. Dune is inseparable from its Orientalist manner, genocide is treated as set dressing, and eugenics (though criticised) does seem to be granted some legitimacy within the narrative. I don’t want to dwell on these problematic elements but at the same time I can’t disregard them.

Does Dune deserve four and a half stars? Probably not. Am I going to give it four and a half stars anyway? You bet. It’s not beyond criticism (far from it) but I thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless. I’m curious to see where the story goes from here and I’ve already ordered Dune Messiah, but I won’t be reading it just yet because I have quite a backlog of unread books to work through first.

Content Warnings

serafinam's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Dune follows Paul Atreides, heir to his father's title, as his family moves to the planet Arrakis and is plunged into chaos.

My biggest complaints about the novel come from how minority characters are depicted and treated. Women in Dune are subservient to men, very manipulative, and are often depicted as slightly less intelligent than their male counterparts. While some of this can be explained by Paul's youth and the wickedness of some characters, none of the female characters are treated as equal and it does make the book harder to enjoy as a woman. The Fremen are more often that not depicted as mystical fanatics with outdated, or even primitive ways of living. Without their existence the entire plot would fall apart, and yet they are not treated with the respect they deserve, both as fictional people and as those based on an actual minority group. My final, and perhaps greatest issue, is with the Baron Harkonnen. It cannot be denied that he is a wicked, evil man--facts easily gleaned from his attempts to exterminate the House Atreides and his treatment of other characters. the inclusion of his penchant for young boys is wholy unnecessary to show just how evil he is. This is especially compounded by the fact that he is the only character we see to have same sex attraction.

I have a love/hate relationship with this book, though it does lean more towards love. I found the politics of the novel to be fascinating and the character motivations keep me guessing at who to trust at every turn. While the style of writing, lore introduced, and involved of the spice lends itself more similarly to high fantasy, it thrives as a solid science fiction novel. The time jumps and perspective changes could be a bit confusing at times, and I often found myself a little perplexed as to the importance of some characters, but I would still recommend this to anyone who loves works like Lord of the Rings, The Wheel of Time, or Brian Sanderson.

Content Warnings

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective slow-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

ahalexont's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious slow-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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