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A review by penguin_emperor_of_the_north
Dune by Frank Herbert
3.0
I enjoyed it, I think knowing this book was a classic probably tempered my mood and made me more critical but I enjoyed it.
The thing that made the biggest impression was the Bene Gesserit. They're this order of nonreligious nuns with superpowers like controlling their own blood chemistry, evaluating other people's speech and mannerisms to learn how to manipulate others. And they have the Voice which lets them borderline take control of others and they're basically a breeding cult trying to create a chosen one by manipulating who has kids with who. Yeah, they're really creepy.
The world building of the desert planet Arrakis was interesting. It really plays into life in a desert where every bit of water needs to be saved and fitting the sandworms in was cool. Like walking without rhythm to avoid drawing the attention of the sandworms (having a rhythm to your steps indicates that the noise is from a living source rather than wind or whatever) or how they wear suits when outside that capture every bit of moisture from the body to recycle. It was interesting to think through how all that worked.
My two biggest issues were the over hyped abilities and the pacing.
A lot of the abilities in here are really played up but don't seem to live up to the descriptions. Like the Mentats are human supercomputers but they don't come off as that intelligent or capable of analyzing the situation. The Fremen and Sardaukar are supposed to be the best soldiers ever and we're just told that. I'm not sure how being a dehydrated survivalist makes you a better fighter but *shrugs*. The whole informed ability thing was the most frustrating part of the book, I had to take a lot of peoples' abilities on faith/word of the author.
And the pacing was just slow. Stylistic choice I guess but there were various points when I was left wondering when they'd cut to the chase.
The thing that made the biggest impression was the Bene Gesserit. They're this order of nonreligious nuns with superpowers like controlling their own blood chemistry, evaluating other people's speech and mannerisms to learn how to manipulate others. And they have the Voice which lets them borderline take control of others and they're basically a breeding cult trying to create a chosen one by manipulating who has kids with who. Yeah, they're really creepy.
The world building of the desert planet Arrakis was interesting. It really plays into life in a desert where every bit of water needs to be saved and fitting the sandworms in was cool. Like walking without rhythm to avoid drawing the attention of the sandworms (having a rhythm to your steps indicates that the noise is from a living source rather than wind or whatever) or how they wear suits when outside that capture every bit of moisture from the body to recycle. It was interesting to think through how all that worked.
My two biggest issues were the over hyped abilities and the pacing.
A lot of the abilities in here are really played up but don't seem to live up to the descriptions. Like the Mentats are human supercomputers but they don't come off as that intelligent or capable of analyzing the situation. The Fremen and Sardaukar are supposed to be the best soldiers ever and we're just told that. I'm not sure how being a dehydrated survivalist makes you a better fighter but *shrugs*. The whole informed ability thing was the most frustrating part of the book, I had to take a lot of peoples' abilities on faith/word of the author.
And the pacing was just slow. Stylistic choice I guess but there were various points when I was left wondering when they'd cut to the chase.