Dune by Frank Herbert

My rating: 3 of 5 stars




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BBC’s Big Read #39

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Disjointed Thoughts From My First Time Reading Dune :

• Herbert’s descriptors are super weird and try-hard sometimes. Did he think his oddly clipped, scientific, and formal writing style would somehow make his world more realistic? For me, it has the opposite effect. Plus, all the characters seem like either unbelievable caricatures or emotionless robots.


• I can’t suspend my disbelief enough to accept that humans were intelligent enough to raise a jihad against artificial intelligence before it conquered them all.


• I also can’t wrap my brain around the fact that humans who were smart enough to overcome thinking machines devolved into feudalism (even if it’s space feudalism)... Just steering as far in the other direction as they can go?
  
  ❧ Maybe humans devolved into feudalism because they thought replacing computers with inordinate drug use was a bright idea?


• Paul is some great prophesied messiah, but to me, it seems like he just has excessively trippy drug side effects... I’m sure people on LSD trips think they’re hella “prescient.”
  
  ❧ Bene Gesserits: “We may just be glorified sex slaves, but our sex slavery is STRATEGIC sex slavery, okay?!”


• For a human computer, Thufir Hawat seems like a massive idiot. And he’s a sexist POS.


• This is probably an issue specific to the Audible audio edition, but I am so done with Princess Irulan’s incessant reminders that she’s a princess... “In My Father’s House: by Princess Irulan, Daughter of the Padishah Emperor, My Father Shadam IV, whom I, Princess Irulan, am daughter of, in his house, the Emperor’s house...” SHUT UP!


• Oops. I got another chapter in and almost forgot Irulan’s daddy is the Padishah Emperor. Thank HEAVENS she reminded me for the billionth time. WHAT WOULD I DO WITHOUT HER?!


• Despite Herbert’s try-hard descriptors, he apparently has no other word for Chani’s face except for “elfin.” I’m almost as exasperated with that word as I am with Irulan’s constant reminders about her parentage.

Overall, I feel like the only thing can I truly appreciate Dune for is its contribution to the superior sci-fi works it inspired. Thanks for giving us Star Wars and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

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𝓟.𝓢. This review was crossposted from Goodreads because it contains actual thoughts rather than a typically facetious single-sentence remark. View all my book ratings and pointless takes on Goodreads or The StoryGraph.