Review: 'Dune' by Frank Herbert

The Dune film-adaptation was inescapable last year and I was one of the many people who was utterly enraptured in the cinemas. It was visually stunning and tried to do a number of difficult things to relative success. So, naturally, I had to eventually get around to reading the novel it all started with. This is, perhaps, less of a review than a collection of musings but perhaps, since so much has been written about this novel already, that's not a bad thing.

Pub. Date: 8/2/2005
Publisher: Ace Books

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for....

When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.

A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.

Dune, and by extension Frank Herbert, requires a lot of work from its reader. By this I do not mean what I consider the standard work of any proper High Fantasy/Science Fiction novel. The standard work is willingly stepping into a new world or universe blind, becoming comfortable with the unknown, and following and trusting where the author leads you. Dune goes a step further. Yes, the novel drops you right into a future Universe in which much is different and odd. Yes, it will take you quite some chapters to get into the groove, to understand the differences between the Major Families, the politics at play, etc. but this is all part of the fun. Where the extra work comes in with Dune is following or understanding what Herbert is aiming at, what his message really is. The novel intensely questions the idea of the "Saviour", but I don't think it does so consistently. Despite working against it, both Paul and Frank Herbert are utterly seduced by the idea. While the novel harshly criticises the exploitation of Arrakis and the Fremen, the novel itself can not approach either in a different way. Many people have written more eloquently and knowledgably about the way in which MENA cultures and mythologies are adapted and/or exploited in Dune so I will not attempt it here. 

What I will say is that, for me, the beauty of Dune came not in the reading of it but in the contemplating of it. When key moments happen, their weight only truly hit me once I stepped away from the book and considered it on my own, brought my own experiences into play. In a sense, I believe, this was on purpose. I think Herbert wants his readers to turn inwards, to consider their own standpoints, beliefs, to use Jungian archetypes and find their inner oppositions. But this is all work that readers have to be willing to do and Herbert doesn't always help himself. At times Dune moves at breakneck speed, passing over moments that prove important later, not describing key plot points fully, or repeating other things ad nauseam until they no longer feel relevant. None of this is, in and of itself, bad per se. But not every reader is ready for or feels up to this kind of work. It requires familiarity with not just the Sci-Fi genre, but also religion, mythology, and the way politics depends on story-telling. In that sense it is similar to The Lord of the Rings, which is also full of layered meaning and references and archetypes. Both can technically be enjoyed without understanding this depth, but I would argue that this is less so for Dune.

Dune is arguably the story of Paul Atreides, son of the Duke of Caladan, now Duke of Arrakis. But really it is the tale of the planet Arrakis, also known as Dune due to being a desert planet. The wonder of Arrakis is spice, a drug capable of extending life and granting increased consciousness. Spice is at the centre of the Empire's business, even as the Empire attempts to keep Arrakis on the outskirts. Dune, however, is also a tale about story-telling, about the role of religion in politics, about the importance of ecology to humanity, about the price we're willing to pay to make our vision of the future a reality. Since Herbert is trying to do so much, Dune sometimes wobbles between deeply focused and a little bit scattered. Paul is an intriguing protagonist since he is so unwilling to be at the centre, to be the focus, to be the hero. He walks the fine line between being just a boy and being someone who has been prepared and trained his entire life. As such, his own shock and dismay at the course of events sometimes struck me as disingenuous. Dune is also chockfull of characters, many of which are linked but do not interact until the end of the book. I wish we had seen more of Chani, that Herbert had been slightly more consistent in following through on what he sets up. But despite this I can only say that reading Dune, if you give yourself up to it, is a thrillride.

Having read Dune now I can fully understand why it is such a staple of Science Fiction literature. It must have blown minds in the '60s and I think it is still fully capable of doing so. It is a complex book which can start so many conversations. Whether it gives any conclusive answers or comprehensive arguments I still haven't quite figured out. But what a novel, what a world! I must say, however, that Herbert makes some interesting choices with his writing. Writing from the standpoint of an omniscient narrator, Herbert gives the reader insight into almost every single character. This at times undercuts the tension a little, specifically in the first few chapters when the betrayal of the Atreides family is set up. Herbert also frequently skips between perspectives within a scene, meaning we can see a moment through the eyes of Paul but then get a quick insight into how those around him view the moment. On the one hand this gives the reader a great overview of how everyone is doing. On the other hand, it slackens the suspension of the tight rope Dune is walking. What in the end had me read the last 400 pages of Dune in a single day was, to a large extent, the Fremen and the details of their lives. I wanted to know more about the sietches, less about Paul's visions. More about their dream of a green Arrakis, less about the Harkonnen's scheming. Or rather I would have enjoyed all of these, just more consistently. So yes, it turns out I'm someone who enjoys the Appendices almost as much, if not more, than the novel itself. Give me all the hardcore world-building! But when I considered this desire I think it stemmed from what I mentioned above, which is that Herbert, despite his best intentions, could not truly consider the Fremen in a fully equal way. We still need to see them through Paul's eyes. Their habits must still remain strange and Other to us, while Paul and his mother, despite their oddities, feel more akin. For me a novel like Ursula K. Le Guin's The Word for World is Forest, which came out only 7 years after Dune, strikes the balance Herbert attempts much more smoothly but, admittedly, without the extensive worldbuilding. It is a different craft that Le Guin practices in this novel, yet 

I give this novel...

4 Universes!

Dune is a classic and I fully understand why. It is unlike most other Science Fiction, even if it is not the only one to have attempted something of this scale. Despite some of its, in my eyes, flaws, Herbert's novel has a whole lot to offer. I wonder whether Dune Messiah lives up to it...