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A review by ellies_92
Dune by Frank Herbert
5.0
Great book, a true masterpiece.
It is confusing at first, but it's normal: Frank Herbert builds an entire universe and projects us directly into it. The reader connects all the dots and learns what is happening (and how this universe works) just by following the characters and their actions directly.
This is especially important because it means that there are no boring chapters filled with lengthy descriptions or explanations, each chapter has the right amount of action and even though it's quite a long book it's immersive and it's a page-turner.
The ending is no surprise as there are hints all along (the forewords to each chapter are written by Princess Irulan herself) and at the beginning of the second section Paul tells Dr. Kynes that he intends to marry her, etc. Nonetheless I'm not disappointed, because I understand that this book does serve to introduce us to characters, motives, planet Arrakis, etc. and does so masterfully.
Therefore, I expect that the next books in the series won't have so many "spoilers", or at least I hope.
The second part of this book (when Paul becomes a Fremen and learns their ways) is "slower" while the third part, after the 3 years time jump, it's much quicker; I guess it was the author's intention.
RIP Leto Atreides II, who was introduced to us just to die some chapters later - you win the prize for the less useful character in the book. Oh, no wait: Hara's children are just as useless (unless they appear again in the series).
It is confusing at first, but it's normal: Frank Herbert builds an entire universe and projects us directly into it. The reader connects all the dots and learns what is happening (and how this universe works) just by following the characters and their actions directly.
This is especially important because it means that there are no boring chapters filled with lengthy descriptions or explanations, each chapter has the right amount of action and even though it's quite a long book it's immersive and it's a page-turner.
The ending is no surprise as there are hints all along (the forewords to each chapter are written by Princess Irulan herself) and at the beginning of the second section Paul tells Dr. Kynes that he intends to marry her, etc. Nonetheless I'm not disappointed, because I understand that this book does serve to introduce us to characters, motives, planet Arrakis, etc. and does so masterfully.
Therefore, I expect that the next books in the series won't have so many "spoilers", or at least I hope.
The second part of this book (when Paul becomes a Fremen and learns their ways) is "slower" while the third part, after the 3 years time jump, it's much quicker; I guess it was the author's intention.
RIP Leto Atreides II, who was introduced to us just to die some chapters later - you win the prize for the less useful character in the book. Oh, no wait: Hara's children are just as useless (unless they appear again in the series).