Dune

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Average customer rating 4.6 (16 comments)

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Fantastic book. Definitely deserves a purchase in hardcover if you can find it, though.

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Set more than 21,000 years in the future, Dune won the first Nebula Award and shared the Hugo Award. As to language, the “d” and “h” words are found frequently, the term “a**” is used of a person’s rear end, someone is called “lizard turd,” a little bawdy humor occurs, and there are some oblique references to sexuality but nothing openly vulgar or obscene. Concubines are mentioned several times. Jessica is the Duke’s concubine and only woman though they have never officially married. Paul keeps his Fremen wife as a concubine and his only woman though he officially marries the Emperor’s daughter. The Baron is definitely portrayed as a homosexual, although the LGBT crowd has complained that the book’s only portrayal of a homosexual character, the vile pervert Baron Harkonnen, is negative. According to the Afterword, Dune is a modern-day conglomeration of familiar myths, has words and names from many tongues, and is based on themes found in a variety of religious faiths. I noticed concepts drawn from Islam, Judaism, and even Christianity. Early in his newspaper career, Herbert was introduced to Zen by two Jungian psychologists, and throughout the Dune series Herbert employs concepts and forms borrowed from Zen Buddhism. In spite of these things about the book that I didn’t really care for, I generally enjoyed the story.

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Titanic sand worms that excrete invaluable resources sought by the powerful and denizens of a desert world that resist against them; sounds like a good one to me.

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I've never read the book but have always wanted to! I've heard it's a must-read classic. I'd love to join in on the read.

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First time subscriber to the Science Friday book club, and extremely excited to read Dune for the first time. What an interesting parallel to what we are facing on an eco level now. I lived in Northern California for four years, but am now living in Virginia. I am an avid listener to NPR and am teaching my two very young daughters' the importance of conservation. Reading Dune will be great way to get the entire family involved, and bring a different perspective of learning on a scientific/ science fiction fun way. I have been looking for a local book club, but with little time - this is perfect timing! Thank you for your continued programing, and for this wonderful addition to my summer reading list.

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My husband LOVES this. I, however, am a Dune virgin. Would love to win a copy and join the ranks of Dune fans.

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I read Dune for the first time in high school back in 1982, and it left an indelible and magical imprint on me. I gobbled the book up in three days and then proceeded through the entire series at the time. Now after thirty years, I have come back to re-read Dune, but with a completely different perspective - perhaps that is the point of age - and while the magic is gone, it is still a tremendous book. In fact the book is damn near prescient. The books asks me to consider some interesting and worrisome phenomenon. At the level of geopolitics, we root for Paul Muad'Dib as the youth born of privilege immersed into a desert culture of ascetism, and rails against an empire married to corporate rapaciousness, and then sets to conquer it through a Jihad. At the time the book was written, people claimed the book was loosely based on the life of Prophet Muhammed, which - as a Muslim made me feel proud - seems pretty obvious. Now 30 years later, we witnessed the emergence of Usama Bin Laden, his reign of terror, our War on Terror and his ultimate demise, and Dune means something different. It asks me to root for our protagonist Paul, who actually mirrors the life and times of UBL; recall UBL was the very rich son of a Yemeni Industrialist, eschews his life of privilege for one of asceticism and adopts an extreme anti-Imperial and anti-Western (corporate) ideology. He creates a following of extremists bent on over-throwing the US and its interests - much like Paul finally taking on Emperor Shaddam IV. Obviously, I believe UBL was an abomination and a scourge on humanity and I glad he got what he deserved. But the similarities to me are remarkable. In reality we root for our Emperor, CHOAM, and our Sardakaur troops as they fought in Iraq and Afganistan, hoping they would kill UBL, but was he Paul? What does Paul actually stand for in Dune? How is that different from now? But Dune is also about humanity's evolutionary future, and what the human mind will become. In the Dune universe, the multi-generational selective breeding of the Bene Gesserit creates the Kwisatz Haderach - the male counterpart to a reverend mother - who can look into the past through humanity's germline to see the long view of history, and has the ability to see through time into the future. Paul represents the full potential of the human mind. Seeing physical reality as the past, present and future as one - like Einstein's block universe - Paul ties it all together. Humanity has achieved the omega point. Humanity has reached God-hood. Again, reading Dune 30 years later since I was a teenager, so much has happened that makes Dune seem prescient. At the time Dune was written, there was no real biotechnology (at least it was still embryonic) - PCR, cell line modelling, genetically engineered mammals, gene based therapy, anti-body therapy - and so we did not know that every human being can be traced back genetically through genes found in mitochondria of women only. We did not have in essence, Tleilaxu tanks to clone humans from genetic remnants (we are still not quite there yet for more ethical reasons than anything else, but the technology is there) and stem cell therapy was unknown. Yet Dune speaks to it through its story telling. Some of its ideas may seem antiquated now thirty years later, but so much more of it is truly prescient.

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An extremely intense book! Herbert's masterpiece makes you feel like you're reading a tale from ancient history, so thorough are his details, from the locations of the planets to the description of the kinds of clothes they wear, based on the climate they live in! An adventure that will leave you awestruck and pensive for a long time afterwards!

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This is the first, and one of the only, sci-fi books I've read. It was given to me, along with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by a friend from H.S. who told me that both books were absolutely essential reading. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Dune. It's got spice.

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Dune is marvelous. Not because it's a classic, but because it's a fantastic story that grabs you from beginning to end. I still have my original copy from way back. The story still sings. Paul is a hero for the ages, and Frank Herbert created an entire universe with incredible depth. Forget anything you might have heard about the early sequels (please!) and don't even think about the movies (never judge a book by its movie). Just read this book.

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This is an excellent book. It is a must read. There was a movie of Dune which sadly was a very poor representation of this novel. The story held my attention from the very first page and made me a science fiction fan for life. It is written in such a way that I found it hard to put down. This is not a boring book! It is a book that I think everyone should read as I think that it is a novel that will expand your mind to think of life differently!

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Dune is an amazing adventure story that all ages will enjoy. It brings the reader into a fascinating culture of the "fremens" and for those who love political intrigue it has that as well. It is a well rounded book with romance,adventure,culture, and etc. It is everything you except from a Sci-fi and more.

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I have read this book more or less every year since I was a teen, several decades back now. It's the nuances of the characters that never fail to delight me. The description of Arrakis (Dune) is incredibly detailed, one literally gets lost in the story and on the planet. Truly, one of the great masterpieces ever written.

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Dune is a great novel that unleashed a whole new universe to the Sci-fi genre that has served as inspiration for many works that we've experienced in the decades since. Dune also inspired me to read the entire series and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

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I haven't quite finished it yet, but so far this book is great. Dune is a story about Paul Atreides, the son of a duke. His mother is a sort of quasi-witch with strange powers that Paul seems to possess as well. Paul’s father has acquired a new planet, Arrakis (Dune) where it is plentiful in mélange, a spice that prolongs life. Paul and Jessica find out that there is a plot to kill the Atreides family by a traitor. The Duke is told, but he does nothing extreme to prevent the attack. He does take a few measures, but nothing major. The Duke attempts to recruit the locals, fremen, to work for him harvesting the spice. This is as far as i've gotten, Paul and the Duke are headed out into the desert in their new still suits. One thing that I find interesting about Dune is the idea that a human can possess some mystical powers. Paul, for instance, can tell if someone is telling the truth, can tell who is coming up behind him or down the hallway, and he can later see into the future and past. Overall I like the science-fiction aspect of the novel, but particularly the abilities that can be learned, not ones that you are born with. My general opinion of the book is very high. Also I’m expecting it to be very good because of its reputation. Anyone who has read it speaks very highly of Dune.

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Considered a classic of science fiction, and deservedly so.