Dune

Dune the book needs to be considered both on its own and in the context of the overall series. Dune exists and works as a standalone novel, and readers can exit the series after book 1 without any fear that their experience was an incomplete one. Assuming you enjoyed Dune, I would recommend reading the rest, but it isn’t absolutely necessary. Similarly, the series itself is split into 2 trilogies; so you could also conceivably stop after reading book 3 without reading an “incomplete” story. I mention the stopping points for a particular reason… I loved Dune, I very much enjoyed books 2-3, and I liked books 4-6. I think people who merely enjoyed Dune, might consider ending it there, as I could see people not enjoying the remainder of the series, and letting that potential disappointment tarnish what is a truly remarkable piece of literature.

Dune as standalone: I think Dune’s success for me personally centers on 2 aspects of the novel. Firstly, it has a somewhat unique blend of Sci-fi and Fantasy. While the broader context is one in which the technology is light-years beyond our present day, and the political drama takes place in an interstellar arena rather than a global one, the majority of the action actually takes place in a very low-tech setting. While the Fremen possess futuristic technology such as stillsuits, they are a particularly militaristic people living in what essentially amount to caves. Much of the Fremen’s society and way of life would be considered backwards even in novels set in past eras of human history. Considering that a significant chunk of the novel is set in the Fremen’s environment, and the Fremen are more characteristic of a fantasy culture/race than sci-fi, this makes Dune a particularly easy jump off point for fantasy fans to get into the sci-fi side of things. For myself, I began as a fantasy reader, which made the Dune novels particularly accessible to me.

The other aspect of the novel that made Dune such a triumph for me, but I also think to the wider audience, is the way Herbert handles the scope of the novel. Dune includes interstellar politics and warfare, and literally the future of the galaxy is up for grabs, and yet the novel is really the story of Paul. Herbert manages to keep a very tight focus on his central characters and settings, allowing us readers to truly immerse ourselves in the world, while alluding to the grand scale of the conflict at the same time. In this way, Dune gives us the best of both worlds… an intimate epic, so to speak. This allows us to be deeply invested in the characters and their story while also having to consider the bigger context for what Paul’s story means to the rest of the universe. This is often an issue for science fiction and fantasy novels. They tend to attempt too much, attempting to distance themselves from other novels on sheer scope. The issue with this is a failure to give us a human story. Epic is great, but why would I care about the fate of the world/galaxy/universe if I don’t care about anyone in it? Herbert masterfully crafts a micro and macro story. The reader cares about what happens on the big scale, because we care about how the big scale will impact the little scale.

Dune is well worth your time. If you are a sci-fi fan, it’s one of the “must reads” as a foundational pillar of classic sci-fi. If you are a fantasy fan, Dune is actually a great entry point into the sci-fi side of things, as there are many familiar fantasy elements in the story. If you just like good books, I think Herbert’s writing is exceptional, so you will likely find yourself appreciative of the crafting of the story, even if its content isn’t your typical fare.

For me, many stories tend to struggle with the concept of epicness. Some attempt to be epic in every way imaginable; think hundreds of characters across a vast world (or group of worlds) with the fate of everything and anything at stake. One example of this could be The Wheel of Time (Link) series. WOT isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but is generally considered a resounding success (I personally am a big fan). In order to make this epic scale work though, it took 14 books (plus a prequel) and literally over 4 MILLION words. The scope of these books is epic in every way, but epicness can come with pitfalls. First, dedicating enough time and attention to that many characters and locations to make them feel real is incredibly difficult (see 4 Million words!). Many books/movies/comics/shows/etc. that attempt to achieve an epic scale also attempt to do so on a budget. As a result, they fail to develop the suspension of disbelief that is critical to the success of any work of speculative fiction. Too many characters feel like scarecrows and too many locations like sets for a play. The reader can see the edges of the world and the paint strokes in the landscape, and the spell of reality is broken. Conversely, for some, the late middle novels in WOT are too much of a slog to endure. It takes massive amounts of detail, world building, and complexity to create a realistic world of the sort of scope/epicness that Robert Jordan managed. If those story elements aren’t your thing (especially when a good chunk of it is tangential to the plot at best) then epic may not be for you. I think most stories choose a specific element to be epic, and focus more narrowly on the rest. Ender’s Game might be a good example here. EG includes an interstellar war with an alien species, so the scope and consequences are obviously epic, but the story is barely 300 pages, 90% of it takes place on a single small space station, and focuses almost exclusively on the singular character of Ender and his journey. Narrow in character and locations, epic in significance. Some novels aren’t seeking to be epic at all, and instead want to focus very narrowly on a specific character, issue, event, or location. The struggle for these novels is making the reader care. The Name of the Wind doesn’t fall into this group, but author Patrick Rothfuss has made a similar point about his novels. Due to the structure of the story, we know that the main character (Kvothe) is alive at the present time, so how does Rothfuss make us care about any danger Kvothe might face? If we know he is alive, the danger can’t be very real, right? Rothfuss talks about how he was at pains to make sure we were invested in more minor details of Kvothe’s fate than simply his life. We are made to fear for the safety of Kvothe’s hands (how can he make the beautiful music central to his life if his hands are injured?), we need to care about his relationships and his success. We need to care about Kvothe like he is a friend or a child of our own, so that all aspects of his life are important, not just the fact that he still has a life. This is the challenge for a limited scope story; it’s easy to care about the fate of the world, it’s hard to care about the happiness of a fictional character within it.

Dune Series: The series at large keeps to the theme of centering the story on Arrakis and on Paul’s family, so Herbert hasn’t stretched the fabric woven from his first book too thin, but the crux of the story is slowly taken away from the personal and transferred to the epic as each book progresses. I continue to love the world and I’m the type of reader who is more than happy to get more and more detail and more and more story (i.e. Silmarillion and World of Ice and Fire are enjoyable reads for me), so the remainder of the series is certainly worth reading for me, but as each books moves on I am a little less attached to the characters and the story moves a little bit further into the interesting and less in the engrossing. This shift is especially notable once we get to God Emperor of Dune, when we skip over thousands of years between books. When it comes down to it, Dune is exceptional, the sequels are mostly very good, but proceed on a downward trend from the first. Thusly, I think a reader’s experience of the series is somewhat dependent on the context in which the consider each book. The first book should be a win for any fan of science fiction, and most likely for any fantasy fan as well. The remainder are worthwhile books in their own right, but exist a bit in a duality. The books more closely related to the original characters and story have some extra shine on them by association, and the farther away we move, the less luster they have. At the same time, the sequel novels also suffer in the shadow of Dune, by paling in comparison.

The movie adaptation is a head trip. I think some aspects of it visually are really cool, but it isn't really a worthwhile thing to explore for the modern reader. I just really hope if this next adaptation ever hits the screen it provides us with an excellent adaptation of the story, while bringing modern technology to bear on the potential for some incredible visuals.