Dune
Paperback
Published Aug. 25, 2020 by Ace Books, Ace.
Mi ricordo che ci misi mesi a leggere questo libro. E l'ho letto nel periodo in cui ero convinta che dovessi finire il libro nonostante mi facesse schifo. Risultato? Il libro mi ha fatto altamente schifo.
I don't know why I was skeptical about this book when I was a teenager... I would have love it so much! Not the same genre but IMHO it is as powerful as reading The Lord of the rings. Anyway, I read it after watching the movies (I liked them) but, as usual, the book is richer, with more intra stories and a couple of more deep characters.
If you like adventures and plots, this book is awesome :)
By the way, I used the public Spanish library (ebiblio) to get the audiobook. AT least on Madrid it is available.
A truly epic tale about intergalactic (and domestic) political intrigue, ecology, religion and a society's fight for freedom, while producing drugs for everyone. Or something like that.
Obviously "Dune" has had tremendous influence on other sci-fi authors, and it's an amazing story, and some of the characters are remarkable, and the universe this story is set in is incredibly detailed and nuanced and immersive. Reading this book made me feel like I am experiencing the events myself, while slowly understanding what is going on in the background. The use of new and borrowed words and the particular style of language, both in courtrooms and in the desert, was fun to explore. I enjoyed reading "Dune"!
HOWEVER.
- The language used in the book features imaginative inventions and transfers from real-life Earth languages. This is great - unfortunately my edition did not explain terms where they first came up, but in …
A truly epic tale about intergalactic (and domestic) political intrigue, ecology, religion and a society's fight for freedom, while producing drugs for everyone. Or something like that.
Obviously "Dune" has had tremendous influence on other sci-fi authors, and it's an amazing story, and some of the characters are remarkable, and the universe this story is set in is incredibly detailed and nuanced and immersive. Reading this book made me feel like I am experiencing the events myself, while slowly understanding what is going on in the background. The use of new and borrowed words and the particular style of language, both in courtrooms and in the desert, was fun to explore. I enjoyed reading "Dune"!
HOWEVER.
- The language used in the book features imaginative inventions and transfers from real-life Earth languages. This is great - unfortunately my edition did not explain terms where they first came up, but in an inconveniently placed glossary at the end of the (e-) book. I often only had a vague idea what exactly they were referring to.
- Much of the plot is focused on macho-men and their fighting strategies, both in 1-on-1 and military battles. (And then those battles are often omitted and just reported on after the fact!)
- In contrast, I did not learn enough about the politics and the intrigues that go on in the background. Much is just implied, leaving me to guess a lot.
- The book just barely passes the infamous Bechdel test, which requires two female characters with names talk to each other about something else than a male character. There are strong girls and women in this book, but over the course of the story they lost influence and became more "decorative".
- I couldn't really relate to the protagonist - too many sudden changes in behavior, powers that I did not really understand until much later, and an unbearable "I'm the chosen one" attitude.
- The book is really long. That's not a problem per se, but I feel the same effect could have been reached with 20% fewer pages.
- I was particularly annoyed when one character popped up again literally hundreds of pages after he had been introduced (briefly!). I have a good memory, but I was happy about the search function on my e-reader for this one.
I'm considering to read the second book of the series to see how it develops - it's much shorter, and focuses more on the politics rather than rebel battles. Let's see!
I hadn't read this book in about 10 years and it amazes me how well I remember it. It's just the epic grandeur of what Frank Herbert created, it's a story and world so rich and detailed that it can't help but stay with you.
Honestly I absolutely loved this again.
I am unreasonably excited about the movie, there is no mentat computation going on here, pure hope illogical hope instead. Let this review stand as testament to my high high hopes of it being the greatest movie ever made.
Beautiful writing style and a very interesting story, though I felt that some of the chapters in between dragged a bit on..
