Dune. Frank Herbert. Book 5

Frank Herbert - I'm going to make this brief since my review is so bludy long. This is all pretty much straight from Wiki, I'm afraid. b. 1920, d. 1986. Born in Washington, USA. He lied about his age after high school to get a job as a reporter in his local rag, the Glendale Star. He served in the US navy for 6 months during WWII as a photographer and was discharged for medical reasons. He studied creative writing at the Uni of Washington, got some short stories published, met Beverley Ann Stuart, a fellow writer and they got hitched and had two kids. He never finished the course but continued in the journalism field for some years
Dune took 6 years of research and was prompted by an article he was meant to do on Oregon sand dunes that got out of control. Although it was published in '65, it wasn't until '72 that he was making enough to become a full-time writer. He then split his time between homes in Hawaii and Washington, the Washington house intended to be an 'ecological demonstration project'. (With his passion for the environment you can only thank the stars that he didn't have to live through the disgusting disregard for it that most of the world's leaders currently display.)
So for more info, look him up yourself.
First published in 1965, this book is considered by not a few people to be the greatest sci-fi novel written.
I first read this book during a flight to and from China and Japan. I didn’t get much out of it at the time, I must say. I suspect that was due to the perils of trying to read an intricate novel during air-plane travel. It was a stupid idea at the time and I’m glad I gave the book another go.
For some reason, early into the book, I was bothered by the names of the characters. Paul and Jessica are the only two average names in the whole thing. The rest are a mix of futuristic-Middle Eastern-semiotic monikers. Each time a new name comes in, it’s an exercise in trying to decide how I should be pronouncing them. I found this distracting – I have a thing about character names, so it could be just me with this problem – if anyone else thinks the same, let me know! It kept kicking me out of the text, at any rate. How am I supposed to pronounce ‘Bene Gesserit’ or ‘Sardauker’ or ‘Feyd-Rautha’.
Anyway, on with the show.
This is a cavalcade of political, religious, ecological and spiritual goings-on. I found the Bene-Gesserit infiltration of nearly every culture, House and political system fascinating, especially their implantation of myth and religious fervour. Herbert gives an insightful account of the foundations of religion and belief and an amazingly in-depth understanding of ecological processes in water-poor systems.
It will probably take another reading to get my head completely around the intrigues and machinations of the book but to sum up: House Atreides, composed of Baron Leto, his concubine , Jessica ( a Bene Gesserit ‘nun’) and their son Paul arrive on the Planet Arrakis to take over from House Harkonnen who are at the end of their tenure. Accompanying them is an entourage of loyal followers who will follow Leto to the death as House Atreides is an honourable and principled House.
The Harkonnens are another kettle of fish entirely: avaricious, violent, deceitful and dishonourable. The corpulent Baron Vladimir Harkonnen plots against the House Atreides in order to regain control of Arrakis with good reason. Arrakis produces the Spice, a valuable mind-altering and addictive substance, whoever controls the spice production, controls half of civilisation.
This isn’t all the novel covers – the Bene Gesserits are pissed at Jessica for producing a son against their instructions. There is a prophecy of the Kwisatz Haderach who will save…I was never sure here, I don’t think he was going to save just Dune, he would also bring peace or order to the galaxy. I don’t really want to recount the entire book here, but try to give an overview. So the Harkonnens raid the new House Atreides, Leto dies and Jessica and Paul are left for dead in the desert of Dune – which pretty much covers the whole planet. They are picked up by some Fremen, who turn out to be more numerous than anyone thought as the Harkonnens have done everything they can to keep them repressed and subdued. The Fremen live under the desert and are in the midst of a project to bring water back to Arrakis based on the teachings of an Imperial 'missionary'. This will allow people to live on Arrakis without the constant search for water.
Jessica discovers that thousands of years ago, a Bene Gesserits have visited Arrakis and implanted the prophecy of the Kwisatz Haderach into the culture of the Fremen as their religion is based on BG teachings and systems. Jessica uses this to help Paul and herself survive and Paul fulfills his destiny – there is a hell of a lot more in this novel that is fascinating and so creative.
I found myself drawn in to the relationship between Paul and his mother, Jessica. It is so rare for this sort of relationship to be explored so much in a novel and it is done so well. Their bond plays a crucial role in events and allows them to both reach their full potential.
I don’t think there is a false note in any of the characters, I never found myself thinking that a character was unbelievable. The sister of Paul who comes late into the action is quite a chilling mix of youth and wisdom. I really really liked her and hope she appears in later books (of course she will). The evil Baron Harkonnen is a brilliant study of greed in all it’s forms. A huge, fat bastard who indulges every vice he has to his own detriment. His son and his nephew are also similarly repulsive in their own ways, though not anywhere near to the extent of the Baron.
The political plays are brilliant and sufficiently intricate to maintain interest.
Paul’s internal struggles to figure out who he is and what he is meant to be are sufficiently grounded in human emotion to keep him believable despite the powers he develops.
There was a lot covered in the novel, which perhaps made it a little too intricate for a single read. I don’t know if Herbert intended this as a one-off when he wrote it or had more in mind. I suspect the latter because The Guild who control access to planets and The Imperial Court are not given enough time for my liking. They’re crucial to the plot, but more space is needed for the characters from them that are brought into play. I don’t know how much longer the book would have needed to be, but I’m thinking a two-parter wouldn’t have gone astray.
There is a large time-jump that threw me out when I first realised it had occurred – you then play catch-up as Herbert unfolds what has happened. It keeps you on your toes as a reader, but I wanted to know more about the interactions that had developed in that time – more on the Harkonnens and Paul and Chani’s relationship.
I will stop here – but I really enjoyed this much more the second time round since I was able to give it my full attention and not disturbed by air-flight attendants with endless rounds of food and drink or yelling kids or people next to me having to get up to go the toilet even though they already did 5 minutes ago and this is a frikken plane, hold it in for a bit!
On the sci-fi scale this gets a big 8.5/10.