"Dune" by Frank Herbert

Let's start it off hot today: The cover of this book reads, "Science Fiction's Supreme Masterpiece". Supreme Masterpiece?!! That's a fairly lofty qualification for a book I purchased for $1 at a garage sale. I had heard about this book many times before, and in reference, it always piqued my curiosity. Originally published in 1965, Dune begins an epic and quite famous series of books entitled (of course) The Dune Chronicles. As the cover of the book states, the original is often considered one of the finest examples of science fiction ever written. In fact, Arthur C. Clarke himself can only find one other comparable work in the genre, and that is The Lord of the Rings. That's a lot of baggage, no? Well, I finished the book last night at about midnight, and with 535 pages, 2 Appendices, 1 glossary, and a map, the book has a great deal of fictitious information in it. Chew on this:


In a phrase, stunning and way, way ahead of its time. It took me a while to get into (largely due to the tremendous amount of esoteric terminology), and I wasn't initially too impressed, but when when it took hold, it latched on. Much like all good science fiction (for which, I am admittedly a novice), this book sucks in every drop of humanity out there, and spits it out in a new, outlandish, imaginative, thoughtful, and beautiful form. This book has powerful imagery, unique characters, highfalutin philosophy, an immense and bizarre fictional world, and everything else a good book should have.

The events in this book take place in a universe that is (presumably) very distant in our future. Many thousands of years from now (if their scale matches to ours, around 10,000 AD), human beings have evolved into an intergalactic species that inhabits many, many planets throughout the universe. There are many references to a distant past similar to ours, on a home planet stricken with a great deal of problems (religious wars, artificial intelligence, and atomic weapons), and some of these issues persist in a slightly altered fashion. Now, this universe is ruled by the omnipotent Emperor and the many Ducal Houses ("ducal" is the adjective form of "duke", FYI). These forces compete for power, with a handful of other powerful agencies at play as well; The Guild (who monopolizes the space travel industry and is therefore extremely powerful and fickle), several ancient religious and spiritual societies, and a large corporation that refines and distributes a bizarre drug known as "spice". In many ways, the story centers around this "spice" and the forces that get caught up in it's wake. Spice is an addictive mind expander that allows the user to see across time and space. The spice is a byproduct of a large worm creature indigenous to the planet Dune (ha! title!).

At the beginning of the book, we find that one of the Ducal Houses has been reassigned from their home planet to the arid, desert planet of Dune to take control of the production company. Well, that's all fine and dandy, but guess what! The old ruler (who happens to be the arch enemy of the new Duke) is reluctant to give up such a ridiculously powerful resource, and there are many ulterior motivations going on, from the Emperor all the way down. When the noble Duke Atriedes moves onto the planet, he envisions change that would benefit the local desert inhabitants (known as Fremen) and a new life for his son Paul and concubine Jessica (a member of the ancient witch-like Bene Gesserit order). As you can imagine, not all goes as planned, and Paul is forced to live out a fate thousands of generations in the making. That's the boiled down goop of the story.

What I love about this book is the unique interpretation Herbert has on what will rule the future: essentially, same old crap!! The forces that work in this book are essentially the same forces that have ruled humans forever: political power, religion, business and profits, drugs, and fate. Of course, in this book, they all operate on a scale like nothing we have seen, but its all there. These people look into their distant pasts, and lessons learned about culture (the problems of artificial intelligence, atomic weaponry, ecology, etc.) morph over time into religious or spiritual dogma. Power is consolitdated amongst the regal few, is fought over viciously, and the vast portion of humanity suffers from it. And, most central to this book, politics is a game only few can win at, and it is played ever so serriptitiously.

Really, Herbert put a huge amount of thought into every aspect of this universe and its history. It so detailed, so well planned out, and just pulls in everything we got. Themes include politics, the nature and manipulation of time/space, spiritualism, tradition, adventure, environmentalism and ecology, art, relationships, power, technology, slavery, history, philosophy,and a whole lot more.

Anyhow. I almost find it exhausting to discuss/write about this book because it is so... exhaustive. For anybody interested in reading one of the best books the scifi genre has to offer, start with this. Pretty amazing.

Two quotes for ya:

"The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future." (321)

"Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic." (373)

Be safe out there!!

PS There was a movie made of this book, too. Supposedly a classic.

"Perdido Street Station" by China Mieville

Starting to write a review of this book is like deciding to fix the health-care system in this country: where the eff do I start? This book just has so much going on in it.



For starters, "Perdido Street Station" is the first installment of China Mieville's sci-fi/fantasy/steam-punk trilogy set in the world of Bas-Lag. Got that? No? Let's back up a hair and define steam-punk. From what I gather, steam-punk is an artistic motif (not really limited to the literary world) characterized by anachronistic Victorian style, the incongruous and inexplicable dominance of analogue mechanics and steam power, and the existence of fantastic, quasi-magical technologies that tend to empower rebellion. To this already effervescent mix, Mieville adds traditional fantasy elements, an inventive array of sentient beings, compelling story-telling, cultural critique, wacky imagery, dystopian aesthetics, and a powerful depiction of the horrific and imaginative setting: the city of New Crobuzon in the world of Bas-Lag.

What I like about this book is what, I think, a lot of people don't understand about the fantasy/sci-fi genre. This other-world of literature has so much to offer. It (and by the vague pronoun "it" I mean both this particular book and the genre "it" represents) is refreshingly unique, it incorporates so much from the gamut of human experience, it can be extremely compelling reading (like when you start to not do other things in your life so you have more time to read your book), and it is a literary art-form with loving, dedicated artists working in virtual obscurity for a small but equally loving audience. Done right, sci-fi/fantasy can be really high value literature. "Perdido Street Station", though bizarre and off-center, offers the reader a feast of humanity. And though, put that way, it sounds really disgusting, that's what literature should do. It should communicate humanity. What's doubly incredible and why I find it so inventive is that the story, characters, and setting are so distant from all reality while still pertaining to our real world!!

I don't think it would be too valuable to try to synopsize the plot for you here, but let's just say it involves an outcast flightless bird-man creature attempting to recapture flight after having his winds sawed off, a pseudo-scientist with a taboo inter-species sexual orientation working on a "crisis energy engine", a group of unimaginably horrific, dream-sucking, mesmerizing moths terrorizing the city, a mob boss/drug kingpin constructed from multifarious animal grafts, and an inter-dimensional spider-being who maintains the World Web. The plot is complicated and meandering enough that to get it, you would just have to read it. Read it.

I think my favorite part of this book, though, is the rendering of the setting: New Crobuzon. Like a dark, futuristic, bastard version of New York, this sprawling, dirty, dark, towering, convoluted, corrupt, and diverse world capitol just comes alive under Mieville's direction. It was so well constructed in the book, I felt like I lived in this other-worldly locale. Really cool.

If I had to have one complaint about the book, it would be that the story kind of floundered for a bit there in the middle section, and that the book was a bit longer than it needed to be (at 622 pages). I was happy to deal with these minor issues, though.

As I said earlier, this book is simply the first novel in a trilogy. The ending of this book threw me for a twist, and it left the story really well poised to continue. Pretty much all of the main characters survive and move on in unexpected directions.

In conclusion, I look forward to reading the next two books, "Iron Council" and "The Scar". China Mieville also has a new book out, "The City and The City", which I will also read. So much to do...

And, as I like to do at this point, I will offer you one excerpt from the book. A quote, if you will. This particular one does not represent the story, nor does it have any universal appeal. I just like the way it sounds, and I believe it offers a feel for the book as a whole. From page 199:

"A slow kaleidoscope of mutation and violence, petty wars fought between unfathomable monstrosities over no-man's-lands of shifting slag and nightmare architecture."

PS Allow me to thank my friend Owen from Ireland for the rad suggestion.