"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.