OcUK Book Club #9: Frank Herbert - Dune

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It's that time again! Our ninth book is a real classic which I'm sure many of you have been itching to read.

Our ninth selection Frank Herbert's - Dune comes courtesy of gurusan, having been selected on this occassion by semi-pro waster.

Just to remind those reading, anyone is welcome to contribute to any of the book club's threads at any time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel)

Dune is a science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert, published in 1965. It won the Hugo Award in 1966, and the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel.[1] Dune is frequently cited as the world's best-selling science fiction novel.[2][3]

Set in the far future amidst a sprawling feudal interstellar empire where planetary fiefdoms are controlled by noble houses that owe an allegiance to the Imperial House Corrino, Dune tells the story of young Paul Atreides (the heir apparent to Duke Leto Atreides and the scion of House Atreides) as he and his family accept control of the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the "spice" melange, the most important and valuable substance in the universe. The story explores the complex and multi-layered interactions of politics, religion, ecology, technology, and human emotion, as the forces of the Empire confront each other for control of Arrakis and its "spice".[4]
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Enjoy!
 
Literally finished all the Frank Hebert dune books 3 weeks ago. Damn good read! I look forward to the discussion.
 
Just ordered it and I'll be done Everville relatively soon I think which works out nicely. I also too the chance to order American Gods and Status Anxiety after recommendations from here, the sum total for the books themselves was under £2, the fact that the postage was about £8.50 is a bit of a pain though.
 
To be honest, to get the most out of the book, you need to read it more than once, otherwise you will miss most of the sub-plots and the intricate politics of what is, ultimately a very complex saga.

Suffice to say, this is one of my all time favourite books.
 
I enjoyed the first 3 books in the Dune Saga but I couldnt for the life of me get into God Emperor Dune. I just couldnt take it seriousely with a Gigantic Sandworm with a human face.

MaybeI'm fickle and I didnt give it enough of a chance ?

Also I dont like how Frank Herbert get's rid of the most interesting characters too soon.

Loved Dune though and the second two. Some of the best reading in SC-FI.
 
Dune itself is a masterpiece of sci-fi, plot and character development. Dune Messiah, got a little tangled up in the politics, but is still a good continuation. Children of Dune, isn't quite as good, but still brings a lot of closure to the unanswered questions of Dune. God Emperor just starts getting wierd, and by the time it gets to chapterhouse dune, all hope is lost.
 
I only got as far as God Emperor and lost interest really.

I did by the prequel books though - House Harkonen, House Atredies, House Corrino. They were good with Harkonen being the best.

Haven't read anything other than 40K books for the last few years though :)
 
Ceryndrion said:
Dune itself is a masterpiece of sci-fi, plot and character development. Dune Messiah, got a little tangled up in the politics, but is still a good continuation. Children of Dune, isn't quite as good, but still brings a lot of closure to the unanswered questions of Dune. God Emperor just starts getting wierd, and by the time it gets to chapterhouse dune, all hope is lost.
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Do you think Frank Herbert started Flogging a dead Horse after Children of Dune ?
 
RedDanDoc said:
Do you think Frank Herbert started Flogging a dead Horse after Children of Dune ?
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I think that the main saga of Paul, basically the first two books, was the core of the whole story, and the saga could have stopped there and it would have been a great end, the lone man walking out into the desert.

Children of dune, kinda wavered a bit for me, it is kinda nice to see the children growing up, how alia descended into madness, the appearance of the preacher, and of course, Leto 2's conversion into man-worm.. it was the man-worm thing that ruined it for me, I understand it, that he is becoming one with the planet, truely one with the spice, but its getting silly.

After that it just spirals into a farce, and much as I dearly love dune itself, the rest of the series, is just a joke. The prequels/sequels/inbetweenies that have been written by Brain Herbert, injected some new life into what otherwise, was a saga that really, should have finished after the second book.
 
So how's everyone getting on with the book? Just finished it this morning and I'll refrain from posting any comments/spoilers until a few more have finished other than to say it's quite an astonishing book for the depth of the detail in the storyline yet still remaining engaging to probably even fairly casual readers.
 
First off, thanks to Semi-pro for the heads up about this thread.

It seems by coincidence I am reading Dune at the same time that you guys are. As I haven't finished, I don't want to comment on exactly what I thought of the book.

However, there are a couple of things that string to mind.

Firstly, when I saw how thick the book was, I hoped that it wasn't going to be a slow meandering story. One thing I am not a fan of is what I call 'filler'. That is when an author describes scenes in minute detail. Like spending a few pages laying out the exact composition of a room instead of just saying 'a room'. Now I understand it is necessary in some cases, but to me too much of this slows a story down to point when it can becoming boring. Thankfully this doesn't seem to be the case in Dune. It appears to be thick because there is so much going on! :)

There are a couple of other points, but like Semi-pro says, I don't want to spoil it for anyone still reading.
 
A little late to the party, didn't even realise a book club existed here. I was intrigued by the talk of Dune in another thread so decided to pick up a copy. I'll keep any comments for when I'm finished it as I'm only just starting the Muad'Dib section of the book.
 
I can't have read this in the last 15 years or so - probably should get round to rereading it, since it's touted as such a classic and i can't remember anything about it apart frmo the water reclamation suits, which'd stick in the mind of any 10 year old boy.
 
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