My feelings are mixed when it comes to Dune.
I tried to read it when I was too young. It wasn't what I was looking for in high school. I wanted Star Wars action. Herbert gave something I couldn't comprehend at the time, relegating it to the "boring BS" category.
After the SciFi Dune version aired, I gave Dune another shot, as an adult, and that's when my eyes were opened. I do recognize it as some of the best science fiction ever written.
I love Dune and the Duniverse.
At the same time, I realize that the stories aren't traditional. Herbert is better with ideas then he is with story structure. IMO, the Dune books have no ending. They start out in an intriguing manner, then reach a plateau, and never give you a third Act. There's no climax. It's Beginning, then Middle, with no Ending. The pages just stop being available.
In many ways, Dune is traditional space opera. It's a feudal society, and the science is not realistic. At the same time, Dune is so much more than 99.99% of every other science fiction work ever written. Herbert can and does do things in his books that I've never experienced in any other book. It literally is like having your brain jacked into a higher plane of existence.
Take, for example, the Honored Matres. Ever completely needed someone? Remember that puppy dog crush you had on that beautiful girl so many years ago--that girl you prayed to God for? The one that turned your guts to squirts. The one that you wanted so bad that you couldn't eat...you couldn't think...the one you spent every spare moment thinking about after she left you?
You'd do anything for her. You did everything in your power to get her back. You'd lie, cheat, steal....lose your freakin' job...whatever it takes.
You just want the pain to go away. And, the only thing to get that pain to go away is to get her back.
What if you could take that...whatever that is (maybe it's a gland in your head going at hyperspeed pumping dopamine into your system....or, maybe it's the fact that you can't have what you desire...or, maybe it really is love--the REAL kind of love with a capital L)...
...what if you could take THAT and infect an army of troops with it?
..what if your troops were THAT dedicated to you?
...they'd automatically die for you, not out of honor, not out of duty, not because they believed in you, not because of religion, but because they absolutely, honestly, love you more than they love themselves.
This is not what Hollywood calls "high concept". It's not something that can be distilled down into a sentence fragment to convey the point.
THAT'S what Herbert brings to you in Dune. THOSE types of concepts, all wrapped up in a traditional space opera wrapper.
In the Dune series, a man physically bonds with some native life and morphs into something else. Not a new concept. Been seen in many other science fiction stories.
But, what Herbert does is investigate what that person would really give up in order to do that. The man was really a boy when the merged to become something else--something no longer human.
He'd never had sex.
Can you imagine, going through puberty, and knowing that you'll never have sex with a woman?
Wow.
It's akin to the story of Jesus, dying on the cross so that he could pay for the world's sins--all that have come before and all that will come in the future.
It's akin to the story of a 15 year old boy who is paralysed from the neck down with normal brain function.
It's a tragedy.
That's what Dune brings you. Incredible concepts--human concepts--true science fiction.
It's definitely worth reading.
) toast and then to sleep.
