Dune
Novel By: Frank Herbert
Written By: Tim Sanders
Dune is a classic science fiction novel.
It deals with Intrigue and political assassinations and chosen ones! It checks off everything that makes for an exciting story. This is why I picked up the book when looking for a book to talk about in my book club. After starting strong with Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy, I wanted something else that had drawn me to it. And that's when I was sucked into DUNE. In the middle of reading this book, I found out that it was soon to be a major motion picture! Being the science fiction buff that I am, I was sucked into Dune hook line and sinker.
Dune takes place thousands of years into the future. Society is run by different noble houses that control entire planets. The main character Paul Atreides is the 15-year-old heir to the Atreides house. The Atreides family is tasked with overseeing the world of Arrakis and an unforgiving planet with hostile natives and giant sandworms that will not hesitate to kill. Now the sandworms give me serious Beetlejuice vibes, and I have a real hard time taking them seriously. However, everything else is a legitimate threat that makes the reader wonder if this spice on the planet is actually worth it. As it turns out, the spice is the thing that allows for interstellar transportation and, as such, is very vital for the society where households rule over entire planets. The Atreides family is tasked with overseeing the spice collection in a galaxy-wide effort to eliminate rivals. The Harkenians, the current house managing the spice collections, are rivals to the Atreides, so having the Atreides come in to collect spice is a giant slap in the face. This leads to noble houses at war. To add to this, Lady Jessica, Paul's mom/Leto's concubine, is a part of a mysterious group of women called Bene Gesserit, an all-female group of captain Americas looking to raise the next messiah. Paul was supposed to be a female; however, due to Lady Jessica's love, she had Paul and trained him in the ways of Bene Gesserit. Paul was also trained in warfare by Leto's advisors and friends.
While on the planet, there's a bunch of noble family drama, assassinations, and training, lots and lots of training for Paul as he becomes, even more, Captain America-like. He then realizes that the hostile natives, the Freman, could change the tide of the noble family war. Paul gets reunited with Lady Jessica after one of his advisors was found out to not be dead. Afterward, Paul leads the charge with the Freman attacking House Harkenienan. Paul faces the emperor and threatens to end the spice trade altogether. The emperor's nephew attempts to stop Paul by cheating in a ritual knife fight. Paul bests the nephew. And takes control of the empire.
There was a lot of information in the book. As a result, sometimes, it was hard to follow. This could be due to names like Lady Jessica, Paul, and then Leto and Bene Gesserit. It got hard to keep track of who was supposed to be whom. Dune is very futuristic Game of Thrones before Game of Thrones was a thing. If you enjoy class warfare or science fiction in general, you will enjoy this book. As an added plus, it is about to be a box office hit so you can jump on the ground floor and be that guy. We all know the book is better than the movie.