I really like Dune, this is not my first reading and I have seen the movie a couple of times so I know what's going on. Saying that, I think this is the best book in the series, the other never really held me like this one does. And man does it feel good to be back to a genre I love with a story line that holds me and makes me not want to put the book down.
This is the story of Paul Atreides, a young duke, and his rise to power as a religious messiah for the natives of Arrakis. His Father is betrayed and murdered and he finds his way amongst a savage civilization. This is a power struggle for the whole universe, but as all power struggles start is just between two people, it grows to engulf two families and grows until the entire universe is drawn in. We just come into the story near the end. This was written between 1959 and 1965, and to me it has a lot of the themes of the time, religion, politics, evolution, philosophy. Herbert asks a lot of big questions in a digestible way, mainly where are we going as a whole and how do we want to be when we get there. It still feels current to me with all the technological advances we have made and the ethical questions that revolve around our scientific advances. it gives me food for thought on our entire society, I guess the same questions have been being asked for 50 years now, and we still are unsure.
The ending did leave some things open ended, but not so much that if you don’t want to read the rest in the series you feel that it is incomplete. It is obviously part of a series, but at the same time it has the ability to be a standalone book as well.

To read my full review see my blog: http://adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com/2013/11/dune-by-frank-herbert.html