I loved this! I suppose it is slow in the sense that it took several pages to get through a dinner, but it didn't feel slow because every action, every thought made by everyone at that dinner meant something. Every scene was rich with information and atmosphere! The world building was so descriptive. I loved how he would describe something we know and then make it completely alien seeming. At one point he describes a chair made of quartz but the quartz is blue with streaks of yellow running through it. I haven't seen any quartz like that here on earth, yet I can picture it because I know that quartz is shiny and translucent. The quotable lines and metaphors in this book are practically endless. Frank Herbert truly achieved something masterful in his writing of this book!

The plot relies on political intrigue, which I had never been much of a fan of before. Somehow Herbert pulled me in, because I was interested in every plot and strategy the characters were throwing at each other! The characters changed and grew throughout the story. We got to see some of the changes and some we didn't. (There are quite a few time jumps.) It is a book you have to pay close attention to. It would be easy to miss an important piece of dialogue. There is love, drugs, religion, magic, wars, and worms all set on an intricately detailed planet. This book lacks nothing, it is well worth the read!