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A review by cheesebagel
Dune by Frank Herbert
2.0
okay okay, here it is. I finished this ages ago but I just really couldn't be bothered to write my review but the movie came out today and I honestly just want to forget about this lol.
here are the things I liked:
- I was quite into the socioeconomic criticism. I liked the intricacies of the politics as well as the general overarching 'exploiting people is bad' vibe, although of course that's not particularly unique for this kind of novel.
- also, I liked the setting. obviously I wish Frank Herbert had actual skill and could write beautiful descriptions of the desert, but what my own brain came up with visually was cool, so appreciated the vibes. thanks frank.
unfortunately this is where it ends. you will notice I only gave this book 2 stars. I was toying with 3 for so long, but then I realized that that was purely based on the cultural impact that this book had and I eventually came to the conclusion that I can't be giving out stars for something that isn't actually attributed to the quality of the writing. so 2 it is.
here are the things I didn't like. there are many.
- WRITING STYLE!!!!!! I can't talk about this enough honestly and I get that it's boring but I just haaaate a dull book. our guy Frank cannot write. it's just not his strong suit. neither is plot apparently. honestly I might get crucified for saying this but I don't think this book would have had the same reception if it was published this year as opposed to the 1960s. I honestly don't know why people are so hype for the movie. probably just because of Timothee and Zendaya.
- characters. they're boring. they're underdeveloped. they're tropey; fat evil guy, flawless hero!, love interest with no personality. let's delve into that. there is so much hype about how Paul is this super important almost mythological figure who's fulfilling some super vague and honestly kind of unimportant prophecy, but then Paul himself is actually not all that? it's like the book is trying to convince you that Paul is some super cool dude but only by telling you over and over again PAUL IS SUPER COOL. the only things Paul does is have some weird magic powers and he's good at beating people up apparently. lame. next, Chani. honestly half the reason I read this book was for her because she had so much potential to be this cool badass chick and then she basically just ended up being this empty character who just like. got pregnant and said nice things to Paul a lot. very obvious that this book was written by a man.
- the plotting was kind of spacey. idk if that word properly conveys what I mean, but basically every time something important happened, Herbert literally just jumped to the next chapter and made the reader fill in all the blanks themselves, which is kind of lazy imo like that's kind of your job as a writer isn't it? it also meant that I didn't have a super strong sense of the plot. like I could outline the events for you in bullet points, but it's not super clear how you get from one to another. there's a time gap of 2 years in the middle and it's very strange because it seems like the only reason for it is so that Alia can age enough to speak and cause problems, but the rest of the plot is not properly... connected?? so it feels very abrupt and I didn't appreciate it.
- finally. in my notes for this point I just wrote 'stupid stuff' so ill do my best to explain lol. this is little things that would not have affected my rating if the actual book had been good. nevertheless. why are the two main characters named Paul and Jessica when everybody else has super kooky futuristic names. PAUL and JESSICA? JESSICA??? seriously?? it took me like 1/4 of the book to stop giggling every time I read her name. also. why does Frank Herbert describe the appearance of his characters in the exact same way every time they're in a scene? yes okay we know, the one guy has an inkvine scar (whatever that is). yes, chani looks like an elf. we get it. you don't have to tell us 15 times.
there are probably spelling mistakes in this review but I really don't care bc I don't want to reread it lol. I honestly really wanted to like this book. I thought it was going to be sick and it ended up being so lame. would not recommend. also I will most definitely not be reading any of the sequels even though I have seen people say that they get better because I firmly believe that a book should not have to depend on other books to be good.
ok bye
here are the things I liked:
- I was quite into the socioeconomic criticism. I liked the intricacies of the politics as well as the general overarching 'exploiting people is bad' vibe, although of course that's not particularly unique for this kind of novel.
- also, I liked the setting. obviously I wish Frank Herbert had actual skill and could write beautiful descriptions of the desert, but what my own brain came up with visually was cool, so appreciated the vibes. thanks frank.
unfortunately this is where it ends. you will notice I only gave this book 2 stars. I was toying with 3 for so long, but then I realized that that was purely based on the cultural impact that this book had and I eventually came to the conclusion that I can't be giving out stars for something that isn't actually attributed to the quality of the writing. so 2 it is.
here are the things I didn't like. there are many.
- WRITING STYLE!!!!!! I can't talk about this enough honestly and I get that it's boring but I just haaaate a dull book. our guy Frank cannot write. it's just not his strong suit. neither is plot apparently. honestly I might get crucified for saying this but I don't think this book would have had the same reception if it was published this year as opposed to the 1960s. I honestly don't know why people are so hype for the movie. probably just because of Timothee and Zendaya.
- characters. they're boring. they're underdeveloped. they're tropey; fat evil guy, flawless hero!, love interest with no personality. let's delve into that. there is so much hype about how Paul is this super important almost mythological figure who's fulfilling some super vague and honestly kind of unimportant prophecy, but then Paul himself is actually not all that? it's like the book is trying to convince you that Paul is some super cool dude but only by telling you over and over again PAUL IS SUPER COOL. the only things Paul does is have some weird magic powers and he's good at beating people up apparently. lame. next, Chani. honestly half the reason I read this book was for her because she had so much potential to be this cool badass chick and then she basically just ended up being this empty character who just like. got pregnant and said nice things to Paul a lot. very obvious that this book was written by a man.
- the plotting was kind of spacey. idk if that word properly conveys what I mean, but basically every time something important happened, Herbert literally just jumped to the next chapter and made the reader fill in all the blanks themselves, which is kind of lazy imo like that's kind of your job as a writer isn't it? it also meant that I didn't have a super strong sense of the plot. like I could outline the events for you in bullet points, but it's not super clear how you get from one to another. there's a time gap of 2 years in the middle and it's very strange because it seems like the only reason for it is so that Alia can age enough to speak and cause problems, but the rest of the plot is not properly... connected?? so it feels very abrupt and I didn't appreciate it.
- finally. in my notes for this point I just wrote 'stupid stuff' so ill do my best to explain lol. this is little things that would not have affected my rating if the actual book had been good. nevertheless. why are the two main characters named Paul and Jessica when everybody else has super kooky futuristic names. PAUL and JESSICA? JESSICA??? seriously?? it took me like 1/4 of the book to stop giggling every time I read her name. also. why does Frank Herbert describe the appearance of his characters in the exact same way every time they're in a scene? yes okay we know, the one guy has an inkvine scar (whatever that is). yes, chani looks like an elf. we get it. you don't have to tell us 15 times.
there are probably spelling mistakes in this review but I really don't care bc I don't want to reread it lol. I honestly really wanted to like this book. I thought it was going to be sick and it ended up being so lame. would not recommend. also I will most definitely not be reading any of the sequels even though I have seen people say that they get better because I firmly believe that a book should not have to depend on other books to be good.
ok bye