mint_renegade's reviews
169 reviews

1st read 3.25/5

2nd read 4.25/5

Despot kings, terrifying monsters, lust-ridden gods, man’s appeasement and defilement of sacred decrees, great floods. Is anything original? Was there a seedling, a first sprout? Was it a story shared over burning coals? Was it sung in the heart of one, spun in her mind, sprung from her lips, ferried across the winds, guided through the ear and into the heart of another, then another, then another; to be repeated, again and again, each teller seeking to share the true essence of the story; as true as their hearts, minds, lips and ears felt it to be? 

We live, then we die. What happens in between, what we hate, rage against, love and conquer; what we eat, where we sleep, cry, what we dream, where we live, who and what we give ourselves to, all of these are done in celebration of death. Life is a tribute to mortality, not its fragility, but its inevitability. Every day, we die in increments. Yes, the cellular degeneration, but also the little deaths – the death  a friendship, the death of a petty grievances, the death of old habits, the death of spring; each little death heralding the fast and slow march towards a death that is not-so little. Listen closely, and you will hear death in this step, and this. 

Every day, we die in increments, and every day we celebrate. 

Though I loathe it, I've missed this barren feeling of heartbreak at the dawning realisation that I will never again experience/hear/read the same story for the first time. 

How am I expected to move on from this!!!

Of all the terrains, desert terrain has to be my favourite terrain. Water terrain, not so much, I don’t know what’s down there, a big fish could be watching me. 

I read this book with a niggling sense of foresight *you watched the trailer* of the whitewashing to come in the movie adaptation. Unfortunately, I couldn't dispense with the image of Paul as Jimony Champagne and so spent much of my time worrying about the havoc the desert UV would likely have on his chalet-sheltered skin. 

Generally, I enjoy reading books wherein the terrain is an antagonist in and of itself but, being wholly desert, there wasn't much room for world-building in what is a sci-fi book. To counter this, I would have liked it if the so-called Makers played a more prominent role especially as they produce the product that was, essentially, informing the lives of everyone in the narrative. Alas, twas not to be. It came to pass that I only cared for each character's plight to the extent that I didn't want to dnf yet another book in the space of 3 weeks. 

In any case, Dune was a 3.5-star read. I enjoyed the overt and at times subtle portrayal of the interplay between water and sand; the way one was likened to/weighed against the other. However, HOWEVER, the author relies too much on the sand-sea contrast. Yes, there is room for symmetry – metaphors, similes, onomatopoeia etc. But there comes a point where too much comparison becomes tiresome. That being said, and provided that Mr Herbert has not been cancelled, I will be having a collect of his words etched onto my skin - fear is the mind killer.