Book Report - Dune

Herbert, Frank. Dune. New York, New York. Ace Books: 1987
I chose this book because Zoli said it was going to be really cool. He gave me a very quick and vague description of it and I got interested. I like science fiction, and that’s what this book is. It is set on the desert planet of Arrakis, and the time period isn’t said. The strange and revolutionary technology used in the book makes the reader assume it’s in the future.
The book is about the House of Atreides. It is one of the noble families that rules over planets in the universe. At the beginning of the book, they rule the planet Caladan, which is a lush planet. Baron Harkonnen (the Harkonnens are the mortal enemies of the Atredies) agrees to trade Caladan for the desert planet of Arrakis. Arrakis is rich with a drug spice called melange that millions of people in the galaxy are addicted to. The Baron agreed to go through with the trade because he plans to kill Duke Leto and his family once they are on Arrakis by using one of their own people to betray them. This way, the Harkonnens can gain a lot of control because they plan to destroy both the Atreides and the production of melange on Arrakis. This would cause the prices of it to go way higher. So, the Harkonnens will have a lot of control and the Atreides will be blamed for the high prices. The family arrives on Arrakis, and robotic probe attempts to kill Paul Atreides, the son of Duke Leto and the other main character, Jessica. This is when the Atreides find out there’s a traitor afoot. The reader already knows it’s the character Dr. Yeuh who is the traitor. Later, Yeuh shuts down the Atreides castle’s generators, making it vulnerable to attack. He confronts Duke Leto and places a fake tooth in his mouth. When bitten down on, the tooth releases a poisonous gas. Yeuh feels bad for betraying the duke so he tells the duke to bite down on the tooth when he is brought to Baron Harkonnen to kill him too. Jessica and Paul are kidnapped by Harkonnens and flown in a small ship, called an orthinopter, out in the desert to be killed. Jessica seduces the two guards until they fight over her and one kills the other. Jessica distracts the remaining one long enough for Paul to kill him. They free themselves after getting provisions, but see another orthinopter coming. The duke is brought before the baron and he bites down on the tooth. It kills him and the guards but the baron escapes. Jessica and Paul are in a tent hiding from the orthinopter but they find out the ship is being piloted by an Atreides man to save them. He was instructed to do so by Yeuh, who out of guilt arranged for Jessica and Paul to be saved. Once they are dropped off and hid, Paul develops mind powers that allow his intelligence to greatly increase, and have the ability to see the future. In a dream he sees the future. He then tells Jessica that she will have a baby girl even though she hasn’t told anyone she’s pregnant. Paul also reveals that they are both Harkonnens and the baron is Jessica’s father.
Paul and Jessica walk through the desert and plant a thumper device. A thumper is a device that makes a rhythmic thumping noise to distract the huge creatures known as sandworms. They come across a rock zone where they are met by the Fremen, natives of the desert planet. At first they don’t trust the two but later they decide to let them stay. Two years pass and Paul rides a sandworm for the first time, like the Fremen do. The Fremen recognize him as a religious prophet so he is now a political and religious leader. Jessica has given birth to Alia who has heightened awareness and intelligence because her mother used the spice drug when she was in the womb. She can talk in complete sentences and walk as well. Paul has a son with a girl he met, Chani, two years ago. Paul has a vision of a fleet of Harkonnen ships over Arrakis. This really happens. The emperor and Baron Harkonnen with many troops come. The ships land on the shield wall of the planet and Paul and the Fremen have a plan. When a sandstorm hits, the Fremen blow up the shield wall with atomic weapons and destroy the ships’ noses so they can’t take off. But, they find out Alia has been captured and Paul’s son has been killed. Paul is in the castle, and the emperor (who came into the story kind of suddenly) and his entourage appear. The baron’s nephew and a skilled fighter, Feyd-Rautha challenges Paul to a duel to the death and Paul wins. The emperor gets other people to try to kill him but they refuse. Paul negotiates that he marry the emperor’s daughter so he can get the throne. The emperor reluctantly agrees. Chani agrees as well because Paul assures her that she will be his real love and the emperor’s daughter will just be the royal concubine.
Character: Paul is the main character. He has special mind abilities that let him see visions of the future and really high intelligence and advanced thinking. He goes from just a regular guy to a very important leader and he brings the people of Arrakis to victory. I chose him because he is the most important character in the book and it is clear he will be in the sequels as well.
Evaluation: Overall, I didn’t like the book. It dropped a lot of names and terms that you easily forget. When they are brought up, you sometimes forget who is who and what does what. There were some interesting parts in it like the final battles but that’s about it. It ends abruptly and you are confused and unsatisfied. The book introduces the emperor into the story suddenly and after reading I’m still not even that clear on what he is doing in the story. Besides the main plot that I described earlier in this paper, there are a lot of other small events going on as well but they were not important to the plot. The book made no points about life so I didn’t learn anything. It is just another science fiction book completely made from imagination. There’s nothing wrong with that by any means, but I just didn’t like this book. I don’t recommend it. It’s just not a book that needs to be read. I would say how I would rather have it end, but I honestly don’t know because the book didn’t really seem to have anything going for it at the start anyway. I guess one would have to read the sequels to better understand it, but I do not plan on doing so.
Author: Frank Herbert wrote an entire series of Dune books that continue from each other and this one is the first one. This book does a good job inventing a completely new sci-fi universe, I’ll give it that. It reminded me of Star Wars but a little more advanced and slightly more realistic. I do not plan on reading any other books by this author.