Dune - Frank Herbert

This book took a supremely long time for me to read. It was challenging. Herbert's cadence is unique, and certainly the universe he creates is completely foreign. Typically with this type of book, it takes me about 100 pages to get familiar with the world and accept the normative structures relied upon by the author (see my review of A Crown for Cold Silver here). This did, in fact, occur for the most part while reading this book. However, afterwards, the sheer amount of information provided in each chapter was a bit overwhelming and I was unable to read large portions of the book without stopping. 

With that said, the story is rather epic. House Atreides has been granted a fiefdom over Arrakis, a stark and barren planet that is the sole producer of the universe's most valuable mineral, melange (spice). House Atreides is taking over the fiefdom from House Harkonnen, which has held reign over Arrakis for 70ish years. 

Duke Leto, his companion Jessica, and their son Paul arrive on Arrakis with their advisors in tow. Paul has been specially trained in combat, but also in mystical learning by his mother who was brought up under a teaching called Ben Gesserit. The Ben Gesserit have been focused on breeding a specific person through various bloodlines in the empire. Paul is the accidental culmination of this attempt. 

Well, as can be expected, the House losing control of the universe's most profitable and valuable substance is not too ready to leave and House Harkonnen attacks the Atreides with help from a treacherous insider - leaving Paul and Jessica wandering through the desert and Leto dead. 

However, the Harkonnens have underestimated Paul, Jessica, and, as it turns out, the entire population of native people living on Arrakis, the Fremen, who take in Paul and Jessica from the desert. Paul proves himself in combat and becomes a prophet as well as leader of the Fremen. His training have prepared him to create a master army out of the Fremen, who have been subjugated and harassed by the Harkonnens and are prime for revolution. 

Ultimately, I think there's a certain narrative distance with which the story is told that made it extremely enjoyable but also made it lacking in a certain development which would have improved upon the entire experience of reading this book. I'll be continuing the story at least through the fourth book, which I'm told is the last episode in the series that is worth reading. I'm interested to see what happens after this first book lets off because it certainly ends abruptly.

4/5 Stars.