Dune

The Book in 1 Sentence

Double the movie, double the intrigue.

Brief Review

This books is a great expansion to what was a fantastic movie. I really appreciate when a movie stays true to a book. The story is well thought out and what would naturally be filler or world building, I felt it wasn't so bad that I wanted to skip ahead. I felt like I wanted to know more.

Why I Read this book

The movie was fantastic and one of the few my wife likes to rewatch. Not knowing anything about the book other than the movie, I wanted to read it to flesh out the story more.

In-Depth Review (Favorite Quotes)

Like I said above, this book is double the movie and what I mean is that the movie ends about halfway through the book. While the second half is more political drama with burst of action, I never felt like it was dragging on. There were some parts where it felt redundant but I did enjoy it.

The characters felt extremely alive and 3-demintional, truest hitting their stride and power in the second half. This is especially so with the revelation of additional beliefs and background for the politics. It's no very often that s major plot point surprises me, but there was one plot point that I felt did.

However, that same point I feel was supposed to be a bigger twist than how I took it. It seemed to be one more cog of connection rather than the true plunge of how it was intended.

I did listen to this on Audible and appreciate the change of voice actors for the characters. I also liked that the overtone of music and sound effects was limited to pauses in the book. It was especially nice to hear the narrator from one of my favorite series make an appearance.

How my ideas of this book have changed as a result of reading the book.

I've known for some time that this book is where George Lucas got the idea for Star Wars and I honestly am dismayed at the amount of harshness in which people told me this. While similarities are there, the force Vs. The voice, if I hadn't been told before I'm not sure I would have noticed. Yes some of the settings (desert planet), politics, and plot elements are the same, you could say that about any book the came out afterwards (Specifically thinking of a comedian talking about Harry Potter being Star Wars).

Rating

This book is solid, but I feel like I enjoyed the book mainly due to my enjoyment of the movie. It does get slow and a little in the weeds but I also think I have read some similar books recently that fall under this shadow so it might just be a desensitization.

While attempting to be cognizant of all that, I believe the book is a solid 8. Please go read this.