Book Name: Dune
Author: Frank Herbert
Genre: Science Fiction
Year Published: 1965
So... Dune. This book took me about five months to read. It was definitely a new reading experience for me as half of me really wanted to know what happened in the story, and was eager to keep reading. The other half struggled with the science fiction language and premise, something that I've always found difficult to get my head around quickly. I would spend days reading constantly and then struggle to get back into it for a while.
The book itself is well written. The premise is engaging and entertaining. Dune covers quite a large period of time in the life of one Paul Atreides, who grows from young teenager to man during the course of the novel, and the story relates to his family's journey to a new planet which his father is placed in charge of. Of course things don't go as expected, and during the course of the novel we are subjected to a ton of storyline concerning family, religion, politics, economics, ecology and much more.
It is clear that Frank Herbert put an amazing amount of time and effort into the construction not just of the book, Dune, but of the world it describes also. It is very historically and geographically rich. There is even a glossary in the back of the copy I read to assist with the foreign language terms used during the course of the novel, which I ended up referring to regularly at the start.
Overall then, this was definitely a book that required a lot of attention and concentration for me, but I feel like it was worth it in the end. I thoroughly enjoyed the actual story, but I cannot deny that I found it a difficult read. When I finally finished it, I did watch the film for comparison, and as is often the case, I would strongly recommend reading the book as well or instead, if only because I feel you cannot get an appreciation of the depth of the novel Herbert created otherwise.
Highly recommend if you already like science fiction, or are looking for a book to stretch your reading horizons!
Books I Read Inbetween: Splinter - Sebastian Fitzek; Fifteen Days Without A Head - Dave Cousins; After Tomorrow - Gillian Cross
