Dune

Update: After originally reading Dune in late 2018, I’ve reread it in June 2020. Great book and it was interesting to see how much I had forgotten.

Here are also some quotes I liked:

  • “When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong – faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thoughts of obstacles and forget the precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it’s too late.”
  • “Hope clouds observation.”
  • “The people who can destroy a thing, they control it.”
  • “Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.” (how prescient)
  • “There should be a science of discontent. People need hard times to develop psychic muscles. — Muad’Dib”

My original subtitle: Intergalactic Feuds, Spice, Deserts and No Robots

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer” – Frank Herbert, Dune

Dune is one of the best-reviewed books in the sci-fi genre. The book creates a universe that is similar enough to ours, but different enough to be very interesting. There are many relationships (think: Game of Thrones), but you follow one family, and one person, in particular. This is Paul, son of Duke Leto of the House of Atreides.

You will follow him through a journey of betrayal, drugs, power and manipulation. Along the way, you will meet giant sand worms and people who can see the future (whilst high on spice). If you read between the lines, there is a lot of references to real-world settings.

What is different in Dune from other sci-fi books is the total lack of technology. It was only 1965 when the book was written, but Frank Herbert predicted the upcoming AI war (just kidding, hopefully). And instead of technology, some people evolved to take on jobs that you would normally expect computers to do (e.g. navigate ships by being very good at math).

Definitively go ahead and read Dune! And if you want to only know the plot, watch the video below, it’s hilarious.

I found this video on io9.com and OMG what a find.

It’s a summary of Dune, with images from Game of Thrones, Donald Trump, Albert Einstein and more.

It does give away the whole plot. But man, watch it after you’ve read the book.

Want to learn even more, and have some more laughs?

Here is the Thug Notes of Dune, summary and analysis.

Have you read Dune? What did you think?

Tags: