Book Overview #9: Dune 1&2

Book 1

The Dune books are a landmark in science fantasy, yet even they feel like classic examples of what not to do when you want to write a suspenseful plot. You don’t spoil the ending right away. And if you do, you don’t keep reminding the reader about it. Yet look at here, the beginning of every chapter has a passage from a scripture that was written after the story is over. We know the outcome because they keep mentioning it.

And I know what many of you will be thinking; the destination does not matter the most, it’s the journey towards it. Just because you know where you are going does not mean you know exactly how you will get there. I would accept that if the journey had to do with traveling by mundane means, but not when it’s about divine intervention, where you teleport anywhere the plot wants you to be. There is no meaningful journey when you can skip most of the challenges. That’s the fundamental flaw with the book, the protagonist is another space Jesus who we all know he will win right away because the outcome is known. Have fun not being worried if he might get killed by the dangers he faces.

But this is not what everybody hypes the book for, since all the attention was placed on the world building, which I admit it’s bloody amazing. The images of the desert, the glamorous palaces, and the underground caves are fascinating for a mind that loves to visualize alien sceneries. You are also bombarded with all sorts of terminology and there is even the long glossary as an appendix to help you understand what each weird name is supposed to be about. In this regard the book is very looked into.

I can’t say the same thing for the characterization, which is fairly cartoony, especially for the villains. The Harkonnen are pretty much a bunch of ugly fat gay pedophiles who rub their hands and wish to kill all that is good in the universe for money. You can work around this issue if you imagine how this is supposed to be a recollection of events that transpired. You are basically told the story from the perspective of the victors; meaning, you are reading a historical documentary written by the general who won the war. Of course and the villains will be shallow archetypes of evil, and of course the good guys will be too ideal. It’s a placebo solution, but it sure is better than to call Dune a fairy tale in space.

The exposition is also weak, since the characters will be explaining in detail things that don’t require it in-story. Ok, they do so the reader can understand what is going on, but with the option of internal monologues, an unseen narrator, or even the glossary that is already there to fill the blanks, explaining everything with boring infodumps is plain silly.

And then there is the plot, which is completely retarded. The premise and the set-up are amazing, the execution of them is terrible, especially when it comes to the emperor of the galaxy. We are told the house of Harkonnen did a poor job at gathering spice, so the emperor replaces them with the house of Atreides. The Atreides did a much better job and so the emperor orders their destruction… Yeah, ok, anything you say boss. I understand that he was afraid of them getting powerful enough to rival him, but it’s not like he couldn’t replace them with a simple command, just like he did with the Hakonnen. How about assigning the task to multiple houses, so nobody will get too powerful to rival you, idiot?

Also, is this guy ever satisfied? The Harkonnen didn’t do well, the Atreides did too well, he’s displeased either way. Not to mention the final battle where he personally comes to the battlefield for no reason whatsoever, and even lands his ship in the middle of a hostile area, although he has thousands of clerics who are predicting the future and constantly warn him about it. How has this empire not self-destroyed a few days after this idiot sat on the throne?

Not that the rest of the characters are any smarter. The leader of the Atreides kept yapping about being aware and careful on one hand, while obviously doing his best to be more popular than the emperor, thus causing his wrath. The leader of the Harkonnen sends the son and mother of the Atreides to die slowly by the harsh weather of the desert. And no more than a few minutes later, he sends ships to kill them! Why didn’t you simply kill them while you had them in your hands, if that was your intention all along? As you can obviously imagine, the two of them escape, join a tribe of natives, and quickly raise an army of ragged civilians who can wipe out the elite armies of the empire. Bullshit.

There is a lot more to the story, such as the protagonist riding huge worms, storming the evil boss’s fort, and monopolizing trade with his hax mind controlling skills. It’s dumb fun and it would work if it didn’t try to be anything more. Something which unfortunately does, since there are long dialogues about politics, religion, and ecology, which do not matter in the longrun, since everything comes down to the CHOSEN ONE doing everything right and winning all the time with the power of deus ex machina. At least he doesn’t save everybody; most of the people he loved are dead by the end of the war. But still, he is space Jesus, there is nothing to relate with.

Most remember Dune for the philosophy and the setting, and if you go easy on it, it’s fun for the genre. I personally wasn’t that amused since it felt too simple in plot and characters, while at the same time trying to overcomplicate everything and being full of eye rolling moments. It’s an average read at best and pretty flawed from a critical perspective.

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Book 2

So I finished the second book of the Dune series, where the suspense is almost completely gone. There is close to no action anymore, as 95% of the plot is about people sitting and talking about philosophy or whatever. It’s doesn’t even have interesting dialogues. The stuff they are talking about is interesting on the theoretical level, but there is no emotion to spice them (no pun intended). It’s as if they are machines, which is extra ironic since it takes place in a setting that has abolished computers.

The premise is good at first, since it’s about the protagonist as the messiah of Dune, having caused the death of hundreds of times more people than those he saved. It’s a subversion of the chosen one who in typical stories only defeats evil and saves the innocent. The psychological pressure is there, but it means nothing because it’s about destiny. Paul is not choosing anything; he’s just following his fate. He can see the future without being able to change it, therefore there is nothing to be saddened about something you will do regardless of how you feel about it. That’s the thing with fatalism; it takes away free will and along with it the responsibility of your actions, so whatever the plot considers tragic, is fake.

There is a scene where an explosion blinds him, and another scene where someone steals a worm, thus ending his monopoly on spice. These are supposed to be plot twists that make Paul a tragic character. Only thing they are not, since he knew they were coming and did nothing to stop them. The book makes it sound like he wasn’t sure what would happen, but it comes down to the author nerfing his prophetic powers as a lazy contrivance for the sake of building a mystery that has nothing to excuse its existence.

And I have to complain about the female characters, who also degraded from the first book. Paul’s mother and his first wife were kicking serious ass. They were warriors and diplomats. His sister and his second wife on the other hand are so stereotypically presented as being defined by sexuality and lust to the point it becomes chauvinistic. Seriously, the only thing you remember them doing is being naked and craving sex. It doesn’t go any further than men talking about philosophy, while women want to have babies.

Even the ending is weak sauce. Paul quickly kills the traitors, something he could have done from the very first pages if his powers weren’t magically taken away by the plot, and then exiles himself to the desert, leaving behind his newborn kids to take over. Why did he do that? So it can be melodramatic nonsense. I don’t see why people are defending the books as the best science fantasy can offer, and I am not motivated to read any further.