I have been wondering about the world and where we will end up. Will we become suppressed by religion ? Since 90% of the world has some Abrahamic leanings . Or suppressed by the wealthy elite. I think the Dune series ; Frank's vision ; may not be too far off . Thoughts .....
Don't know. Couldn't read it. As a sci-fi buff it was my sworn oath to do so. But, even trying a half dozen times, I never got past page 50.
Like the series: the books, the films and the games. Ab-solute-ly LOVED playing the Dune games when I was younger.
Push through it ; it is worth it . More importantly; It's the end of series that is the MOST important . You won't know that of course until you get to the end . Enjoy
It is about political and religious control of the galaxy. Leto II started the events that led to the scattering, which may or may not have saved "us" from becoming like the Tleilaxu beasts. He used the Bene Gesserit like the whores they were. It is about revolution, not freedom. The Fremen were bred to be the warriors that Muad'dib unleashed on the Landsraad and the great houses: Nothing was random. Read it again.
And the revolution was the common people fighting back against oppression . In the end ; Frank saw that the only way is to experience oppression ; 4000yrs ; in the book ; to understand what Freedom means . Everything else is a distraction from Frank's real purpose of the series . Which is Freedom from religion and corps. Oppression . So that Humanity can find its full potential .
Dune was about many things, and I don't think it possible to sum it up as just being about one thing. Among the themes it addrsses, though: it is about ecology, about the importance of oil in the world's economy and its control by the Middle East, about how empires in decline try to protect themselves, and also about the power/importance of women in an otherwise male-dominated society. And yes, it's about freedom from oppression, but also warning that unless controlled a rebellion can become destructive, can get out of control and wreak mayhem. On its surface, however, Dune was all about prescience, and Muad'Dib having visions of future paths in which humanity is extinct. At least in all but one: the Golden Path. He is therefore bound by that path if he is to save humanity, and that means the jihad he unleashes is all part of it. His son, Leto II, continues the path as the God Emperor, by effectively stagnating humanity, limiting space travel, spice flow etc, thereby enforcing peace, although his sort of side quest is also to free humanity of prescience, thereby allowing them to expand throughout the universe without any fear of observation, thus saving it from destruction. And then the last two books are all about the return from the great scattering of the Honoured Matres, seemingly driven back by some menace, and their friction with the Bene Gesserit. But who were the HM fleeing from?? (Wasn't answered in the 6 books he wrote. I haven't read the two further sequels that his son co-wrote with Kevin Anderson.)
Please do not try again. And please do not keep reading for the entire series. Nobody should read fiction that they do not enjoy, unless it's for work or criticism. And Dune just isn't that good, especially not as the series goes on.
Please DO try again, as there are a few novels I couldn't get into when I first tried, only to find them rather good when I did (Ian Banks' novels have a tendency to do that to me). Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! And it really is that good a book. Honestly. The sequels do get weaker, I found, but the initial book... it's a gem, a superbly imagined universe, devoid of many of the usual computers and tech found in sci-fi, yet grand in scale and an undeniable classic. But it doesn't hold your hand, rather it chucks you in at the deep-end. I actually found the 1984 film to be a great way of getting into the book... certainly in helping me imagine the style, the settings, etc. It's not a perfect translation, by any stretch, but it encapsulates much (and misses out much as well) and made the reading that much easier at the outset. But as PhysBang has said, don't read it for the sake of reading it... If you still can't get into it then don't force it. There are many other great books to not get bogged down in this one.
