The first time I picked up Dune, I was 13 or 14 years old.
I liked science fiction, or so I thought.
I wasn't quite ready for Frank Herbert's opus quite yet.
I thought Dune was boring and I couldn't figure out what was going on.
I also wasn't ready to put out the effort it would take.
I took a crack at the Dune books twice more before finally getting through the first four at age 32.
Both times, I was thwarted by the same reasons as before.
By the time I finally finished them, I had become more interested in poltics and philosophy.
I think that is what made the difference: I finally had something I could identify with in the series.
The books mean different things to different people.
I have heard the Dune series described as books of philosophy, treatises on ecology, swashbuckling space adventures, Frank Herbert's dissertation on religion and technology, and even more.
And who are any of us to say that those descriptions are wrong? For me, besides my interest in politics and philosophy, Dune and the other books in the series are pure story.
We live in a time where most books are copies of other books as authors jump on the coattails of whatever is popular (read, finanacially successful) at the moment.
Dune is not like that.
I haven't read every sci fi book out there, but I've read a lot.
There is nothing I would compare to Dune.
It seems to have very few imitators, which I believe is the ultimate compliment to a writer's originality.
The Dune books are nothing if not original.
If you are interested in checking them out, here is the chronological order of the first four (I haven't read farther than that yet): Dune The original.
Details the struggles between the Atreides family and the Harkonnens as they fight over the desert planet named Arrakis.
Also includes giant scary sandworms.
Dune Messiah With the Atreides family in charge of Arrakis (and the rest of the universe), new problems present themselves.
Children of Dune A new generation of Atreides children becomes the target of an assassination.
Feints within feints within feints is the motto of this extremely tangled and convoluted book.
God Emperor of Dune The story takes a direction nobody could ever have guessed.
Paul's child become a hybrid man/sandworm and spends most of the novel crawling around and philosophizing.
But it's still good stuff.
I can say with great certainty that you'll know within a few pages whether or not you'll have any interest in the Dune series.
If not, don't feel bad.
I have always said it is the book's job to entertain me, not the other way around.
And if you try and it doesn't happen, don't be afraid to try again later in life.
As we age, we become different people.
Our changing opinions and lives can turn books we think we know into new objects.
I liked science fiction, or so I thought.
I wasn't quite ready for Frank Herbert's opus quite yet.
I thought Dune was boring and I couldn't figure out what was going on.
I also wasn't ready to put out the effort it would take.
I took a crack at the Dune books twice more before finally getting through the first four at age 32.
Both times, I was thwarted by the same reasons as before.
By the time I finally finished them, I had become more interested in poltics and philosophy.
I think that is what made the difference: I finally had something I could identify with in the series.
The books mean different things to different people.
I have heard the Dune series described as books of philosophy, treatises on ecology, swashbuckling space adventures, Frank Herbert's dissertation on religion and technology, and even more.
And who are any of us to say that those descriptions are wrong? For me, besides my interest in politics and philosophy, Dune and the other books in the series are pure story.
We live in a time where most books are copies of other books as authors jump on the coattails of whatever is popular (read, finanacially successful) at the moment.
Dune is not like that.
I haven't read every sci fi book out there, but I've read a lot.
There is nothing I would compare to Dune.
It seems to have very few imitators, which I believe is the ultimate compliment to a writer's originality.
The Dune books are nothing if not original.
If you are interested in checking them out, here is the chronological order of the first four (I haven't read farther than that yet): Dune The original.
Details the struggles between the Atreides family and the Harkonnens as they fight over the desert planet named Arrakis.
Also includes giant scary sandworms.
Dune Messiah With the Atreides family in charge of Arrakis (and the rest of the universe), new problems present themselves.
Children of Dune A new generation of Atreides children becomes the target of an assassination.
Feints within feints within feints is the motto of this extremely tangled and convoluted book.
God Emperor of Dune The story takes a direction nobody could ever have guessed.
Paul's child become a hybrid man/sandworm and spends most of the novel crawling around and philosophizing.
But it's still good stuff.
I can say with great certainty that you'll know within a few pages whether or not you'll have any interest in the Dune series.
If not, don't feel bad.
I have always said it is the book's job to entertain me, not the other way around.
And if you try and it doesn't happen, don't be afraid to try again later in life.
As we age, we become different people.
Our changing opinions and lives can turn books we think we know into new objects.
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