Reading Frank Herbert’s Dune turned out to be a downright mesmerizing experience. Which was surprising to me because while I have obviously known about the book for ages I always assumed it would be a dry, dense, and difficult read. It turned out to be anything but. I found myself really taken in by Herbert’s prose, which is really stark and straightforward even when the story takes the most psychedelic of turns towards the climax. “Organic,” was the word that kept coming to mind. This story feels like a living, breathing thing in a way precious few others do. It’s no wonder it’s endlessly compared with The Lord of the Rings. It lives in that same mythic mind field.
I genuinely have no idea how so many people consider this a fully stand-alone novel, though, since the ending is so abrupt and honestly quite anticlimactic. Supposedly Herbert decided to write Messiah partly as a response to the public’s reaction to Dune’s themes, but I find it hard to believe that he didn’t have a sequel already in mind. As dense as the novel is, it does feel very much like the first half of a story. (Which is why I got the second book as soon as I finished this one. I look forward to reading it.)
But also, despite all the complex, intricate lore and cachet surrounding this classic of science fiction, at the end of the day, the story’s just a hell of a lot of fun, too. I had a blast reading this. Big worm! Big fan.
ricardo reading 