I have always wanted to read this series, but I was too chicken to spend the money on it. Boy, was that a mistake! I’m a huge sci-fi nerd and I learned that this series was one of the inspirations for Star Wars. I had to check it out.
I’m not going to lie, the book started out a little slow. I tried to forget much of what I knew from watching the awful movie from 1984. I was very young when that came out and I vaguely remember watching it. I didn’t understand any of the action or what the point of it was. Now that I’ve read the book, I understand they took a lot of creative license with it because special effects weren’t good enough to give a true vision. I also think they left out a lot of things that would have made the story a lot easier to digest.
There were times when I wondered whether Frank Hebert drew his inspiration from Lawrence of Arabia. The Fremen are obviously based on Bedouin nomads of the middle east. Their customs were straight from Islamic beliefs had they been invented millions of years ago on an alien planet. They wandered a desert planet and lived quite well for themselves. They tolerated invaders who took advantage of their natural resources to become rich. On Arrakis, their asset was the spice. On earth, it was the oil. In both stories, society can’t live without it and governments will do anything to establish a supply line.
The second half of the book went by a lot faster than the first. It was interesting to see what Paul and his mother had become. It was terrible that his son died and I think that changed something in Paul. I wonder what the rest of the tale would have been like had he not lost so much to become who he was.
Frank Herbert did a good job with foreshadowing with Paul. His dreams hinted that he had the ability to see in to the future. He had seen his own rise to power and ultimate death, but I wonder if he saw the death of his son, Leto.
