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The Great Dune Trilogy: A Review

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The Great Dune Trilogy
Frank Herbert
ISBN-13: 0575070706

I remember distinctly reading Dune in 1992 after seeing the 1980s film. In fact I can still picture myself lying on a bed in a holiday cottage in a small French village near Carcassonne reading the book. I went on to read Dune Messiah, but couldn’t get into Children of Dune. I tried it again several years later, but still couldn’t get into it. Dune has been on my list to reread for a while. When searching for Dune in the Amazon Kindle store the trilogy came up as one book, so I decided to read all three straight through and I’m glad I did!

There’s no getting away from the fact that Dune is a great story. I discovered recently that it’s two stories glued together and it shows. The first half of the book has lots of details and then there appears to be a large gap in the story, which at least one of the films attempted to fill, and then you get the end of the story. I don’t really like the way Frank Herbert explains what’s going to happen at the beginning and then that’s what happens, with a small twist at the end. I’d rather be kept in suspense.

Dune Messiah is a great little story, but it mostly leaves science fiction behind in favour of feudalism and politics. This is also where I think Herbert starts getting indulgent. Most of us love well developed characters, but I found myself in their heads far too much. The twelve year gap in the story between Dune and Dune Messiah where a whole Jihad rages across the galaxy isn’t done justice.

I enjoyed, mostly, Children of Dune too, but it was very much more of the same. I didn’t see the end coming, which was a good surprise, but I don’t think I liked it.

It will be interesting to see how God Emperor of Dune shapes up, especially as it’s set several thousand years in the future.

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