Dune (Dune Chronicles, Book 1)

There are very few books I have read that would always leave a lasting impression. Dune is one of those books. There are intricacies and webs in it, that you only realize once you put the book down. There are moments where you get the "Oh damn!" feeling. There is dread, and there is hope. And the book makes you feel all of it.

Even though the book talks about a foreign planet, a feudal system, where there is an emperor, and there are houses, minor and major, who rule different planets, you never feel disconnected from the story. The story is about such a house : House Atreidis which is ruled by Duke Leto. He has a son Paul, a teenager in training to someday rule this house. House Atreidis rules the planet Caladan, and is sent to rule the planet Arrakkis, which is a barren wasteland where nothing grows, except the most important resource in all of the universe : Melange (Spice). As simplistic as this setup might sound, the details are so much more intriguing. There is motivation behind motivation behind motivation. Everyone has a personal agenda, and all of them play their own games. There is politics, faith, legends, betrayal, friendship, and everything in between that you might ever want. Some of the best quotes of this book are "There is no escape - we pay for the violence of our ancestors.", "What do you despise? By this you are truly known."

There are very few things to criticize in this book. The one thing being that Paul as a central character seems very stoic. In the process of wielding a legend, the book forgets to make him a human first. There is very little reaction or emotion that comes out of him, which makes him seem distant. The second being the heavy use of religious undertones. Words like Jihad, male dominated houses, the system of multiple wives, and many more things are thrown around a lot, which sort of takes away from the "science fiction" part of it. A world where artificial intelligence is banned, and humans have developed superhuman ability, so much talk about legends undermines the science of it all.

Overall, a great sci-fi read. I would suggest multiple readings.