DUNE (F. Herbert - 1965)

Kind : Space opera

Landscapes : Sand and sandhills, as far as the eyes can see.

The story :
On the Caladar planet, there is 2 clans : The Atreides, the good ones, leaded by the duke Leto, and the Harkonnens, the bad ones,managed by the baron Vladimir Harkonnen.
To move away the duke Leto, who starts to have too much influence on that planet, the emperor, the supreme leader of Caladar, make him a poisonned gift in making of him the king of the Dune planet, in the place of the Harkonnens, who ruled - badly - this planet for 80 years.

Dune is a planet completely covered with sand, where each drop of water brought by humans is a real richness, such as the Spice, strange and natural substance which give to the one who eat it some ability to know the future. Giant worms are the only animals living on this hostile Earth.

Keeping far away from these 2 clans, The Fremen live a life near the Nature, succeeding in taming the giant worms and making of them transportantion means. Most of all, they have a secret goal which is to bring back water on Dune, to no more being dependant from the Guilde, the only transportation company which brings on the planet the precious liquid.You can see here a paint of Stilgar, the leader of the Fremen :

The duke Leto's son, Paul, gains some fabulous mental abilities, thanks to his education and to the Spice, and discovers he has become the Kwisatz Haderach, the messie whom talk all the Fremen legends, the one who will lead the Fremen towards the Power on Dune.It is indeed what happens next, the Atreides joins to the Fremen to fight against the Harkonnens - which killed the duc Leto - and win the fight.You can admire here a giant worm, with a wide open mouth, ready to catch the first spaceship which will land on Dune...

Main Topics :
- Ecology : How to take care of the natural ressources of a planet
- The fight for the power
- Mental abilities of the human being ( to know the future, reincarnation,...)

Comments :
Even if the main topics of this book - ecology and power - are feartured in an imaginary world, they are described in a very realistic way, and correspond exactly to the actual concerns of our society.

This book is not badly written, but I didn't like it a lot.
Why ?

- Dune is really to long : More than 900 sheets for the 2 parts, in pocket edition ! I believe that on these 900 sheets, 1/3 settles the landscapes, figures and main ideas. The rest is only intrigues, and so on ( imagine the feuilleton "Dallas", in a space opera version )
The reading of Dune has been for me a long and painful thing to do, who longed about 2 months, but I really wanted to finish it by curiosity, to compare my point of view with the ones of SF encyclopedias, which worship Dune.

- The text, or the writing style smells dust and old style, there is no moves in this writing style, it is just as if we were watching the action through a very thick window pane.

- 2 strange things in this novel, which discredit seriously the story's credibility : Do you know that on the Caladar planet St Augustin ( Earth inhabitant, philosopher and christian theologian, dead in 400 after JC ) is known ? And that on Dune, people drink coffee ???? ( All that is not very serious, Mr Herbert ! )

For those who loved this universe-book, go and see this link, you will find again the Dune universe in numerous followings to this first parts :
http://www.dunenovels.com/