Incredible story! Simply incredible. This one grabbed me from my first listen to the first CD all the way to the 18th, the final minute of the 21st hour. Normally I complain about the selection of audiobooks at the Covina Public Library but this time they had a real gem. I first noticed that they had it earlier in early 2009. It’s a fairly new edition, produced in 2007. It doesn’t just have one actor reading the book but an entire cast. The original edition was published in 1965, written by Frank Herbert who’s from Tacoma, Washington and who attended the University of Washington in Seattle. My parents read it around the time it came out. My mom said that when she made French bread it reminded her of the enormous sand worms in Dune. Herbert wrote several sequels, none as good as the original. His son has continued to write sequels after his father’s untimely death in the 1980’s. A film version of Dune directed by David Lynch was released in 1984. I heard it wasn’t very good. I also heard that a TV miniseries of Dune aired in 2000.
I had all but forgotten about Dune when I noticed it in the audiobook section of the Covina Public Library in early 2009. As I said it is read by an entire cast. The cast includes Scott Brick, a famous reader of science fiction audiobooks. I’ve listened to Isaac Asimov’s I Robot and Second Foundation read by Brick. This Dune audiobook is very long consisting of 18 CD’s and totaling about 21 hours of listening. I usually only listen to audiobooks while folding clothes, doing tedious chores, and driving long distances alone. I didn’t think I would be doing enough of those activities to complete a 21-hour audiobook in the 3-week checkout period and 3-week renewal period. But then we decided to go to Las Vegas with Mom and Dad (my in-laws). They would be driving so I wouldn’t have total control of when we stopped. I figured a long, compelling audiobook such as Dune would distract me from any reason that I might need to stop. Well, other than having to compete with the radio and their CD’s, the plan worked perfectly. The car trip to and from Vegas just fly by and the drive through the desert was consistent with the desert planet setting of the book. Still, even all that listening didn’t make much of a dent in the total 21 hours of the book. But I was hooked.
I had to finish before the book was due after the 3-week renewal period allowed. During the last three weeks I spent my lunch hours and afternoon train rides home listening to it. I enjoyed every minute and I finished the day before it was due. This has to be the longest audiobook I’ve every listened to. Initially, I thought the 18 CD’s comprised more than one of the Dune books. But it’s only the first and original Dune. It is split into three sections labeled as “books”. Their names are: “Dune”, “Muad’ib” and “The Prophet”. Most of the text is read by Englishman Simon Vance with other cast members voicing the main characters during particularly dramatic parts of the book. During the less dramatic parts Vance voices the characters. They all do a great job. Scott Brick voices several different characters. Different women with slightly difference voices play the female characters. There’s also some music and sound effects such as the whistle of the desert wind at certain points. The production really makes the story come alive.
The story is a science fiction/fantasy, a coming-of-age, a struggle between subjectively defined good and evil, and so much more. Herbert hasn’t just thought up new worlds and technologies but also new political systems, class structures, cultures, religions, social norms and mores, and economies of the universe. Good and evil are not so clearly defined with different players all having their own different hidden agendas, sometimes stretching back generations. There are many powerful-sounding futuristic names such as the feuding families the Atreides and the Harkennons; the planet Arrakis, also called Dune, where most of the story takes place; the characters Stilgar, Feyd-Rautha, Chani, and Piter Devries; and the Sardaukar, the feared imperial soldiers. An imperial princess has the name Irulan, the same name as one of the participants of the TV show The Real World: Las Vegas, I believe. There are advanced weapons and vehicles such as Laseguns and Ornithopters. There also traditional weapons called crysknives. (Interestingly, one of the Weapons of Moroland is also called “Kris”.) Among these new names are some familiar ones: the duke’s heir, Paul Atriedes and his mother Jessica. Some plants on Arrakis are the same as the ones in Earth’s deserts such as saguaro and creosote.
Herbert doesn’t always explain everything that is going on or various aspects of the culture and reality of Dune that differ from what the reader is used to. It’s as if he trusts the reader to figure it out on their own. Some things are first introduced and explained later. Others are slightly explained over the course of the book. Rather than turn me off the lack of explanation made me want to keep reading and learn more. There are the Bene Gesserit, schools for women that train them “to serve”, yet the women have the intuition to see through any deceit, abilities to calm down in the face of fear, and even powers of persuasion. At the other end is the mythical Space Guild with their monopoly on space travel. On Arrakis are the Fremen, the elusive desert people for whom water is precious to the point of being used as currency. From the book I learned that a man requires 10 liters of water per day while a palm tree requires 40 liters making it a thing of great luxury. Much is explained by the end, though not all. It’s a bit like living in a different country or culture. Initially everything is new and nothing is explained, but after a while, you learn the culture.
There’s a lot of foreshadowing in Dune. A word I came to know well was prescience, the knowledge of things or events before they occur. There’s much discussion of destiny and purpose. Still, not everything is predictable and, though the story in general unfolds as expected, many details are surprising and this keeps things interesting. Every scene of the novel is important to the story. There is no filler or digression. Each scene is usually a different setting and situation with different characters. The book is also paced well, spanning several years in the lives of the characters yet not seeming too long. There was always more I wanted to know and the action is gripping enough that I couldn’t help but keep on listening.
Dune is one of the best science fiction/fantasy books I’ve read. It ranks up there with Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy. But Dune isn’t just good sci-fi but also good writing, good character development, and what an imagination! I read that Frank Herbert got the idea for Dune from seeing the sand dunes outside Florence, Oregon. Some say that Dune has themes of environmentalism and religious fundamentalism. But to me it’s just a great story and I’ll never underestimate the audiobook selection at the Covina Public Library again.
I had all but forgotten about Dune when I noticed it in the audiobook section of the Covina Public Library in early 2009. As I said it is read by an entire cast. The cast includes Scott Brick, a famous reader of science fiction audiobooks. I’ve listened to Isaac Asimov’s I Robot and Second Foundation read by Brick. This Dune audiobook is very long consisting of 18 CD’s and totaling about 21 hours of listening. I usually only listen to audiobooks while folding clothes, doing tedious chores, and driving long distances alone. I didn’t think I would be doing enough of those activities to complete a 21-hour audiobook in the 3-week checkout period and 3-week renewal period. But then we decided to go to Las Vegas with Mom and Dad (my in-laws). They would be driving so I wouldn’t have total control of when we stopped. I figured a long, compelling audiobook such as Dune would distract me from any reason that I might need to stop. Well, other than having to compete with the radio and their CD’s, the plan worked perfectly. The car trip to and from Vegas just fly by and the drive through the desert was consistent with the desert planet setting of the book. Still, even all that listening didn’t make much of a dent in the total 21 hours of the book. But I was hooked.
I had to finish before the book was due after the 3-week renewal period allowed. During the last three weeks I spent my lunch hours and afternoon train rides home listening to it. I enjoyed every minute and I finished the day before it was due. This has to be the longest audiobook I’ve every listened to. Initially, I thought the 18 CD’s comprised more than one of the Dune books. But it’s only the first and original Dune. It is split into three sections labeled as “books”. Their names are: “Dune”, “Muad’ib” and “The Prophet”. Most of the text is read by Englishman Simon Vance with other cast members voicing the main characters during particularly dramatic parts of the book. During the less dramatic parts Vance voices the characters. They all do a great job. Scott Brick voices several different characters. Different women with slightly difference voices play the female characters. There’s also some music and sound effects such as the whistle of the desert wind at certain points. The production really makes the story come alive.
The story is a science fiction/fantasy, a coming-of-age, a struggle between subjectively defined good and evil, and so much more. Herbert hasn’t just thought up new worlds and technologies but also new political systems, class structures, cultures, religions, social norms and mores, and economies of the universe. Good and evil are not so clearly defined with different players all having their own different hidden agendas, sometimes stretching back generations. There are many powerful-sounding futuristic names such as the feuding families the Atreides and the Harkennons; the planet Arrakis, also called Dune, where most of the story takes place; the characters Stilgar, Feyd-Rautha, Chani, and Piter Devries; and the Sardaukar, the feared imperial soldiers. An imperial princess has the name Irulan, the same name as one of the participants of the TV show The Real World: Las Vegas, I believe. There are advanced weapons and vehicles such as Laseguns and Ornithopters. There also traditional weapons called crysknives. (Interestingly, one of the Weapons of Moroland is also called “Kris”.) Among these new names are some familiar ones: the duke’s heir, Paul Atriedes and his mother Jessica. Some plants on Arrakis are the same as the ones in Earth’s deserts such as saguaro and creosote.
Herbert doesn’t always explain everything that is going on or various aspects of the culture and reality of Dune that differ from what the reader is used to. It’s as if he trusts the reader to figure it out on their own. Some things are first introduced and explained later. Others are slightly explained over the course of the book. Rather than turn me off the lack of explanation made me want to keep reading and learn more. There are the Bene Gesserit, schools for women that train them “to serve”, yet the women have the intuition to see through any deceit, abilities to calm down in the face of fear, and even powers of persuasion. At the other end is the mythical Space Guild with their monopoly on space travel. On Arrakis are the Fremen, the elusive desert people for whom water is precious to the point of being used as currency. From the book I learned that a man requires 10 liters of water per day while a palm tree requires 40 liters making it a thing of great luxury. Much is explained by the end, though not all. It’s a bit like living in a different country or culture. Initially everything is new and nothing is explained, but after a while, you learn the culture.
There’s a lot of foreshadowing in Dune. A word I came to know well was prescience, the knowledge of things or events before they occur. There’s much discussion of destiny and purpose. Still, not everything is predictable and, though the story in general unfolds as expected, many details are surprising and this keeps things interesting. Every scene of the novel is important to the story. There is no filler or digression. Each scene is usually a different setting and situation with different characters. The book is also paced well, spanning several years in the lives of the characters yet not seeming too long. There was always more I wanted to know and the action is gripping enough that I couldn’t help but keep on listening.
Dune is one of the best science fiction/fantasy books I’ve read. It ranks up there with Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy. But Dune isn’t just good sci-fi but also good writing, good character development, and what an imagination! I read that Frank Herbert got the idea for Dune from seeing the sand dunes outside Florence, Oregon. Some say that Dune has themes of environmentalism and religious fundamentalism. But to me it’s just a great story and I’ll never underestimate the audiobook selection at the Covina Public Library again.
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