Too clever -- too boring! (Dune - Frank Herbert)

Name: justinneville

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Product:	Dune - Frank Herbert
Date:	31/05/01 (60 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: accessible length

Disadvantages: Too clever, Unsympathetic characters

As a weathered fan of sci-fi and fantasy novels, I had long thought it was disgraceful I had never read Frank Herbert's Dune novels, so about six months ago I bought Dune.

One thing is for certain: the man was a genius, with an unbelievable grasp of the human psyche and its possibilities. The minute you start reading this book, you know it's like nothing you've ever read before and you stand in awe of the creative enterprise behind its production.

Most sci-fi/fantasy writers create new worlds, social orders, political systems, different creatures etc., but few can have done this to the degree of mindblowing sophistication as Herbert. Every line of this novel shouts out to the reader: "I am such a clever author! Who else could have devised such a world, such thoughts.." and for the first fifty pages or so, the reader is carried along on the forces of admiration and amazement...

But then it just goes on like that. Other writers in the genre break you in gently, explaining their creations bit by bit, not throwing everything at you all at once and not letting up.

But with Herbert it is all such hard work to keep going. I have no objection to a reader's mind being required to do some work (in fact most fantasy writers seem to cater for the lowest common denominator), but you've got build in an enjoyment factor at some point and (here's the punch) SYMPATHETIC CHARACTERS.

Obviously, the books' longstanding popularity and legions of fans mean that many readers have enjoyed them immensely, but I personally found it too clever by half, and too boring to persevere with. Some nice secondhand book shop will be benefiting from my copy of Dune, but to anyone who's thinking of purchasing it, I would ask the question: "Do you want to read a book about characters/situations you have a reasonable chance of understanding and sympathising with, or do you want to do your head in and made to fee
l like an idiot when you know you're not?"

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