> [snip] I added the first four Dune chronicles to my collection because a friend of mine recomended them. Anyway, I only got around to reading the first one and it seemed like there was only the barest trace of a plot. It seemed that Frank Herbert was writing the way I write stories, scene by scene with only a vague idea of how the story would end. Are all the other books like that?
>
> -Susan

I always understood "Dune" to be a veiled geopolitical takeoff on Saudi Arabia that, moreover, cleverly predicted OPEC and the Middle East Oil Crisis of the 1970s. But perhaps I am crediting the late Frank Herbert with far greater visionary powers than others care to give him due.

"Dune" is considered one of the classics of the SF genre, but it is not an easy read. It is a complex tale covering a multitude of things at once. It introduced many original ideas which have since become hackeyed and clichéd insofar as Science Fiction is concerned. Mark Twain once said "A classic is something that everybody wants to have read but nobody wants to read." So, like any seminal classic which is forced to build -- from scratch -- the framework of common understanding for its readers, Dune appears to move very slowly. Once you DO get into it however, it does get much more engrossing. It would not be an exaggeration to say that what The Lord of the Rings did for Fantasy, Dune did for Science Fiction.

Frank Herbert created a world, an interstellar government, religion, language, and a 3000+ year history. What more could you want in terms of vast structural realism? "Vivid" is an inadequate adjective to describe Dune. There are few loose ends within the structure of the plot, which in itself was enough to rivet my attention. In a book written in 1965, there's a degree of depth which still has appeal 30 years later. For ex. the Fremen language is Arabic and Hebrew; the desert people, and the sights and sounds of their cave sietches are described in intimate detail, as are the economics of water farming. Herbert drew on many historical and cultural references to create a memorable mythos, which he told with passion and verve -- even though he did have a tendancy to use characters as mouthpieces for his own philosophical musings. Given that background, Dune is much like Aeneas meets Hamlet meets Muhammad meets Lawrence of Arabia.

But in true epic tradition, I would say that Dune's main theme is about power and control, and the terrifying grandeur that comes from attempting to carve your destiny on the galactic scale. There is a great deal of tension because the the final outcome is uncertain up until the last moments. The "hook" is that you really don't know what's coming next -- and neither does the protagonist, even though he has the ability to see the future! Surprisingly all the various subplotting comes together at the end, with a complete story arch that lets you close the book quite satisfied. Not many books can lay claim to that achievement.

Anyway, when's the last time in recent memory you came across an interstellar empire filled with intricate themes involving political deceit and intrigue... economic trade cartels... religious mysticism and its prophetic version of the Messiah... and a socially symbiotic ecology? Oh, yeah... I believe it was called "The Phantom Menace". :-)

Wolfspirit