An advanced read to be sure, but worth it. All the otherworldly politics may be a bit difficult to navigate, but once you get the hang of it hold onto your hats, 'cause it's a wild ride!

As someone who loves Sci-Fi, I really wanted to like this, but man, I hated it. The entire book is incredibly sexist (the plot depends on an all-female eugenics cult who is selectively breeding the ubermensch, who of course, must be male because only males can overcome the deep set genetic division ingrained in men and women), has weird white savior overtones (much of the "made-up" words are just derivations of Arabic--the heroes are clearly Greek, the villains Russian, and the "noble savages" (who may or may not depart on a course of intergalactic jihad, wow) are Arabic), and has some questionable undertones conflating homosexuality with evil and pedophilia to boot. And besides all that, frankly, the writing is not great.

It is hard to believe the Left Hand of Darkness was written a mere four years after Dune, and yet Dune is the book considered to be part of the "canon" which people are just wild about.

It is a monumental work of timeless imagination. I could predict this book would be read 100 years from now and those reader would feel it is written for there time. No SF author has surpassed what Frank Herbet did. Human psychology is presented in all it's forms the treachery, bravery, cruelty etc.

read it many times, and I'm currently 15. An awesome book followed by awesome sequels.

Not only does Dune provide an entirely new universe, but it reveals it in a way that is not overwhelming or tedious for the reader. Frank Herbert is a master of interlacing character development, story arc, and setting in a way that is palatable to even the pickiest of readers. And the setting is as important to the book as the dialogue and plot. At the end of the book, the reader is left with a real sense of nostalgia for the fictional planet Arrakis.

Many commenters just love this book. I enjoyed it but I don't think it deserves the high praise it often receives. It is often compared to LOTR but I think it pales in comparison. Middle Earth is a far more immersive world and LOTR a far more engaging story.

I know that my children and my children's children will read this book and they will feel as it was written not so long ago. Frank Herbert created a timeless universe and characters so detailed and so profound that you would never guess they came out from someones mind. Without a doubt the best sci fi novel I've read so far, every page of the 885 pages was worth reading and letting myself dive into the vast desert of Dune.

Published in 1965, "Dune" is a prescient warning about environmental degradation, artificial intelligence and messianic political figures - dangers we are all faced with today.

Epic masterpiece 420

Dune, the first novel of Herbert’s series, is the best-selling science fiction novel of all time. Dune is set more than 21,000 years in the future. Mankind has colonized the galaxy, creating highly advanced technologies—spaceships, glowglobes, ornithopters, lasguns, protective energy shields, etc. Entire planets, such as Ix and Richese, are devoted to advancing technological civilization.