Book Club - Dune by Frank Herbert

Book Cover

Despite knowing a lot about Dune due to popular nerd culture and certain board games, we've never really read even the first novel of the series all the way through. Love or hate Dune, it's important enough that people talk about it to this day, and it definitely inspired generations of science fiction authors. Join us in actually reading Dune if you haven't already!

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Iā€™m roughly 70% through Dune and Iā€™m debating finishing. I can respect what Herbert did with all the politics and Laurence of Arabia-ness, but I just want more thopters and sand worms and space guildā€¦ I guess Iā€™m just a simple Star Wars boy at heart.

I remember part 3 (of the first book) being straight up garbage. And then sort of redeems itself with the ending payoff. I stopped reading a few pages into that section and came back to it several months later.

I just finished part 2. I am literally just about to read the first page of part 3.

This episode didnā€™t make it onto the usual rss feeds (iTunes, feedburner).

Itā€™s not an episode yet.

Ah.

Is it worth combining this and the other Dune thread?

Dune

Itā€™s the book club book of 2017! You want to be read up when the episode drops, right? You need a copy of the book!

Through a fantastic coincidence, one of my favorite youtubers/indie creators and serious business Dune fan Comic Book Girl 19 is putting together a Dune Box for this summer. Whatā€™s in the box?

  • A copy of Dune.
  • Some knickknacks. šŸ¤·
  • #DuneClub ā€” a interactive book club and discussion hosted by CBG19 with weekly assigned reading over 12 weeks this summer!

I read Duneā€”back when I ran out of Wheel of Time at book 3ā€”so that was a while ago. (Lots of interesting parallels, too, both linguistic and thematic.) Dune is weird and complicated and great. If you want a guided group read, then check this out!

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Iā€™m mostly curious to see how my knowledge of that world changes upon actually reading it.

Wheel of Time, I knew literally nothing except that there was a ā€œHeron Bladeā€.

Dune, I know a lot of proper nouns, references, and plot points just due to nerd culture immersion.

Itā€™s been ages since Iā€™ve read Dune, 15 years or more. I know most of my memories of the story come more from the movie & mini series than the books. Iā€™m a bit curious about what Iā€™ve forgotten, and what more nuances I pick up now that Iā€™m much older.

That is kinda cool, maybe Iā€™ll actually kill a tree and try it out. Iā€™ve no idea who CBG19 is but she seems pretty cool.

Sheā€™s a somewhat popular YouTube personality, I only knew of her through a GameGrumps episode that I watched once when I watched GameGrumps regularly.

Last time I tried Dune, I got like a chapter and a half in and became overwhelmed by proper nouns. I promptly closed it and reread some Vonnegut or something. But this time I am bound and determined to get through it! Might try an audiobook this go-around.

I read the first book of Dune, and it was good. I read the second, and it was okay. I read about half of the third, and then gave up, the bullshit just got too dense for me.

I had the same problem with getting overwhelmed. I was constantly checking the appendix. Iā€™d recommend just ignoring them as they get brought up enough in context that you pretty quickly start to understand what they all are. In general I really liked the first half(ish) of the book. The second halfā€¦ not so much. The ending I thought was pretty decent, but I think people who have read it know probably the part that Iā€™m talking about, considering a friend of mine who read it a couple years ago had said he felt the same way about it.

If Dune grabs me this time around, Iā€™ll read the rest of the hexology. Many friends have reiterated that itā€™s only worth reading the Frank Herbert Dune books.

Dune can be a bit of a slog, however if you can get to Heretics and Chapterhouse, you get this startling brand of crazy. Itā€™s like his editors were like ā€œHeā€™s the guy that wrote Duneā€, shrugged, and passed the manuscript to the printer.

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Think of it as Lawrence of Arabia the sci-fi novel.

Think of it as a Gom Jabbar.

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Tomorrowā€™s the last chance for Dune Box from CBG19. The plan is to stream the discussions on Twitch once the books are delivered. #duneclub