"To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as recent and unknown to me, books which I had read carefully a few years before . . . I have adopted the habit for some time now of adding at the end of each book . . . the time I finished reading it and the judgment I have derived of it as a whole, so that this may represent to me at least the sense and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it." (Montaigne, Book II, Essay 10 (publ. 1580))

Monday, March 28, 2022

Dune (Frank Herbert, 1965)

(494 pages)

This volume included the entire trilogy (the three books flowing from one to the next without interruption).

I found this pretty much a joy to read.  Imaginative is an understatement.  So much detail - the reader can almost believe in the existence of these imagined places.

Leaving home planet - green - for the desert planet of Arrakis (known as Dune).  Under iffy circumstances.

Desert dwellers (Fremen) at the margins of society on Arrakis.  Their religious beliefs, extending all the way to a well-watered paradise.  Their technology for preserving water (all the way to stillsuits).  Dealing with sandworms.  And the spice.  

The Duke and his consort, Lady Jessica (Bene Gesserit); their son Paul (Maud'Dib)).

Baron Harkonnen and his son (Feyd-Rautha).

Stilgar - Fremen leader.  His daughter - Chani.

The Emperor and his Sardaukar.

Smugglers.  Henchmen or brave fighters (helping bad guys or good guys, respectively).

And plenty of other characters.

I haven't checked how this ties into the Star Wars movies - but there's a lot of overlap.  Which of course is just fine.  Book form is quite excellent, and plenty of good spots in the movies as well.

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