Dune by Frank Herbert

I can't say if I liked the movie or the book better. I fell asleep during the first (new) movie and I'm just meh about the book.

I don't know, the story was fine. It's grand in scope, literally spanning the universe, but dealing mostly with one planet, the sand planet of Arrakis, inhabited by the Fremen and spaceship eating sandworms that produce something called, spice, which is necessary for interplanetary travel. Herbert writes about the struggle for power over Arrakis between two powerful families, the Harkonnens and the Atraeides while also throwing in corporate interests, the emporer's military force (the Sardaukar), and a quasi-religious order called the Bene Gesserit.

I enjoyed the chapters more that were about the Harkonnens. They just seem like the more dysfunctional, interesting family. There's more intrigue and plotting and dinner parties. When we are on Arrakis with Paul and Jessica, who are Atraeides, it's dust and worms and honor killings and spitting. And the obsession with water! I get it, but I just got sick of the "giving water to the dead" and "taking their water" and the nose plugs. I just can't with the nose plugs.

I will say, I feel there was a real missed opportunity to come up with various terms for sand. On a planet where everything is so dry and sandy, shouldn't there be a multitude of terms for the various iterations of sand? Like how Inuits have dozens of terms for ice? Shame.

And what's with the names? You have some great names like the Harkonnens and the Atreides, and Arrakis. These are names I've never heard before. They help take me out of normal life and bring me to this new society and world order, but then you have Paul and Jessica for your two main characters. Like what? That douchey guy I met back in college and one of the Sweet Valley twins? C'mon. That's just lazy naming. I don't get it.

And I'm hoping I'm premature with this, since there are a multitude of books after this one, but why, in an ancient, mysterious, mystical sisterhood, which prophesies a chosen one, would it end up being a dude...named Paul? There's already a whole savior complex vibe going on with the outsiders coming into the native population and saving them, so it's really rubbing dirt/sand/spice into the wound when Paul is the apparent savior and not his female relatives. But as this article points out, that might be the reaction Herbert intended. 

Maybe I'm just nitpicking here. I didn't hate it. And it sounds like subsequent books further explore the issues and pitfalls of Paul's rise to power. While overall, I think there are a lot of interesting ideas worth talking about, I'm not ready for a long-term commitment to this series. I might just try the second movie instead - but I don't care what you think about Timothee Chalamet, he still looks gross with the nose plugs.