WARNING! This review is meant for folks who have already read Dune and thus is replete with spoilers. Since the book gives its own spoilers as part of the literary style, this is less of an issue than you might think, but you should probably still avoid reading if you plan to read Dune in the future.
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While I very much enjoyed Dune by Frank Herbert, most of the parts of the story-universe that I found most interesting were the parts he alludes to and never explores. He implies a massive plot by the Bene Gesserit to seed "prophesies" on various worlds for later use. Are these prophesies "real" - some kind of non-human source, or "fake" - fabricated by the Bene Gesserit entirely for their own purposes? He mentions that before "the Great Revolt" there were machines that mimicked human minds but never brings up the topic again. The reader glimpses the results of "Imperial conditioning" and "Bene Gesserit training", but next to nothing of the methods. He suggests that there might be two kinds of human-shaped creatures - a human variety and an animal variety, but only deals with the concept in one scene. The story he does tell is reasonably interesting, but it almost disappoints in contrast with the promise of the stories he doesn't tell. I can only hope that more is illuminated in the sequels.
Herbert has what I consider to be a very annoying habit of telling the reader what is going to happen in the story. It puts me in mind of the titles of books chapters in older books, things like "Chapter Three In Which Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle". You know before you start the chapter that no woozle will be caught. Herbert does this in the form of prophesies made early on by characters and by chapter-beginning excerpts from the history books of the story's future. The Reverend Mother foretold that Paul's father would die soon, and I was unable to connect to the character as I anticipated his imminent demise. She foretold that Paul would be the Kwisatz Haderach, and I waited bored as he grew into that role. In my opinion, clear/obvious prophesies as a literary device are to be avoided. I enjoy a good cryptic prophesy. I enjoy a prophesy that the hero manages to subvert through clever means. I do not enjoy being told what unfortunate event will occur and then waiting for the shoe to drop.
Flaws aside, the book contained a number of beautiful and interesting ideas. I was fascinated by the concept of terra-forming a desert planet through a generations-long process of collecting water and gradually introducing plant life, starting with the hardiest desert scrub, that would slowly enable more and more varieties of plant and animal life. I enjoyed the idea of a group rides on the massive sandworms and loved the rational behind how they are controlled.
I was impressed by the eloquence of a number of ideas about leadership, individuality, and religion. I particularly enjoyed "A leader, you see, is one of the things that distinguishes a mob from a people. He maintains the level of individuals. Too few individuals, and a people reverts to a mob." and "Give as few orders as possible...Once you've given an order on a subject, you must always give orders on that subject." and "When law and duty are one, united by religion, you never become fully conscious, fully aware of yourself. You are always a little less than an individual."
Naturally I can't neglect to mention the famous "Fear is the mind-killer." (This was intoned to me in a deep, serious voice by a complete stranger who saw me reading the book at work). It resonated with "Fear cuts deeper than swords", a line from A Game of Thrones which I keep on my wall at work. But the greatest impact for me came from "You cannot back into the future." The future must be dreamt of, planned for, and faced head-on, whether you can see into it like Paul or not.
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