Book Swap: My Thoughts On "Dune"

What I Liked

Reading Dune didn't feel like I was reading a book that was written decades ago. The major themes of the book are still relevant to today, particularly the environmental ones. I was most surprised at the dominance of woman characters in the book--Jessica is a strong character, both in personality and in status. I was also surprised by the nontraditional relationships between men and women shown in the book, particularly that of the Duke and Jessica. Because this was written in a time period where for many women, marriage was preferable to having a career (can you tell I've been watching "Mad Men" lately?), this really surprised me.

I also liked the character development--it seemed like there were a lot of characters, but there was always the opportunity to understand their motives, their inner thoughts, and their relationships with the other characters.

What I Didn't Like

I have to say that Dune was very hard for me to get into. I had actually already started reading Dune on our plane trip back from Europe, and just couldn't connect with the story. I also put off starting it again for the book swap--Nathan finished Gone With The Wind at least a month and a half ago, and I just finished Dune recently. However, once the action got started, I couldn't put it down.

Oh, and the Baron really creepd me out.

A Different Perspective

I think the only science fiction book I have ever read is A Wrinkle In Time. The main reason I don't read science fiction is that I have a bad imagination. I imagine practical things, so taking me out of reality and putting me in a world where I have to imagine planets and places and a completely different life is hard for me. Also, I don't understand why techonolgy we have now is not available in the future. (Though Nathan informed me that they explain this further in the later books.) Thus, Dune really took me out of my comfort zone. But once I was able to stretch my imagination, I found I really enjoyed the story.