SPOILER ALERT
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
– Litany Against Fear, Bene Gesserit
Tell me, what is the first thing you think of when you think of the most epic mythical sagas ever written? The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Ben-Hur? Whatever your preference, it goes without saying that they became some of the most renowned works of storytelling ever unleashed, with engaging characters, compelling world-building, a massive scope that overwhelms in a good way - whereas, personally, I find that of Game of Thrones questionable - and perilous stakes that only make both the journeys taken throughout these adventures and the heroes’ possible victories more worth it.
I’ll admit that I was more familiar with Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Still, I gradually became aware of some of the other epic sagas that either graced the silver screen, embraced the small screen, or were published first and dazzled audiences in equal measure, like those I mentioned.
I bring this up because I decided to explore one such hero’s journey that I have never been acquainted with until now. What I thought would’ve felt like something right out of Star Wars instead ended up being utterly separate from what I anticipated it to be. The saga I speak of is an imaginative sci-fi saga entitled Dune, written by Frank Herbert and whose first volume, which is the focus here, was published in 1965.
What’s the story? It’s pretty complex, so I’ll try to explain it to you as I go. Set in the distant future, not unlike Star Trek, a royal family, the Atreides, had to flee from their home on Caladan to settle on a desert planet called Arrakis, or Dune. The reason for that is that the Atreides were ordered to do so by the Padishah Emperor, Shaddam IV, who demanded control of the planet Arrakis to be overseen by House Atreides as successors of its former occupant, House Harkonnen. In addition, this went through as part of renegotiations issued under the Spacing Guild, which oversees the development of intergalactic planets.
And what was one of the main drives for the Atreides to inhabit the planet? It was to harvest one of the most renowned spices grown exclusively on Arrakis, the Melange. It was said that anyone who accesses this spice could look inward to themselves and be granted a longer-lasting life.
But because this was arranged at the expense of the Harkonnens’ priorities with the Melange, this drew the ire of some of the Harkonnens involved, including Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and his nephew, Feyd-Rautha.
Shortly after the Atreides settled in Arrakis’ central city, Arakeen, the political hostilities between the Atreides and the Harkonnens started coming to a boil, and soon, the Harkonnens, including their highly trained and fearsome soldiers, the Sardaukar, invaded their home in an attempt to capture them.
After being ambushed, and after Duke Leto was slain, his wife/concubine, Jessica, and their son, Paul, traveled across the deserts of Arrakis to flee the Harkonnens before they could’ve tracked them down. Along the way, they ran into a rogue band of native people called the Fremen, famous for having completely blue eyes, after being mistaken by them for intruders. Paul and Jessica slowly but surely became accepted into their tribe, especially as allowed by one of their leaders, a young girl named Chani, who Paul had recognized even before meeting her.
What happened was that before he moved with his family to Arrakis, Paul experienced dreams he had of a mysterious girl he allegedly knew. As Paul relayed to the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, he remembered meeting her in a cavern where it was dripping water. To Mohiam, these prophecies hinted that he could be more than just an Atreides heir; he could’ve been a future leader prophesied as the Kwisatz Haderach, who could be in many places all at once.
However, as Paul and his fellow tribe members started mastering the tactics of life in the Arrakeen deserts, Paul began to develop his reputation among his Fremen tribe as he became knighted by them as Muad’dib – the progression of which pushed him closer to living up to his potential as the Kwisatz Haderach – when he started attracting the attention of Baron Vladimir and the fellow Sardaukar who’ve been looking for him, and whose elder nephew, Rabban, had invaded Arrakeen in their quests to harvest the Melange. So, after spending a few years apart with the Atreides in hiding and the Harkonnens searching for them, what would become of them once the Harkonnens noticed the Atreides in hiding and once Paul was ready to confront them again?
I’ll be frank – no, not that kind of Frank - I was a Star Wars aficionado before stumbling into this saga, and I can already think of many things about Dune that separated it as a saga from Star Wars.
For starters, the Empire was not a malevolent force, even though a good portion of it was, and it only functioned differently from how the Empire operated in Star Wars, for it functioned with Houses throughout the galaxy and not just several planets. And obviously, House Atreides iwa among the families partaking under the Imperial regime, even if their long-held feuds against the Harkonnens caused them to butt heads and retaliate on more than plenty of occasions.
On top of that, the characters are truly mesmerizing.
At first, I feared that Paul Atreides would be just a standard guy with some high nobility and a sense of royalty, which he did have. But as he was further used to Arrakis’ desert conditions and his place among the Fremen tribe he and his mother ran into, he started to try to grasp all that was thrown at his way as he attempted to work off them and gradually grew into the fabled Kwisatz Haderach. I especially like how he was overwhelmed by what his exposure to the Melange allowed him to see and how many secrets he’s willing to spill out because of that.
Also, as he got more comfortable in his position amongst the Fremen and on Arrakis, there’s a part of him that reminded me a little bit of Michael Corleone, what with him starting as an average human being before his exposures to some of the drastic forces outside gradually shaped him up into a fearful leader willing to take advantage of his position in power to exercise what others deem as either questionable or unheard of. The biggest difference is whereas Michael Corleone did what he did to maintain power, Paul used his position in power to make things better.
I looked at Lady Jessica thinking she was just a standard mother figure, with her having to watch over her son as he attempted his every move and be on his side whenever they avoided the Harkonnens. Or so I thought. What I like about her is her religious background, in which case she was a member of a mystical group called the Bene Gesserit, a secret group of sorceresses and witches who followed a designated order to ensure strength and possible etiquette in the face of unimaginable danger. They’re also famous for concocting secret methods of inbreeding their members to find themselves the perfect acolyte who’d uphold their values and bring semblance and peace to the galaxy and Houses, even though it may potentially have been in the form of Paul Atreides, a son instead of a daughter as they hoped for, nay almost demanded.
Another element of Lady Jessica that felt most interesting was watching how she adjusted to Arrakis’ culture and environment. For most of the novel, she lamented how she missed her home planet of Caladan, generally known for its moisture and lush lands. Plus, going from being a high-ranking official as a Bene Gesserit member to having to live off the Arrakeen deserts and among the Fremen tested her capabilities as both Paul’s mother and as a human being.
Speaking of daughters, while she was not as involved in the book as I hoped she would’ve been, Jessica’s daughter and Paul’s younger sister, Alia, took me entirely by surprise. She did not see or do much, but her sense of articulacy and thought processing was quite staggering for someone who was two years old and, later, four. She was well-spoken, aware of the circumstances going on around her, and without giving anything away, let’s say that she played an impressively substantial role in retaliating against the Harkonnens to help in her brother’s fights against them, which I would never have seen coming.
The novel’s villain, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, felt like a generally underwhelming villain. Still, one thing I remember that helped him stand out was his outward appearance, with him being an immensely fat man sustained by protruding tubes and wires coming out of his back, which guaranteed that he would’ve stayed alive through artificial means. That kind of method of presenting this villain reminds me a little bit of Dr. Octopus from the Spider-Man movies, only in this case, it seems more like it was functional for medical rather than mechanical means. Plus, his generally black-hearted instincts mixed with his political know-how and brain-over-brawn measures helped add enough interest to him to keep me hooked.
As for his younger nephew, Feyd-Rautha? At first, it seemed like he was disinterested in his uncle’s political shenanigans as far as the Harkonnens were concerned. But at the same time, he expressed some interest to want to uphold his uncle’s position in power and desired to act on it. Yet, there was also a part of Feyd that felt unsure of the pursuits in which to maintain and exercise their position in power over others, to a point where they started to conflict with his borderline conscience. For example, in his battle in a colosseum against a Gladiator, an Atreides warrior, he exercised his brutality against this poor soldier. At other times during the fight, he felt some inner shred of remorse for his opponent as he downed him.
I looked at this thinking of it as an intriguing character study of Feyd when comparing it to Paul’s methods of entering the Fremen tribe when he faced off with a man named Jamis at his request. Not only that, but Paul Atreides cried over the death of his opponent, which, to the Fremen, was a big deal because that meant he was giving his water to the deceased. And the Fremen were known to usually harvest the water of those who’ve passed on, even their members. So, watching these two back-to-back, down to their fights and how they reacted to them, made them look like solid polar opposites who seemed destined to face each other off in the climactic battle.
The tribe’s leader, Chani, generally felt like a quick-witted, sharp, but generally uninvolved lady who ironically provided the lion’s share of how to live in the Fremen ways, especially since the environment on which they thrived was all desert. For all the little involvement she expressed throughout her time in the story, I still admire how she taught people like Paul and Jessica how to live off the deserts and preserve the moisture of those who have passed on before them.
I also find most memorable some of the men who followed Duke Leto when he was alive but also tutored Paul in ways that were separate from how Jessica raised him under her Bene Gesserit ways.
What I mean is that while Jessica taught Paul to abide under the tactics under which she grew up, men like Duncan Idaho and Gurney Halleck trained Paul to defend himself when and if he was to engage himself in the battlefield, especially since he was to replace his father as the Duke of House Atreidies one day. But between these two, I find Gurney most memorable for several reasons. One, he was quick and ready to engage in the battlefield if he had to. Two, he was shown as being very close to Duke Leto and Lady Jessica. And three, he was a prolific player of the baliset, a stringed instrument, thus conveying more of an artistic vibe, and not just a battle-ready, bloodthirsty angle, out of him.
Duke Leto, Paul’s father, was a refreshingly unpredictable figure who seemingly did not care enough about Paul to see his best interests at heart. However, what I remember the most about him is how his actions seemed neglectful or distrustful but were actually exercised to prepare his friends and family for something unwelcome, and in advance, so they’d make it out unharmed. Of course, because he was generally cryptic about his commands, it resulted in massive misinterpretations from some of his allies, including Gurney Halleck and one of his followers, a Mentat named Thufir Hawat.
Thufir Hawat swore revenge upon Jessica because Leto told him that Jessica was the possible betrayer when that was one of Leto’s other allies, Dr. Wellington Yueh. It also affected Gurney Halleck, who swore to slay Jessica because of what Duke Leto told him. Thankfully, it took Paul stepping in when he was about to do so so he could talk some sense into Halleck and clue him in on why Leto told him what he advised him about Jessica, as Paul was.
That kind of intrigue was most riveting and one of the main reasons I was drawn enough into the characters to want to see what would’ve happened throughout the story’s run.
However, there have been some characters throughout the story that I couldn’t help but wish had been given a little more time to develop throughout the novel, like the book could have used another two or 300 pages worth of story to add more context and detail for them. And I mean, compared to Alia.
The first character involves Glossu Rabban, Feyd-Rautha’s older brother, and Baron’s older nephew. Unlike Feyd, he was wholly committed to wanting to pursue power in the name of the Baron. Once ordered to do so, he proved himself to be a force to be reckoned with, laying waste to Arrakeen and many other locales throughout Arrakis upon landing there. It left him to be infamously nicknamed the ‘Beast.’ However, his drive to pursue power ended up being his undoing since the Baron suspected him of foul play and denied him more troops to invade Arrakis with.
But what astounds me even more is how he turned out to have died in the battles that ensued on Arrakis, and that was exposed to us only through casual conversation. I was not expecting that for someone built up to be a massive threat on Arrakis. I hoped there might’ve been more storytelling and writing devoted to him and his rule and pursuits for power on Arrakis. It would’ve been nice to see what kind of ruthless tactics he enacted on Arrakis upon landing there and how similar or different they were from the Baron’s ideas of ruling. I would’ve been interested to see more of that.
Also, while my mind is still fresh on Paul’s younger sister, Alia, I want to focus on Paul and Chani’s firstborn son, Leto II. In the few times he was mentioned in the novel, he seemed like a regular kid who frolicked about outside of being named after Paul’s father before him. I looked at it like it was a big deal since Paul became a father just a mere year or two after marrying Chani upon his assimilation into the Fremen tribe. But then, near the end of the novel, when the Sardaukar captured Chani, Lady Jessica, and some of the Fremen troops, some radio readings heard through the Fremen war radio expressed garbled audio readings referring to Paul’s son. Even though it was mainly static, and even though Gurney Halleck said to Paul that it could have meant something else entirely, Paul suspected that Leto II had been killed by the Sardaukar as Chani and Jessica were captured. Even Alia, who was a captive herself and forced to confess her brother’s whereabouts to the Padishah Emperor, didn’t want to admit to Paul that Leto II had been killed.
For something as significant as Paul having a firstborn son, I don’t think this was given enough attention as I feel it deserved to have. Much like Rabban’s invasion of Arrakeen, I could see some story potential for Leto II as far as Paul’s ideas of the longevity of the Atreides line were concerned.
Dare I say it, how does this compare to the unborn Ned Stark II from Game of Thrones? Never mind how I thought the setup with Robb and Talisa Stark planning to name the unborn child after Ned Stark – who himself was executed before our eyes earlier in the show – only for all of them to be slaughtered like pigs left and right almost felt too much like the whole setup was there to spit at the idea of hope and prosperity in the face of treachery. It still did a decent job of exposing Rob Stark and Talia as characters and still clued its viewers in long enough on what they planned to do with their unborn son before the unthinkable happened.
Here in Dune, I looked at it and wondered how it would’ve been better exposed because I did not know or care enough about Leto II to have felt entirely brokenhearted over his death. Instead, I felt shocked over his death because I didn’t get to know him that much. Even Avatar: The Way of Water did an excellent job of cluing me in enough on the eldest son, Neteyam, despite not knowing very much about him, to feel appropriately sad when he was gunned down and murdered.
I wish the same were done with Leto II.
The third and other curious part of the book that I was intrigued by concerned a character named Princess Irulan. Every chapter throughout the book was prefaced with a quotation from what appeared to be countless texts, books, and biographies relating to Paul Atreides and his life. Not only did many of them correlate with what happened throughout the novel’s progression, but every single one of the texts from which they originated was written by Princess Irulan herself. It made me wonder how she ever met Paul and what kind of relationship she had with him for her to pen this many texts about him and his accomplishments.
She eventually appeared at the end of the novel but barely had any lines or did anything. Once she made her first appearance, all she did was stand beside her father, the Padishah Emperor, when they apprehended and questioned Alia and later confronted Paul Atreides, along with his mother and cohorts, Chani included. While this all went on, she simply stood by as she watched Feyd-Rautha battle Paul and be slayed by him and watched them negotiate their political arrangements, down to Paul proposing to marry his way into the Imperial title by marrying Princess Irulan, the eldest of the Emperor’s four daughters. Technically, it was a political marriage, and yet Irulan seemed completely on board with it.
I did not expect to run into that kind of revelation with this character, considering how many times I’ve seen quotations concerning Paul written and documented by Princess Irulan herself. I suspect that perhaps she expressed some of her own feelings on the circumstances of the novel beneath my nose more times than I anticipated, for some of her quotations mentioned her experiences with her father concerning them, even if they were exposed as recollections on her part.
Now, I know she may potentially have played a more prominent role in the following books of this series. But I’m critiquing this book as if I had been reading it for the first time when it came out in 1965 without any knowledge of a sequel on the horizon.
These are the only three parts of the story I wish had been dived into more. I can see them adding more fleshed-out angles to the story of Dune and possibly giving it some extra meat on the bone. However, I also occasionally forgot about how the novel tended to jump ahead a couple of years at a time throughout the story, like in between Paul Atreides’ assimilation among the Fremen tribe and his eventual training with Chani’s uncle and right-hand man, Stilgar, to secure himself a sandworm. So, I can’t expect everything in the story to be fleshed out in one go.
I’ll wager that the next few novels would dive deep into characters like Princess Irulan or Leto II, or who knows what else.
However, let’s get to what I believe is one of Dune’s major strong points: the world-building surrounding Arrakis and even the Spacing Guild. The amount of detail poured into them felt overwhelming. They lunged into all the details necessary to make them feel graspable, and the futuristic terms, religions, and ecology scattered throughout made me feel like I was transported into a new world that felt alien and futuristic yet not unlike what we could eventually experience in our universe.
There were still other aspects to it that were much more than I could easily have grasped, though, like the political talks between House Atreides, House Harkonnen, and the Padishaw Emperor’s home, House Corrino. I can tell that there’s a bit of a feud between each family that made them hate each other for countless years, possibly generations, as well.
Even from what little I’ve heard about the planet Caladan after the Atreides family departed it for Arrakis, it was said that they’ve lived in their home, Castle Caladan, for 26 generations. So that tells me that there’s a lot of history to it and possibly the planet. Parts of it remind me a little bit of Alderaan in the Star Wars mythos, with its lush green forestry and philosophical aspects.
But besides the world-building, another two aspects of the story that I find most staggering are both the ecology and religions of Arrakis.
The edition I read went as far as to throw in a couple of appendixes, each highlighting those portions of Arrakis in greater detail and historical relevance. Every time I dived into the religious essences of Dune, the story, or Arrakis, I was always intrigued because I knew this was a different religious practice from those we uphold today. For instance, how different is the Orange Catholic Bible from the Holy Bible in our time?
One detail from this source I found most astounding is that, in this story, machines and robots operated to function like man became a thing of the past instead. In fact, it was abolished after it was practiced for who knows how long. As the Orange Catholic Bible put it:
Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a man’s mind.
This was among the details scattered in Dune that set it apart it from most other sci-fi tales, especially those set in the future. Usually, in those stories, like Blade Runner, A.I., and Ex Machina, humanity and machinery would’ve coexisted, for the machinery had been developed enough to cooperate with them, if not attempt to rule them. But here, the characters used to do that but came to rely on human productivity instead, a tactic which I find most admirable.
Also, several of the terminologies scattered and referenced throughout Arrakis and the Fremen tribe carry many Arabic origins. And there’s something about the desert setting that only reinforced that likeness as I adjusted myself to them throughout the story.
Plus, at the end of the book, even though it looked like Paul was ditching Chani for Princess Irulan in marriage, it turns out that this is tying a bit back to some of the customs exclusive in the Islam religion and how men can have more than one wife. Jessica and Chani even believed that perhaps they would have been viewed by history as concubines, or rather as another few of Paul’s wives, even though Jessica feared watching Paul go through that since that’s the same thing Leto did, as he did with Jessica when he was alive.
Meanwhile, the general Fremen culture seemed inspired by the many Native American folklore and legends that transpired through the past several centuries here in America. I can feel a good portion of it reflected among the Fremen. Even Chani’s teachings of the Fremen ways to Paul when he and Jessica first laid foot among their grounds reminds me of how the Natives would’ve guided newcomers in their ways, such as what I’ve seen through John Smith with Pocahontas or Jake Sully with Avatar. Even though it was not dived in too much, I felt the same teachings dispersed here in the story.
And let’s not forget the famous spice, the Melange.
Underneath its cinnamon-like scents, I found the Melange wondrous for its potential and effect on those who harvested and got off it. Among other things, as Paul Atreides found out when wandering through the Arrakeen deserts with his mother, the Melange heightened his awareness of everything going on around him right down to who his ancestors were, even though that was among the few aspects that were not supposed to be told to anyone who was bred as part of the Bene Gesserit committee. Plus, I liked watching Paul grapple with this newfound awareness as he was unsure how to take it in and how much of it he felt comfortable revealing to his mother or closest allies.
When Jessica was given the Melange to eat as part of her acceptance into the Fremen tribe, part of the fantastical images she experienced in her head stemmed from her time in the Bene Gesserit school. As I felt her experiences, it left me wondering one thing: could the hallucinations and effects of the Melange as a drug carry any resemblances to the psychedelic drug counterculture prevalent throughout America in the 1960s? Primarily since Dune was published at a time when this was the center of attention?
In addition, after Alia was born, she was constantly dismissed as some freak, more likely because she looked and talked differently than the other kids her age did. Because Jessica was still pregnant with her when she was given the Melange to eat, perhaps, whereas Paul and Jessica got the hang of the Melange’s powers through exposure, Alia was born with them instead.
Now, let’s pay attention to the ecological standards of Arrakis, for, as I mentioned, this is but one of the critical aspects of how the worlds of Dune felt so believable.
There’s a lot of talk regarding the wildlife living there and the atmospheric nature in which the characters wandered through the Arrakeen deserts. I felt like I was walking alongside Paul Atreides and his mother through the deserts as I tried to get acquainted with the harsh conditions throughout the deserts, especially since the conditions and the heat were supposed to be in the triple digits. Regularly!
It felt a little weird to think how some of the Arrakeen wildlife, eight times out of 10, were imported from Earth, including desert hawks, kit foxes, and especially the kangaroo mice. I also can’t imagine how animals that we usually find on Earth somehow adapted to the harsh conditions of Arrakis, but even though it seemed slightly unoriginal at first glance, it still helps make the world feel like it’s a world we could find ourselves living in millennia down the line. So, I don’t have that big an issue with it.
However, the primary inhabitant of Arrakis is the feared Sandworm. Known to lurk beneath the Arrakeen deserts, its massive jaws and sudden arrivals shrouded this creature in a fearful light. Yet, it was also viewed in a praiseworthy light because it secreted substances that eventually resulted in the creation of the Melange spice. This biological detail, though applied to a fictitious creature, is why I bought into this world in all its futuristic functionalities.
Also, another aspect of Arrakis that swept me off my feet was how much the natives thrived off the desert conditions on Arrakis. Sometimes, they talked about how careful they were with whatever they ate. Sometimes, I’m trying to remember if they mentioned eating anything, and if so, what and in what careful abundance? But most importantly, they demonstrated the extra measures they took with the moisture they gathered. Whenever they got something related to water, even blood, sweat, or tears, they accumulated the moisture with pride and treated it like it was the most sacred thing they could ever access on Arrakis. Even the non-natives walked into Arrakis wearing stillsuits, which would’ve helped their wearers collect and preserve whatever droplet of moisture they secreted during their treks there.
I felt the characters’ devotion to water on this planet. It had me thinking hard about how people on planet Earth lived in dry climates, whether in the American Southwest or other desert areas like the Sahara or the Gobi Desert. How would they have functioned off where they lived in each designated place? How could they get on by with barely any food or water? How were they able to preserve whatever moisture they could gather? It was then that I finally understood how precious water is as a resource. When accessed in a desert environment, water is instinctively viewed as more valuable than gold. That kind of dedication and exposition of such rituals are fully displayed among the Fremen in Dune.
Thinking about this prompts me to highlight one scene in the book that I remember as feeling beauteous and atmospheric and has lingered deep within me since, specifically in Book II, Chapter 34.
It’s when Paul, Jessica, and the Fremen tribe crept deep into a cave until they finally reached its bottommost portion. They ventured there as part of their funerial commemorations of Jamis, who challenged Paul to a battle and died. Housed inside it was a large pond that collected all the water the Fremen had gathered from those in their tribe who had passed on. That included the water of Jamis, which they dispersed into the pond, similarly to how one scatters the ashes of the deceased. Even with this in mind, and despite the Fremen not daring to touch it, I can’t help but think of the pond as if it’s their personal moisture vault. But there’s just something about the ceremonial aspects of this place and how sacred it is to them. What, on the surface, would’ve looked like an Arrakeen Holy Grail instead functioned as a borderline graveyard. The atmosphere and methods of how they preserved the water in the last place anyone would’ve expected to find water on Arrakis was just mesmerizing and stuck with me long after I read it.
What more could I add to it that no one else had? Dune is just a breathtaking, colossal experience that’ll stay with you long after you read it, regardless. The characters are distinguished. The world-building is ever-increasing. The functionalities are staggering in their believability. As I prepare to watch Denis Villeneuve’s take on this story, I’m becoming a happy camper knowing that there are five more of these glorious books as part of a series only talented authors like Frank Herbert could’ve concocted.
Much like a good, cold drink on a hot day, Dune is guaranteed to replenish your senses and have you relish its every drop.
My Rating
A
Works Cited
Herbert, F., & Schoenherr, J. (1977). Frank Herbert’s Dune Calendar 1978. Berkley.
Herbert, F., Herbert, B., & Griffin, M. (2019). Dune: Deluxe Edition. Ace Books.