I absolutely love the dune books but the writing is so hard to get through due to many, many issues.
In my opinion, the story of the dune books is genuinely profound but frank herbert messes up the execution on many levels
Also minor spoilers for the first two books and like a 1/4 of the second book.
My first problem with dune’s writing is the fact that everyone talks in parables and examples without ever stating anything. And literally nothing they say actually makes sense. It just makes you wonder why frank herbert just didn’t write it in a more simple way. If it’s to sound philosophical, it doesn’t make sense because characters talk normally half the time. It just makes zero sense when characters switch between talking like normal people in one line, then talk like a robot the next.
My second issue is that everyone talks the same. This sort of relates to my previous point of how everyone talks through parables. There is no personality in any of the dialogue and by extension, no way to tell who is talking if it isn’t mentioned.
I will give a quote from the second book. I won’t say who is saying it and I challenge anyone to guess who is speaking without looking at the book.
“You can’t stop a mental epidemic. It leaps from person to person across parsecs. It’s overwhelmingly contagious. It strikes at the unprotected side, in the place where we lodge the fragments of other such plagues. Who can stop such a thing?”
My third issue is how frank herbert keeps forgetting about the rule of show don’t tell. While it’s not required to follow this rule, it makes the reader think that the author had no faith in them. For example, throughout the second book, we are constantly told about the troubles of having futuresight; how Paul is stricken with a weight on his shoulders to choose the best path for humanity. Now anyone reading this would be like ‘damn. I wouldn’t want that. Sucks to be him. He’s got a pretty big load on his shoulders.’ But frank Herbert constantly tells us throughout the book that Paul is stricken with ‘terrible purpose’ he says it at least 30 times in the book. If it’s mentioned once or twice, then it’s ok. But when it’s mentioned in every chapter with Paul, it makes you wonder if the author thinks you’re dumb or something. It also contrasts with the parables that the characters speak in because they are so incredibly complex and it’s weird when in one line, the author doesn’t have faith in you and in the next, expects you to understand philosophy filled with made up words.
Also the pacing of these books is atrocious.
I genuinely believe the dune saga is an amazing story but the prose and writing almost ruin it for me
by Feisty-Treacle3451