It took me almost 30 years to get around to it, but I finally read Dune. Trying to decide now if I will continue on with the sequels (and even that has an internal decision - read just the Frank Herbert sequels, or go and read all the stuff his son did as well) or just get on with my reading list of other authors (some Charles Stross, Neil Gaiman, and the ever present Terry Pratchett).

I have seen a lot of press vaunting Dune as the greatest science fiction novel of all time, and I guess sales wise it probably is, but I can’t say that I quite see it. I enjoyed the book and thought that the Fremen portions made a great ethnography that was really entertaining, but I have some issues with the book as a whole. The main character never really has any challenges laid before him and nothing is ever hard for him. He is the best at literally everything apparently. Not only is he the ultimate genetic human, but he has training that his gender should not allow, he has the brains of a super computer, and can defeat anyone in armed combat…despite never having been in a real battle before being thrust into a situation of having to fight one of the best fighters in the galaxy. Even taking over the Universe is a seemingly simple matter for him.

In fact, the whole book is set in the superlative, everyone is the best at what they do. Thufir is apparently the best Mentat, but can’t see through some simple trickery. Duncan is the greatest swordsman, but then again so is Gurney - who is also the most rad Baliset player. The Fremen are the bestest revolutionaries…etc. Everyone is superhuman and after a while I got tired of hearing about how bad ass and clever they were.

Despite all this bitching, it was a good book and I definitely enjoyed it…Book 2 was particularly entertaining. And, I have now finished 2 books this year…which puts me behind schedule for Xeno’s challenge to read 52 books this year, but not too shabby considering I probably usually only read 4-5 non technical books a year.