Rating: ⭐⭐
This book was a major disappointment. It tries to sell itself as one
of the greatest science fiction novels of all time but falls far short of that
title.
The main thing that annoyed me about this book is the description of every
character’s thoughts. I feel like it shows the weakness of Herbet’s
world-building and character development that he has to describe every thought
of every character, rather than letting the reader figure it out for themselves
and, much like some filmmaking, has to tell us rather than show us the motivations
and schemes of the characters.
As well, this book took a long time to get going; at least 200 pages
or so. This could be justified if those pages built up well to the rest of the
book, but it didn’t. The story overall felt like it was going nowhere and the
climax was just tagged on the end in a rush.
Finally, the treatment of women in this book was disheartening. Even
though many of the female characters were shown to have immense skill sets, it seemed
like they weren’t effectively utilised and many female characters were just
pushed to the side. The Princess who had been telling us so much of the story via
the chapter headings was shown as a commodity to be bought or sold, though
clearly from her historical writings on the events of the book, she was an
intelligent and thoughtful character. It’s a real shame this couldn’t be shown
more.
The only thing I really enjoyed about this book is the stark contrast
of the world to our own and the scientific discoveries and developments that allowed
survival in such a place.
