Review by Kisstopher Musick
I have read Dune three times and the entire series once. The first time I read Dune, I was 12 and enamored with Jessica. The second time I read Dune, I had read the other books in the series and I was fascinated by the family’s inability to change their fortune because of Jessica’s love of the Duke and then of her son. I was armed with the knowledge from the prequel. The third time I read Dune was this week in preparation for writing this review, inspired by the remake of the movie. I found that book does not stand the test of time.
In this reading of the book, I was shocked by all of the things that were ok with me when I was 12 and in my teens. I was much more tolerant of sexism, racism, classism, ableism, and fatphobia. This time, I found the writing to be lazy and the parts that were rich with imagination were overshadowed with some form of bigotry. I think “othering” your villain by making them “grotesque” because they are fat and chronically ill and then telling the reader they chose to be this way is lazy and ableist.
I was also shocked by how ok I had been with an entire order of nuns who raise women to be concubines for the purpose of creating power for their church. This reading, I found it to be uninteresting. The deliberate withholding of water from the indigenous people of the planet smacks of colonialism and is a missed opportunity. I feel that Dune is ripe for a retelling or modernization. The world-building is creative and amazing. There are so many opportunities for subtle social commentary that would make the book amazing and much more entertaining. So, I would have to say that when I was young and naive I enjoyed the book, but I have aged out of its lazy writing.