Young Me and Old Me Agree

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I dunno. I didn't like it.

Maybe it's a good book. Others think so. Quite a few people. Meanwhile, I almost gave it a 2; the 3 was a bit of charity.

I don't have any philosophical reason for disliking this novel. I just found it dull and weird and a drag to open back up. And I almost DNF'ed it, which is what I did the first time I tried to read it back in the 70's.

I liked Dune, this year and when I read it 40+ years ago, so I thought maybe I'd like the second book better this time around. But even though this struck me wrong again, I pushed through to the end. Still, I found nothing much to recommend it. Faux philosophy; forced fatalism; an inexplicable lack of action; lots of annoying, pseudo-zen dialogue...

Anyway. Not my thing. Hard to believe these two books were written by the same person.

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Where I Still Liked It After All These Years

Dune by Frank Herbert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this in junior high or high school--can't quite pin it down--but I remember it was over a Christmas vacation when I had lots of time just to read, and I really liked it. With the new movie out, I wanted to re-read it and was worried how it would hold up. IMO--it held up very well, and I'm glad for that.

The language is a little different than more recent books. It's odd to find omniscient viewpoint after not seeing it for so long, but there's no difficulty in getting used to it again. I was surprised, though, and how distinctly I remembered most of the scenes; it was very familiar, reading it once more, even though 40 years have passed. Some bits I understood better, paid better attention to, and that helped me like it even more.

Lots of discourse about the book and newest movie, but I don't care to rehash any of it here.

What I like most about the novel is the scope. It reminds me of Foundation, dealing with vast times and distances as well as big ideas. There's something about that which, in addition to engaging my interest and my emotion, engages my curiosity, my sense of wonder, and that's a valuable thing.

Recommended for most.

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