Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Dune

Frank Herbert

It is good to read a classic. Especially a good classic. This is sort of a Hatfield v. McCoy blood feud in the future (around the year 10,000). The desert planet Arrakis is awarded to Duke Leto Atreides to manage and taken away from Baron Harkonnen. These two families want to annhilate each other. As it turns out, there are plots within plots. Leto's concubine Jessica is a member of the Bene Gesserit, an order of women who conspire in the background of power to manage genetics through selective breeding (all very passive agressive ov course). There are the Fremen, native desert dwellers of Arrakis who have their own plans for the planet and its riches of spice. There is the Shipping Guild, with a monopoly on space travel and its own particular interest in Arrakis. And there is the Emporer, nominally in charge of everything. Mix in a bit of oppression and religious ferver and what could go wrong. A fabulous world has be set up in this novel and it is a page turner throughout.

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