Dune

I wish I could give half-stars, because I probably would have given Dune a personal rating of 3.5/5.

I liked the story. I was able to fully immerse myself in the lore and the immaculate worldbuilding. And that was really something I have rarely seen anywhere else. I was contemplating whether to give this 3 or 4, but had to round up for the creativity in this area alone. I truly loved it.

My issue is mainly with the level of detail and the language. Some scenes are so excellently written that I felt like I was part of them, observing everything around me, noticing all the small things happening myself. Others, especially those concerned with Paul's inner conflicts, were almost excruciatingly abstract. And even though the language was beautiful throughout, I often found myself losing track in those sections (and, occasionally, genuinely having trouble understanding things linguistically, even with context – I didn't expect that it would encounter difficulties like that at all). Since those sections focused on Paul's interior are so crucial to Paul's development, and his development is, like, the main point of the book, I felt a bit lost, not really being able to trace how we'd gotten from the beginning to the end. I really only had this problem with Paul, not with any of the other characters. FWIW, Dune 2 (the movie) ended up having the same problem (to an even bigger extent, since the inner workings of Paul were not as exposed in it and the passing of time wasn't as clear).

I still think it was good - I just had a hard time with the main protagonist and that's why it failed to truly captivate me. Again, a lot (most) of it was really amazing. But it feels like I failed to grasp the entire thing, which is a bit sad. I'll probably continue reading the series at some point, though not sure when.

The first roughly two chapters were quite difficult to get into. Many terms I didn't understand, and I naturally didn't have a grasp of the political landscape, which would've been quite important to understand at the start. However, this feeling soon went away, as the situation became clearer.

I didn't like the story arc at all. The buildup was huge and monumental, but the resolution was frustratingly lame. Maybe this is only because this book is the first of a series, but still not satisfying.

What I really liked, was the world building. Instead of focusing on a technology-dominated future, Herbert forbid all AI-related machinery in his novel and instead focused on enhanced capabilities of humans. A concept that I'd say really worked out. The ecosystem of Arrakis is quite interesting too, as is the way of living of its inhabitants. And glimpses the reader gets into the politics, economy, and religion are also fascinating.