CBR 16 Bingo – Part 1
I could have used this book for at least 50% of the bingo squares, but given how long it took me to read it, and that I have different opinions about the first and second halves, I chose to do the part 1/part 2. Also its kind of perfect since its almost exactly 600 pages. The book is divided into 3 sections (Dune, Muad’Dib, and The Prophet). The first one, Dune, is roughly 400 pages so I’ll focus on that for this review, and the other 2 for the next.
For starters, I was reading Dune for a school “choice” book project. For most people, it was a true choice book project where they chose whatever book they wanted (that fit within the parameters), but, for me, my teacher strongly encouraged me to read Dune, since it was his favorite book. I agreed since the book sounded kind of interesting, without realizing what I was getting myself into.
For some reason, I really struggled to read this. I started, got about 100 pages in, was very confused because I hadn’t read a Sci-Fi or fantasy book in a while and all the names of people, planets, objects, etc. that were part of the world building were very confusing to me and I couldn’t keep track of them all. A month or so later, I started again (this time on more of a time crunch because I had to finish it by a deadline and I had the sudden realization that it was a long book that took longer than average to read). I read a long with the audiobook (on double speed because the guy in the free audiobook talks so slowly) to try and keep myself focused, and, once I got past my difficulty understanding the world, I really enjoyed it. There are so many layers to the plot that it’s really hard to write a synopsis for, and none of the ones I have read really do it justice.
In the most basic sense, it’s about the dukal heir of Arrakis (the desert planet) Paul Atreides who gets sent to the inhospitable desert planet but, due to a betrayal to the House of Atreides, Paul has to go find his destiny in the heart of this desolate planet.
In general, once I got over the fact that there were a lot of names for things in this world, and that some of the chapters are not following Paul (but its not evidently stated so I was also confused about that at first), it was a really interesting section and it left me excited for the next two.