I once watched a National Geographic special on a pride of lions that had adapted to hunting water buffalo. Water buffalo are usually too large to be lion game, you need a ton of strength to take one down. But, if done, they would provide a ton of nutrients. This was also in a marsh land with constant waist deep water to wade through. And let me tell you - these marsh lions were YOKED. They made those chumps from the savannas look like PUSSIES. Money shots of absolutely shredded lions ripping out of the marsh, claws and teeth out, water arcs splashing across the screen. The size and definition of their muscles was awe inspiring and terrifying. Sometimes harsh conditions breed strong populations. Similar to the desert planet natives at the center of Frank Herbert’s masterpiece- Dune.

I’ve been wanting to re-read Dune for a couple years now. It’s been in my top 5 list ever since I read it back in college. I was an immature adult then, not much more than a kid. I wondered if I would enjoy Dune as much today as I did then. So much of my enjoyment stemmed from the shonen anime I was into at the time. Cowboy Bebob, Trigun, Naruto, Bleach. These big hero focused stories where the main character starts weak, but through the course of the story becomes powerful and finally takes on the big bad in an epic and cathartic fight. I miss those boyish feelings sometimes. Dune’s Paul Atreides has all the hallmarks of a shonen hero. He starts the book as a teenager still under the protective care of his parents. Parents who have hired the most skilled experts in the galaxy to train their son in warcraft, fighting, and the novel’s brand of telepathic clairvoyance. There is a powerful antagonist in the sadistic and scheming Harkonnen for Paul to overcome. Back then I loved the badassery of it all, today I appreciate the thematic depths the book explores.

Dune is an amazing book. I highly recommend it to everyone and anyone. It’s not just some of the best sci-fi, it’s got nuance. And oh my god- the world building. I’d put it up there with Tolkien. The desert planet Arrikis feels like a real, living, breathing world. The galactic empire feels huge even though you only see a tiny sliver of it. That’s probably the trick. You’re hinted at the scale of the empire through the people and things that inhabit the book.

Dune’s native people, the Fremen, have all these rituals and customs that stem from living thousands of years on a planet so dry you have to save every last tear, spitball, and piss drop. Living in such a harsh environment with limited resources- the Fremen people, who were largely ignored, are sleeping as some of the best fighters in the galaxy. At the time I thought that was bad ass. And it still is.

Herbert uses sci-fi as a way to explore humanity’s far future. At the core of the book is Paul’s path to a living demigod. It’s an interesting idea - the artificial creation of a Messiah - and Herbert plumbs the depths of it. How do you go about creating such a being? Through thousands of years of selective breeding, inseminated myth making, and just the right amount of training. How would this person feel about it? He may be the prophesied “Lisan Al-Gaib”, but he’s still a human and he largely didn’t ask for it. In a later scene Paul intakes an overdose of the clairvoyant spice at the heart of the galaxy’s economy. In the induced vision, his followers have become an unstoppable religion. They sweep across the galaxy in a holy war long after his death. Horrified, he starts trying to manage his own myth as it’s being created. To make things harder, he has surprisingly little control of it at present. The things he has to do to stay alive push him and his followers further and further into the galactic attention. Everything he does is either prophesied beforehand, or builds upon his legend. How could he not become a fanatic religion?

This time I listened to the audio book and perhaps I was multitasking a little too much. To be honest, my second read through was not as cathartic as my first. I think this is a story you need to pay attention to. There are big payoffs later in the story that miss their mark if you haven’t been keeping up. The book version that I have has a convienent appendix with all the major characters and a small glossary. Not so with the audio version obviously. It was still an amazing experience though. The first sandworm reveal was just as awe inspiring as the first time I read it. It was a masterclass in building up something while withholding actually showing it. The sandworms are akin in their treatment as dragons in European myth. They are similarly awe inspiring, dangerous, and guarding a great treasure.

If you haven’t read Dune yet, you should. You could read Dune for the many themes including messianism, colonialism, and climate change. Or you could read it for the simple fun factor. Either way, it remains one of the best books written in the modern era and should be read at least once before you die.