Dune - Frank Herbert

Title: Dune
Author: Frank Herbert
Genre: Sci-fi / fantasy
Rating: 4/5
# pages: Audiobook ~21 hours
Date read: October, 2009

This novel tells the sweeping tale of a desert planet called Arrakis, the focus of an intricate power struggle in a byzantine interstellar empire. Arrakis is the sole source of Melange, the "spice of spices." Melange is necessary for interstellar travel and grants psychic powers and longevity, so whoever controls it wields great influence.

The troubles begin when stewardship of Arrakis is transferred by the Emperor from the Harkonnen Noble House to House Atreides. The Harkonnens don't want to give up their privilege, though, and through sabotage and treachery they cast young Duke Paul Atreides out into the planet's harsh environment to die. There he falls in with the Fremen, a tribe of desert dwellers who become the basis of the army with which he will reclaim what's rightfully his. Paul Atreides, though, is far more than just a usurped duke. He might be the end product of a very long-term genetic experiment designed to breed a super human; he might be a messiah. His struggle is at the center of a nexus of powerful people and events, and the repercussions will be felt throughout the Imperium.

I first started reading Dune in February 2007, but got stuck about 70-100 pages into it, and left it hanging. I always planned to finish it someday though, but just couldn't bring myself to pick it up again. Finally, last month I felt that it was time to finish it, and as I'd just found it as an audiobook, I thought I would try that way of getting through it instead.

Honestly, I don't think it's the book most suited for audio presentation, and I would probably have liked it better if I'd read it rather than listened to it, but this way I got through it, discovered that I enjoyed it, and am therefore more likely to pick it up again at a later stage.

I enjoyed all the characterizations and the intrigues. I did think that perhaps Paul was a bit of a Gary Stu in that he was constantly able to do everything he set out to, and that the ending was a bit abrupt, but when looking at the big picture, that didn't bother me. I appreciated that Frank Herbert didn't pull any punches, but killed off people I hadn't expected him to.

I got the audiobook from Audible.co.uk. It was read by (I think) 5 different people, which worked well, once I got far enough into the book to know the voices and tell them apart. Until then I would rather have had just one narrator and more of "he said", "she said".

But definitely a great book, and I'd recommend it to others who enjoy a good fantasy/sci-fi mix.

Royal Exile - Fiona McIntosh

Title: Royal Exile
Author: Fiona McIntosh
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 480 pages
Date read: October, 2009

From out of the East they came riding like a merciless plague - destroying kingdom after kingdom and the sovereigns who had previously mocked the warlord Loethar and his barbarian horde. Now only one land remains unconquered - the largest, richest, and most powerful realm of the Denova Set... Penraven.

The Valisar royals of Penraven face certain death, for the savage tyrant Loethar covets what they alone possess: the fabled Valisar Enchantment, an irresistible power to coerce, which will belong to Loethar once every Valisar has been slain. But the last hope of the besieged kingdom is being sent in secret from his doomed home, in the company of a single warrior. The future of Penraven now rests on the shoulders of the young Crown Prince Leonel who, though untried and untested in the ways of war, must survive brutality and treachery in order to claim the Valisar throne.

It seems that most fantasy books these days are part of a series. I guess there's so much that needs to be thought out in order to invent a fantasy universe, that it seems like a waste to only use it for one book, so they're turned into series instead. That in itself doesn't bother me, but it does get old when one constantly reads books with no real conclusion, because the plot continues in the next novel.

Royal Exile is such a book. Thankfully I'm familiar with Fiona McIntosh's writing, so I was forewarned that this might be the case before I started the book, and therefore didn't mind as much as I usually would. It also helped a lot that the book was absolutely brilliant, so I was completely drawn in by the universe and the characters. Royal Exile sets the scene magnificently. The characters are complex, and the complication without no simple resolution. I'm very interested in seeing what happens next.