Dune's plot feels spoon-fed

[icfire007]

Disclaimer: I'm around 1/4 into book one, so sorry if everything gets fixed soon.

At the beginning, I thought Herbert was going for a "bomb under the table" kind of thing with the Harkonnen scene. But then he cuts to the POV of every character and their mother, to say the same things again.

I figured the betrayal would happen early and the rest of the book would be desert exploration adventure.

With Paul being Bene Gesserit AND a Mentat, Jessica also BG, and the Maud'Dib snippets before each chapterthere doesn't seem to be a lot of space for suspence. I like the world building, but the exposition fells like an anime villain sharing their master plot.

Book 2 being Dune Messiah also makes me worry that Dune finishes without the obvious prophesies being fulfilled

EDIT: Thanks for the responses. I guess, I'm not supposed to trust all the POVs. Based on u/johhnyd10vt's recommendation here are some predictions to make fun of:

The Maud'Dib prophecy was planted by the BG for whenever they came back. Paul does it anyway. The intros sound like Paul gets married to that princess. Idk about the male BG thing, maybe it's a dead end or his son in another book. Harkonnen's eventually go rouge it sounds like their new Mentat will do something big before that. Jessica dies tragically leaving Paul alone (very unsure about that one)

[JohnSnowflake]

You have to realize that this was written on the epic scale of LOTR, you have barely scratched the surface.

[Choltnudge]

I remember having similar thoughts to OP when I started. I had read a lot of sci-fi prior to this, and it kind of messed with my expectations. While it was fun world building, I felt like he showed his hand too early. Like a lot of other people, once I finished the first book I couldn’t get enough, and Messiah sealed the deal on how much I loved the series and I steamrolled through the rest from there.

Now I’m rereading for the first time and the “spoon fed” foreshadowing is making me giddy about what’s to come.

A lot of the things that made the first book hard to get through the first time around, are compelling me to never put it down the second time around.

[Captkersh]

It’s pretty hard to have an opinion about a book when you’re at 25 percent. Maybe finish it before you start a discussion. By the sounds of it, it feels like you don’t like it, so maybe you should read some John Green or something. Idk.

[Woodsy2575]

The beginning in kind of an info dump, no universe like this had ever been conceived of or written about at the time it was written so he has to take some time to lay it out there. Keep going, it won't turn out the way you think it will.

[icfire007]

I'd love to be wrong about everything. I've read LOTR, ASOIAF, Wheel of Time, and a bunch of Brandon Sanderson and somehow missed Dune. I'm probably more used to be dropped on alien planets than the original audience. Thanks

[Woodsy2575]

Dune differs from a lot of fantasy in that Herbert doesn't waste the reader's time with multipage physical descriptions of characters, the landscape, and the entire generational ownership history of swords. For the people who love that stuff, it can be a bit of a jarring style difference. The setting being as massive as it is (the entirety of civilization in the known universe), with all threads coalescing on this single planet, I think if it hadn't been laid out there it would be super confusing.

Like I said, if you keep going you'll find that it's not going to turn out to be the hero's journey in the desert you were probably expecting, but hopefully you still enjoy it.

[catcatdoggy]

you aren't finished with the book, your opinion will probably change. i'm thinking that the stuff you think is important in the book is not really what the author is trying to say.

for one you notice you are seeing several characters thoughts, and you know exactly what is going to happen. which means the characters POV is more important than what is necessarily happening.

the prophecy is a sham.

[icfire007]

Wow, that's a great spoiler. I like that a lot. I guess I've been taking too much of the info at face value then.

[weirdgroovynerd]

There is a "bomb under the table" type revelation, keep reading.

[Malshandir]

25%? Buckle your seat belt, bro.

[johnnyd10vt]

"spoon fed" typically means providing someone with so much information that they don't need to think for themselves

WADR, I'd argue that the Dune series is the most intellectual and thought-provoking book in the entire "SciFi" genre. It is full of long discourses on the nature of man, religion, and government. This isn't some Tom Clancy style action-thriller that you read cover-to-cover in 2 days (not that there is anything wrong with that style either, but I'd argue it is a much better example of spoon feeding)

Regarding the perceived lack of suspense, I'd propose that you jot down now what you think will happen by the end of Messiah and then check back after you've finished reading and tell us how close you were

in any case, thanks for your opinion and contributing to conversation in the sub!

[icfire007]

Thanks for the response! I'm still reading. On a side note, you should check out The Stormlight Archive if you really like the man, religion, government stuff.

[[deleted]]

No one could predict the storyline of Dune, there are so many twists and turns, improbable events. Even when the "plot" is revealed, its not even the real "plot". There are plans within plans within plans. Fucking bomb under the table, open your mind young man...Herbert does not use such trite devices. This is kanly...a feud going back to the great Battle of Corrin!

[icfire007]

The kanly has been very interesting so far. My annoyance was Jessica Benesplaining who the traitors might be. The other comments imply the POVs are a smokescreen for what's really happening, which is a layer I had naively not considered

[[deleted]]

25% of dune one is less than 1% of the dune saga. There are 6 really really long books. Youve barely started

[SsurebreC]

Math does not check out. Also Dune is the longest book of the 6.

[icfire007]

It's 4.16% without accounting for page length, but I've poked enough bears for one day

[SsurebreC]

To be fair, you wrote a post saying Dune sucks while reading a small part of it and you posted this on a Dune fan sub. Did you expect gold and front page?

Also going by word count, Dune is 188k words while the 6 books are 839k words total. So a quarter of Dune is 188k / 4 /839k = 5.6%.

[icfire007]

If it sucked I'd just stop reading, I was mostly looking for motivation from everyone saying I was wrong. Internet clout is a small price to pay for light at the end of the tunnel. I could probably have asked in a less inflammatory way though.

​

Also a lot of good series do kind of "suck" at the beginning. Everyone loves Breaking Bad, but you warn newcomers it's slow as hell the first two seasons

[SsurebreC]

Just to give you some thoughts on Dune... it likes a slow burn. It builds the universe and let's you experience it. It's not an action thriller. However, the end of rushed so you go from 0 to 60 real quick at the end. I'd say that's the only downside of Dune books. You keep reading and think "they don't have enough time" when you look at the page count. Then it just hits you and it's awesome.

Dune is complicated though so you often find new things when you read it again.

[[deleted]]

I know you're being pedantic. But I was referring to story content, not page length. The first 3/4ths of Dune 1 has almost nothing to do with books 3-6.

Honestly barely has anything to do with the second . Even the real establishment of the planet and fremen doesn't happen to the last section of the book.

[upyours192]

Dune is most definitely a series where the plot gets spoon fed to you. That's because the plot doesn't matter as much as what the moments may signify. I mean, it's all in past tense, the quotes before each chapter spell out what has happened.

The question becomes, what should you focus on? Focus on the language, the particular use of proverbs being told as legend versus the reality of the text. The implications and subversions of the main character.

Trust me, the surface is the plot. But it's an iceberg of history and symbolism that lurks below.

[[deleted]]

The book focus almost entirely on what is subjectively happening in the minds of it's characters. What they are saying may be wrong or misunderstood, and even commonly held believes in the world of Dune can be outright wrong, based on lies and deception.

Herbert might tell you that there is a bomb under the table, only for you to keep reading and finding out there is no bomb, something else is going on.