“Knock off Star Wars”

I’ve recently started reading the first book out of fourteen in the Dune series by Frank Herbert. My friends and I went to see the movie a couple of weeks ago, and last weekend I found out the movie was based on a book series. The novel is set in a political space setting where Melange, or “spice”, is a very precious material, as it allows for travel through space. The book follows Paul Atreides as his powerful family moves to a planet called Arrakis. Spice grows on the planet’s surface, so Arrakis is very important to govern. The government in this story is called The Empire, which consists of different Houses such as the Atreides House in which Paul and his family control. The Atreides House is called to govern Arrakis, something that many other houses have failed to do before. Houses turn on each other and the whole plot is an adventure.

Starting this book was more exciting than most books I’ve read. The political aspect introduced throughout space was a unique setting, even though it sounds like Star Wars. I enjoyed reading about the interstellar government idea and the spice idea is neat too. The overall plot has a sturdy suspenseful storyline. Even though I haven’t even read half of the book, it lives up to expectations, even after watching a highly rated movie with similar content.

As I previously mentioned, Dune is a book series consisting of fourteen novels. The first was written in 1965, and is considered a great piece of classic sci-fi literature. The first book has won both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for best novel. The book has great world-building characteristics, but it’s definitely not a light read. The chapters are mildly short, but the vocabulary and dialogue is so politically meaningful it took me a couple times through to understand everything. Though this problem may be present throughout the book, the storyline is like Herbert planned out the whole book word by word before writing.

Dune has had a great impact on science fiction books all the way since 1965. Many people compare Dune to Star Wars, around the interstellar political ideals, but the reality is that Star Wars would never have been successful without the influence of Frank Herbert’s great novel. The plots are nothing alike, and both being set in space doesn’t make them the same thing. “Knock off Star Wars” is a comment I heard at the movies when going to see the new Dune movie. So many people haven’t heard of Dune and Star Wars has a greater popularity status, but even though, Dune was written almost before George Lucas (the creator of Star Wars) was even an adult, and 12 years before the first Star Wars movie came out. If anything, Star Wars grabbed ideals from Dune.

-Tristen Ting