I have tried to read Dune 4 times. I just can not seem to get into the book. Which is sad because I love sci-fi
this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023
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Dune is about as difficult a book as you are ever likely to encounter, unless you ever take up James Joyce's Ulysses. But there are a huge number of great science fiction books out there that are much more accessible.
Frank Herbert's short stories are much more readable, for example. And many of them are quite good.
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume 1 is a collection of classic short science fiction stories. It's some of the greatest science fiction ever written, and definitely a great introduction to the golden age of the genre. Most of the authors represented in the book have published volumes of short stories themselves as well as novels, so this is a good place to find authors you like!
I can't recommend the works of Cordwainer Smith strongly enough. The son of an American diplomat, he grew up in China. His writing style was greatly influenced by Chinese storytelling styles. He wrote science fiction that wasn't like anything anyone else wrote, ever.
Many of his stories are in the public domain in Canada, and are available via FadedPage. The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith (1993) is a print collection of all of his short science fiction. Start with "Scanners Live In Vain", one of his first and most famous stories. His one science fiction novel is also still in print: Norstrilia (1975). It's a classic. Smith is not to be missed.
Larry Niven is definitely one of the foremost hard science fiction writers in the field, and quite possibly the best. His Tales of Known Space are outstanding. The series includes many novels as well as short stories. Ringworld (1970) is the best known, probably. The Ringworld is a classic Big Object, a ring a million miles wide and the diameter of Earth's orbit encircling a star; it has living space equal to fifty million Earths. Earlier novels in the series include Protector (1973) and A Gift From Earth (1968). Niven's short story collections are really excellent, too.
Robert Sheckley’s Store of Infinity (1960) was the first science fiction book I ever bought for myself. It was a very lucky find, because a better collection of dazzling short stories would be hard to imagine. It’s a great introduction to his work. Among the many wonderful and hysterically funny stories in this book is “The Prize of Peril”, which predicted reality TV (and its worst excesses) decades before it happened! Sheckley is arguably the O. Henry of science fiction.
Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat series is a classic of humorous science fiction, featuring an interstellar criminal turned reluctant lawman.
The Retief series by Keith Laumer is a riotously funny science fiction parody of the diplomatic corps. Laumer also wrote the Bolo series about self-aware military tanks; it's not a comedy, being much more about honor and loyalty. Yet oddly enough the two series have connected a couple of times.
James White's Sector General is rare and special: a medically-themed science fiction series with an underlying sweetness. Sector General is a galactic hospital in space, staffed by an enormously broad selection of alien species that are brilliantly imagined and detailed. The hospital and its medical ships are frequently a place for first contact with new species. The stories themselves are often about interesting and unique new medical problems.
Jack Finney's Time And Again (1970) is a very memorable time travel novel that includes images from the past. It damn near convinces you that time travel is possible, and that you could do it. I'd highly recommend it; it was on the New York Times bestseller list for a ridiculously long time. There’s a sequel, too.
The Past Through Tomorrow (1967) collects most of Robert A. Heinlein’s “Future History” stories, which are some of the greatest stories of the golden age of SF. Those stories broke science fiction out of the pulp magazine ghetto and made it mainstream.
H. G. Wells wasn't just one of the founders of the genre of science fiction; his short stories were macabre, incredibly imaginative, and unforgettable. Project Gutenberg has all of his works, I believe, but Standard eBooks has a great collection of a lot of Wells' short stories available free in all the major ebook formats. You can read the book online at the link, too.
Note: Please consider patronizing your local independent book shops instead of Amazon; they can order books for you that they don't have in stock. Amazon has put a lot of great independent book shops out of business.
And of course there's always your local library. If they don't have a book, they may be able to get it for you via inter-library loan.
If you'd rather order direct online, Thriftbooks and Powell's Books are good. You might also check libraries in your general area; most of them sell books at very low prices to raise funds. I've made some great finds at library book sales! For used books, Biblio.com, BetterWorldBooks.com, and Biblio.co.uk are independent book marketplaces that serve independent book shops - NOT Amazon.
Happy reading! 📖
P. S. - I'm not a bot. My son just said I sounded like a bot. 🫤
Dune is about as difficult a book as you are ever likely to encounter
Gravity's Rainbow would like a word.
But on a more serious note, great list of suggestions. I'd add Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's anthology called The Big Book of Science Fiction: The Ultimate Collection. It's a great collection of both less and more widely known authors, including eg. a 1905 story by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain from what's now Bangladesh. I personally liked the variety, and I trust Jeff VanderMeer's taste
I recommend the audiobook if you're not opposed to audio books in general. It's a less effort way of consuming Frank Herbert's prose.
I second the audiobook idea. I have tried to read it several times, but just could not get over first few chapters. Heavy prose, I guess? (And I DO love sci-fi and read not-so-light-prose novels as well, eg. Greg Egan.) The audiobook (more like audioplay) is phenomenal!
Ever read the Culture series?
Not remembering this tells me it's time to read Dune again.
If you've read Frank Herbert's Dune, National Lampoon's Doon (1984) is a brilliant parody. It absolutely nails Herbert's writing style. I recently reread it, and I found myself laughing out loud on just about every page. It's the best parody I've ever read!
I disliked Dune (got bored) but will have to check that out
I first tried to read Dune when I was about 10 years old. I was a precocious reader, but it was just too hard for me. I ended up bursting into tears and throwing the book across the room.
Six or seven years later I ran across Doon. It parodied everything about Dune so perfectly that I laughed out loud again and again. So after finishing it, I gave Dune another try.
Apparently I had become a more sophisticated reader, because I found myself appreciating the book immensely. It was brilliant. I ended up reading the whole series, as well as other unrelated books by Frank Herbert. And I've read them several times again in the following decades.
But a word of warning: the so-called "Dune" prequels and sequels written by Frank Herbert's idiot son Brian and his moronic co-author Kevin J. Anderson are absolute shit. They are the absolute opposite of everything that was good about Frank Herbert's Dune. Penny Arcade did a great strip describing exactly what Brian and his co-author have done to Frank Herbert.
Frankly, both Brian and Kevin should have had their hands chopped off before they were ever allowed near a keyboard!
It may just not be for me, but I am thinking I'll eventually give the other books a try. For what it's worth, I read it end to other and as an adult. It just didn't vibe for me, I didn't like the character, I didn't love the cultures that were being presented, even if some aspects of the technology were interesting. I can see how it became foundational to a certain genre of science fiction, but I never found the spark in it to make me care.
I heard the books after Dune itself are better. A less moody character, a less shallow character, and cultures that aren't so much seeming like outsider's shallow takes on Arabic and nomadic cultures. I mostly mean the viewpoint character Paul, other characters in the book were more interesting to me.
The one I read was the original by Herbert, and it's the only Herbert or Dune book I read.
If you want to try Herbert but aren't ready to tackle Dune, try his Whipping Star. It's a great book, and more accessible than Dune.
I'd even recommend The Jesus Incident.
And if they want more, pick up the rest of that series.
Then they should be good and ready for Dune. In all it's nerdy glory.
I read the Jesus incident and I don't 5hink it's really more accessible than dune it was kinda weird, but not necessarily in a bad way.
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