Dune

By: Frank Herbert

Narrated by: Scott Brick, Orlagh Cassidy, Euan Morton, Simon Vance, Ilyana Kadushin, Byron Jennings, David R. Gordon, Jason Culp, Kent Broadhurst, Oliver Wyman, Patricia Kilgarriff, Scott Sowers

Length: 21 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Long-listed, Audible.com Best of the Year, 2007

Long-listed, Audible.com 100 Audible Essentials, 2007

Audie Award winner, 2008

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE directed by Denis Villeneuve, starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux, Stellan Skarsgård, and Charlotte Rampling

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Muad'dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family—and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.

A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction. Frank Herbert's death in 1986 was a tragic loss, yet the astounding legacy of his visionary fiction will live forever.

©1965 Frank Herbert (P)2007 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC

Critic reviews

Audie Award Winner, Science Fiction, 2008
Nebula Award winner, Best Novel, 1965
Hugo Award winner, Best Novel, 1966

"Unique...I know nothing comparable to it except Lord of the Rings." (Arthur C. Clarke)

"One of the monuments of modern science fiction." (Chicago Tribune)

"Powerful, convincing, and most ingenious." (Robert A. Heinlein)

Amazing

well done. A true classic. I recommend this story to all who enjoy sci-fi stories.

loved it.

Amazing story. Excellent voice acting and narration. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys science fiction.

My favorite read book... great listen

I have the book Dune 12+ times but listening to the Audible version brought more understanding that I must have missed.

Incredible story despite odd cast performance

Would you listen to Dune again? Why?

Definitely. Such an amazing book with so much depth. Quite an incredible contribution.

What other book might you compare Dune to and why?

It kind of reminds me of Daenerys' story line from A Song of Ice and Fire. There are complex interweavings of plot, rich character development and a definite clear theme that drives the story forward while also raising intriguing social questions.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

what made this performance odd for me was that at times there seemed to be a cast playing the different parts and at others, it was just the narrator doing all of the voices. This was not an optimal listening experience but the story was so good it carried me right past it. The narrator would have been good on his own, but so would have the cast - if they performed the complete piece. Not sure what happened here...

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No extreme reactions other than to be glued to it.

Any additional comments?

Read this book! It's really really good!

Great story, inconsistent narration style

This is an epic tale, no doubt about it. It's thoroughly engaging for all 20+ hours, which is pretty impressive - that's a lot of book! Finishing it with a resolution but also many questions was satisfying, but also made me ask "done with that, where's the sequel???"

The problem with the narration style is a bit annoying. Some chapters have a full cast of narrators to play out all the dialogue, while in others the narrator speaks all the dialogue, including for some people who have other voices in other chapters. All the narrators have good voices (well, the Shadout Mapes doesn't have my favorite voice, an intentionally squeaky style, like she's trying to imitate someone who's inhaled helium), but it would have been better if they just picked one - always the full cast, or always the main narrator.

Excellent, Sometimes inconsistent voice acting

What can be said about the masterpiece Dune that hasn't been said before? fantastic choice of voice actors, especially the Baron Harkonnen. Though, not all lines are always done by the respective voice actors. but overall, most of the most critical lines are handled by those actors, and the sound effects certainly enhance the mood of the story.

Great book but narration was lacking

Characters having their own individual voice actors is well enough in theory, but the lack of consistency makes listening a little frustrating. The story itself was wonderful, but I would prefer a single narrator over individual voices.

Timeless Science Fiction and Dystopia

This book is a surprisingly fresh book despite being written years ago. I think one of Herbert’s greatest abilities was to describe a sci-fi world without using any terms or descriptions that limit its relevance. I watched the movie for this eons ago but it didn’t make much sense. The book does make sense, however, and I can now see how the movie complements the book without trying to recreate it.

In this book, you will be whisked away to places that are so foreign to you yet feel so natural. From the pomp and regality of Paul’s original home on Caledan, the depraved and monstrous world of the Harkonens, to the dry and hopeless world of Arakkis (Dune) the author uses coloring of words to make the environments come alive in our heads and in our minds.

I can see why this is a historic book and how it’s message and styling are woven in to the world of modern science fiction. I just wish that the author had made some sections move a bit quicker and slowed down a few others.

Dune.

This triology leaves you stronger inn mind and spirit. I am humbel for desert power now .

Wow!!!

The best performance i have ever heard on audible as of yet. Sometimes the voices changed however between different books (ie the narrator started to voice paul, jessica, etc... in addition in book two, where as they each had individual performers in book one.) very very good