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)

the story is great, chopped narration

I didn't like that the different character voices more only voice to buy different people in certain chapters. The main narrator that did most of the chapters was wonderful but it was a bit confusing when a completely different person started voicing the characters

One of the greats!

I love the narration, and have listened to this book over and over. I am almost finished and moving on to Ender's Game, another must read.

A True Sci-fi Classic

There's a reason this is considered one of the classic sci-fi novels. My biggest criticism is that the various narrators come in inconsistently. It's strange the way it switches between a full-cast recording and one with a single narrator.

Great, with a small caveat

I really enjoyed this book! The best part about it was the world created by Herbert.

It took me a little while to figure out that the "key" moments were done by several voice actors, while the rest of the book was done by one. It was fine, but I was pretty confused for a bit.

great production

great production of the book , at parts odd how actors voices moved in and out.

The father of all modern science fiction

What made the experience of listening to Dune the most enjoyable?

The many differing voice actors used for different characters.

What did you like best about this story?

Realizing how much of modern science fiction is taken from this book.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The differing voices made understanding each character much easier.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Don't watch the 1984 movie, it doesn't do the book justice.

Any additional comments?

Star Wars, Star Trek, BattleStar all take some inspiration from this book. For a book first published in 1965, Dune is truly ahead of its time.

Long, but evocative.

Enjoyed being part of this world for a week or two - great presentation and voicing.

Great story, weird narration

The narration is weird. There are different voice actors performing different parts, but it's very inconsistent. Duke Leto, for example, switched from one actor to another mid story and never switched back.

Wholesome Sci-fi epic

I struggle to find sci-fi's that I like as I enjoy ones that are built on more present day scientific understanding, but I find many of the modern hits are filled with more R rated content than I prefer. I don't really need gritty language or a sex scene to legitimize the human element. I figured a classic like Dune would be fairly G rated but I wasn't sure how well its sci-fi concepts have aged. Turned out to be just fine. There's a little space-magic to it but really, the story is such a powerful force and the sci-fi elements were integrated into the universe so well that any dated or odd sci-fi concepts were irrelevant to me. To be honest I was actually impressed by some of sci-fi elements that I hadn't seen or thought of before. As for story I completely enjoyed it. I had high expectations for an epic such as this and it exceeded those expectations. I recommend this to any reader/listener who enjoys sci-fi. One warning though... The beginning starts off a bit dry with dense, unexplained terminology and names/labels that can leave your head spinning trying to keep track of what's what. But stick with it, take some notes if you have to, it's worth it.

Classic Book, Botched Production

Where does Dune rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Very high.

Did the narrators do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

They attempted to do a hybrid production of most sections being narrated with select sequences being voiced by a cast. One or the other would probably have had worked fine, but trying to interweave them just leads to many jarring sequences. One memorable sequence was when the Baron Harkonen was talking with Count Fenring. The narrator did the first part of the scene, and it sounded like a middle aged man (the Baron) talking with an older man with an appropriately foppish accent. The Baron is supposed to be a basso, and the narrator did not convey that, but I was not too concerned about that. The two characters walk into a cone of silence and then begin to talk business and abruptly we have voice actors doing the two characters, and frankly, it sounds like Darth Vader talking to a cowboy. Points for making trying to give the Baron a deep voice, but I believe they autotuned the voice deeper and it sounds artificial, and I have no idea what were they thinking with the Count's voice at that point.