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

Soon to be a major motion picture directed by Denis Villeneuve, starring Timothée Chalamet, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Javier Bardem, Dave Bautista, 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 Maud'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)

This classic deserves better

Some passages from the text are omitted entirely , this is unacceptable. Even though the multicast performance is well read/acted it is not consistent. Some chapters are read by only the narrator and some utilize the multicast. Some chapters start with the multicast then part way through it switches to being read only by the narrator. This means that characters have different voices from one minute to the next, this is jarring and confusing.

I have read this book multiple times, it is a classic, one of the greatest sci-fi novels of all time. It deserves an audiobook with much more attention to detail and care then what is shown in this audiobook.

Read the reviews

I wish I had read the reviews. not the full story even though they bill it as unabridged. and voice acting and music. I want an audio book. Not a dramatization. I bought it over a year ago so I can't return it.

Morale of the story, read who is the narrator (of more than one name don't get it), and read the reviews.

Deceptive - not full book, full cast

Only parts of the book have a full cast of actors, most of the time the narrator does every characters voice and sometimes even the voice actors themselves change between chapters. Very jarring, completely misleading.

Unlistenable

This is not an unabridged audiobook. It's a really badly done audio drama. The voice acting sounds unnatural and unconvincing. The narrator isn't so bad but the dialogue is grating and difficult to follow. There is also this weird ambient background effect that I guess was supposed to be for dramatic effect or something, but it comes off as amateurish and is very, very distracting. The whole thing is a complete mess. I only made it about 15 minutes before I gave up.

Utterly Horrific

Why? Why was the book butchered and the audio cast so discombobulated? I love Dune, and was excited to hear it come to life in an audiobook with a diverse cast, but this rendering is absolutely atrocious. The music is not in line with the narrative. The cast comes in goes, chapter to chapter, sometimes paragraph by paragraph. If you can, find another adaptation audiobook of Dune, not this disconjointed mess that is not a true rendering of Frank Herbert's book. What an utter mess.

Heads up! This is an abridged version!

Voice acting was confusing (character voices changing at different parts of the story), with Baron Harkonen sounding by turns between Darth Vader and the Marcus Aurelius from Gladiator. Also not the book I was expecting, as it is an abridged set of books. Didn't seem to be indicated anywhere.

Waste of potential

If your going to hire voice actors for a book, make it consistent. It’s constantly switching between the narrator, different actors voice the same character so it’s impossible to know who is actually talking. It’s a mess.

Rip off.

Makes me angry that this is not clearly marked as an abridged version. Misleading advertising and an obvious cash grab linked to the upcoming movie.

No one knows who narrates this book

This book switches randomly between Simon Vance as the narrator for all of the characters, and individual voices for each of the characters. Its switches back and forth, and back and forth sometimes in the same chapter. Its really confusing, and takes away from the experience.

If you read reviews from the Dark Messiah and other books, this feature of the Dune audio book series continues, gets stranger, and makes some of the books unreadable.

It would have been better to pick one narrator or a bunch. This really is the strangest feature I've seen in a audiobook to date.

Please. Do You Really Need Another Great Review?

Frank Herbert, I OWE you. I owe you a LOT. This was one of the very first books that truly stirred my love for science fiction. You SPOILED me. You made me demand better writing from the authors I followed, and better development, as well. From this book on, I became harder on myself, to read works that challenged me, that made me ponder well after finishing the novel. I hungered for better writing that combined story, action, flow, cadence and for God's sake, CREATIVITY. Thanks, Frank.

THAT'S what good writing demands of us, and if the author excels at his or her craft, this book is the perfect example of what can happen.

In Dune, you get galaxy-sweeping politics, messianic jihads, genetically-enhanced warriors and spacefarers, pirates hiding ruling classes, clones that psychically destroy their victims, fantastic ecologies and creatures, religions that manipulate families and bloodlines, and countless castes intertwined with ruling houses that all depend upon a drug found only on one desolate planet - A planet with its own secret and massive agenda, hidden within the howling desert plains covering its surface. And wait, it's followed by yet ADDITIONAL novels in the series, some better than others, and then yet ANOTHER series by the author's SON, done decades later, that provides tremendous PREQUELS, based on his father's notes? Finally, throw in excellent male and female narrators that fit the characters they portray, and individualize each character.

Come on. Do you really need another great review to buy this audiobook?

Please.

Incomplete adaptation. Not the full novel.

I've only got about two minutes in but have already had to stop. This is not the complete novel. It is an adaptation. When there is dialogue the words of the narrator are omitted, as if it were a play. Not what I wanted at all for such an amazing book.

The narration wasn't for me.

I do like Dune. It is a classic of science fiction. Given the current warnings from prominent scientists about AI, and the impact of religious violence on our world, it raises interesting speculation about the future. I've read the book in print several times over the last 30 years.

The narration didn't really work for me, however. The main narrator had a kind of 'grand' tone to his voice, a little too reverent, as if every sentence was a morsel of deep importance. I found myself turned off. His female voices suffered that problem many male readers have, of making them too 'fluffy' (surely not, for Jessica!), but it was the overall tone that defeated me. I didn't make it through to the end, it became a chore, so I finished it off in my printed book.

A lot of people here seem to disagree, and thought the reading was exceptional. I am very willing to accept it just didn't work for me. I prefer readers who sound like they're enjoying the story.

A superb production of a sci fi classic!

I won't dwell on the book itself - it is for many the highwater mark of the sci fi genre; superbly written, richly detailed, boiling with wonderful ideas and concepts, and giving an impression of historical depth that (almost) rivals Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Rather, I'd like to comment on the audio presentation. Potential listeners should have no hesitation in downloading this immediately! Simon Vance is the main reader, and - as always! - his reading is of the highest calibre - clear, faultless pronounciation, and with a fine balance of character voicing without over-acting. Although it's billed as a full-cast reading (from the superb Audio Renaissance team), the full cast are only used on some chapters, while Simon Vance reads many chapters solo. And while I love the Audio Renaissance team, I actually found the solo Vance chapters even better. A very highly recommended listen! And what great news that the sequels will be available over the upcoming months!

read and heard now!!!!!

I first read this book years and years ago. After getting an iPod, to while away the hours at work, cnc programmer and operator, I decided to try an audio book. I went for Dune with the thought of 'I've read it, so lets see how it listens' so to speak. AMAZED. I loved every minute, got totally engrossed, beautifully read, good background mood music, thoroughly enjoyed it. Next audio book please!

Rather fragmented production of a wonderful book

I read 'Dune' in my teens and adored it - the complexities of the story and the depth to which the eco-system of the desert planet is planned are quite breathtaking. So I was looking forward to having the audiobook so I could re-live the wonder. Unfortunately this is a bit of a fragmented production. The main narrator has a voice fitting to the scope of the book and reads well. However, my guess is that originally the production company brought in other actors to read the dialogue - but for an ABRIDGED version. But they didn't bother to use them to complete the unabridged recording. Therefore, at some points, we have dialogue of the main characters read by other actors (often with some annoying 'atmospheric' sound effects, music or irritating echoic effects in the background). Then at other sections of the story all the voices of dialogue are provided by the main narrator, which makes the whole thing sadly disjointed. Ironically, I think it works far better with the narrator alone providing all dialogue - so the company could have saved themselves the cost and trouble of getting other people in and would still have ended up with a better, more choherent performance of the book. I will still finish listening to the audiobook, just to enjoy the marvellous story, but I feel the oddities of the recording will always keep me from being completely immersed in the tale.

High drama but more of it please

Dune is a book of high tension, filled with treachery, suspicion and dangerous characters with dark motives. The early scenes of this audiobook are dramatised and they capture the mood expertly. This is edge-of-the-seat stuff and makes for compelling listening. I could feel the 'gom jabar' at my own neck as my hands went all clammy! What a pity the dramatisation lessens, giving way to straight narration as the book progresses. It is read very well throughout but it could have been so much more gripping if the full cast had been retained. Another annoying gripe, common to so many audiobooks. Why can't the audio 'chapters' correspond with those in the book instead of ending randomly mid paragraph? It makes navigating a long book unnecessarily difficult.

confusing

Overall very good, but the inconsistency of the voices really bugged me. Simon Vance is great, so are the others, but having randomly cut in and out was kinda strange.

A new dimension

When I was a teenager I thoroughly enjoyed (and found myself transported to) Dune and appreciated it as much as Catch 22 and Asimov's Foundation series. When I was a thirty-something I tried to enjoy the film version without much success. As a fifty-something I am amazed by the richness of the experience provided by this audiobook. The combination of straight narrative and dramatisation works to bring the book to life in a way I did not expect. I recommend listening via an iPod/MP3 player with headphones. If the spoken word can evkoe pictures in your mind, your are in for a cinematic treat!

Dune is to SciFi, as what LOR is to Fantasy

I loved the 1984 film adaptation of Dune as a child, but I have never read the book.

I went through this audio book, Twice! In one week. What a story and to think it was published in 1965.

I really loved the way this book is written and audio production is the best I have every heard, and adds to the entertainment value.

There is a the main narrator Simon Vance who is brilliant, but the additional narrators and ambient sounds used add more colour to the sound.

Scifi may be back drop to this story, but the main drama is in the relationships and the characters. I urge non Scifi readers looking for a good book with great intertwining plots, varied characters told in a oracle like voice to listen to this story.

I enjoyed this more than Lord of the Rings, which I do like. I like a long story that is well written and this is one of the best.

Outstanding

This is a superbly read, expertly-produced audiobook that draws the listener headlong into the world of Arrakis and the adventures of Dune. The narration, acting, music and effects all compliment each other beautifully to create an experience that does true justice to this Sci-Fi epic.