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)

Excellent Again!

I first read Dune the regular way in 1979, watched the 1984 movies and the SyFy minis 2000/2003. I started reading it again in 2006. I found this audio version even better than the reading and watching.

The actors/readers lend dimension to the scenes and characters that for me are missing from my personal reading of the book, the two versions of the 1984 movie and the various SyFy mini series.

The epigraphs by Princess Irulan are great as is the music that is featured at cetain times throughout the work.

Both my understanding and imagination are much better now making the listening a much better experience. I listen on two diff PMDs and a docking appliance with good speakers - a must in my opinion if you're not on the road.

Dune is a great story to be told and in the case of this version the story is told in a great way!

It is simply excellent - again.

Great story, spotty production

Dune is phenomenal as I already knew, having read it years ago. The issue is the often confusing change or lack of change in narrators. For instance in one chapter a narrator performs the character in a deep booming voice, then with no warning the same character continues in the following chapter with a different narrator with a mild low voice. This leads to brief confusion about who is who and just kind of ruins the aspect of losing yourself in the beautifully told story. Several of the narrators are very good, but the poor production just takes away some of the enjoyment for me.

…..First Dune Book and Still the Best.....

I have read the print version of Dune twice in the distant past and thought it was time to revisit the story to determine if my original impressions still held. When I first read it as a young boy I thought the story very difficult to engage with but ended up enjoying it very much. Reading it a second time was a revelation; everything seemed so vivid and well-described. I remember finishing that second reading on the very day the David Lynch movie was released. I remember being enthralled at seeing the sandworms come straight out of the book and onto the big screen. I am now undertaking the task of listening to all six of Frank Herbert’s Dune books.

As of this writing I am in the middle of book six, Heretics of Dune and believe I can safely make some assessments of the first in relation to the rest. The first is still the best. In this first Dune novel Frank Herbert obviously has a real spark of genius. His original creation is so vivid, so vast that it takes on the quality of myth. I really enjoy the narrow scope of this Space Opera. This may seem like a complete non-sequitur, but hear me out! Except for the first few opening scenes all the action takes place on Arrakis. The central character Paul becomes more and more isolated; his personal domain reduced from a planet-wide Dukedom to an outcast given refuge by the Fremen. Herbert focuses on storytelling in this book, building and borrowing heavily from Sunni Islam legends of the Twelfth Imam. So the scope of this book may masquerade as a Space Opera but it is really quite narrowly focused on the central characters.

Listening to Dune was a grand experience. This is a very fine production of this classic novel. Many key scenes are given a full cast performance, which really brought the story to life. I only wish this full cast was in place for each and every scene. Simon Vance handles the balance of the text in his trade-mark perfect and clear diction.

A true sci-fi classic

Dune was published in 1965. I read it in ‘84 and loved it. I was not surprised to learn it was the most successful sci-fi novel ever, selling over 10 million copies. Frank Herbert created a rich and future universe with fascinating planets, environments, cultures, religions, politics, and characters and then used these elements to tell a great story.

There is an interesting quote about this book. Arthur C. Clarke said it was, “Unique among SF novels … I know nothing comparable to it except ‘The Lord of the Rings’.” I think that is probably accurate.

My son and I listened to it together and we both really enjoyed it and it was a great bonding experience. I highly recommend this book even if you are not usually a sci-fi fan.

PS: I imagine George Lucas read Dune before writing Star Wars and that, among other things, Arrakis was the inspiration for Tatooine.

This book

I never got around to reading Dune. I saw the movie some time ago... blah. The book was outstanding! The reading was excellent.(I found the cast mostly superb) I was disappointed I hadn't read this earlier. This book is worth every penny(or credit). This would be considered a great novel if not labeled sci-fi. I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook and would recommend it to anyone (everyone).

One of the best crafted science fiction adventures

This is an outstanding good tale with fine character development, well constructed story line, which blends science fiction, ecology and adventure. If you saw the rather bad Hollywood movie, or marginal T.V series,of this don't give up on this story. The book is a well crafted gem of adventure fiction. The "bad guys" are very bad and the good guys are following a dream of freedom that makes any effort well worth it.

Brilliant

I'm looking forward to book 2 "Dune Messiah" appearing on Audible. For some reason only book 3 "Children of Dune" is available.

Brilliant

I have read the book 3-4 times and I still got so much from this audio book. The narrator and voices do changes but its not too hard to follow. If you love the book you'll love the audio book its very well done. Its great to hear all the words, which are so unique to the book, spoken out loud. You really get immersed in the Dune universe. I listened to it in the car and it passed the time wonderfully.

Classic Sci-Fic Epic, well worth a revisit

It's been quite a while since I read the Dune books, but the reviews of the Audible edition made it tempting to do it again.

The narration is excellent and made it more fun listening to rather than reading the book.

This one book can stand alone, so it is not necessary to listen to the entire series, but this classic example of Science Fiction is so deep, well constructed, layered, and brilliant it should not be missed.

For listeners who need to get right into action in a book, hang in there. Like a train pulling out of a station, this book takes off slowly and builds up speed and power. The ideas put into this book are intricate and subtle, yet deep in amazing thought-out future possibilities.

Dune (unabridged)

Worth every penny. This story is a classic that predated the manipulations of OPEC and the oil rich families and corporations which have played dangerous games of power, greed, and corruption in our world, and which are echoed in the universal empire of our future; 10,000 years in the future. This story relates the power schemes within schemes revolving around a desert world commodity to which the whole human society is addicted and dependent upon, and the neo-Islamic desert people that will defend it or destroy it to a dramatic conclusion, between empiralism, corporationalism, and religion.