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Dune  By  cover art

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
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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)

Featured Article: Dune (2021)—Book vs. Movie


The very first book to win the Nebula Award, Frank Herbert's Dune has long been a fixture of the sci-fi world. It's no surprise, then, that yet another filmmaker has taken a stab at bringing this classic to the screen. The latest effort, by Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve, captures the first half of the epic novel. The reviews have been generally positive, with critics and audiences blown away by the scale and sheer ambition of the adaptation. Overall, Villeneuve's 2021 adaptation of Herbert's sci-fi classic is quite faithful. But in what small ways does the film differ from the book?

What listeners say about Dune

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 3 Stars
    5,471
  • 2 Stars
    1,403
  • 1 Stars
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Story
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  • 2 Stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Best audiobook ever

I was very impressed by the production of this audiobook! I wanted to listen after watching the films so I could compare, and I was not expecting all the amazing voice actors and sound effects. Made it much easier to move through such dense material, thank you!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great Story Confusing Narration

Great story but the changing of narrators seemed very random and a little distracting at times.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Half Finished Product

The back and forth between separate voices for each character and the one narrator doing all voices is just crazy to me. Either option would have worked well if they just stuck to it, but they just mix it up throughout the chapters. If someone did this in a film, it would be distracting and confusing. It just doesn’t make sense why they would release it this way.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Full cast in only some chapters. Still great!

If you loved the movies, this will add a ton of depth to the story.

Very enjoyable audiobook version of the book. I do wish that all the chapters were full-cast performances (because they were excellent), but the single narrator was still very good, so was still a pleasure to listen to. Highly recommended and worth the credit.

So good, it's worth a second listen immediately after the first!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Strange Naration

As others have mentioned, the naration was strange. I have listened to many “full cast” audio books, and this book starts that way, then randomly pops back and forth between the main narrator doing all of the voices, and then voice actors doing their characters. Sometimes multiple switches within a single chapter. The main narrator is fine, but switching back and forth is odd.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Heightened the book experience

Weird how they switched narrators through out chapters but it was niceeee I recommend to a friend

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A little distracting

The voice acting was good but the use of different actors for the same characters was distracting… and some of the different characters were voiced by the same actors with little difference in their voices.. also distracting

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epic

sound effects for battles and fights would have add a more immersive experience to the audiobook

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Constant switching of narrators for the same character 

I loved this audiobook and the narrators did a great job. I just dislike the constant switching of readers for the same characters. Makes it hard to tell if I'm still listening to the same characters.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Do not believe the hype.

This book is readable. It’s not great but it’s nice to read to get better context for the movies which are superior and manage to be great on their own. The narrator switches inner and speaking voices for the same character and it doesn’t always make sense. There were times I had to listen repeatedly to understand what was happening.

The speaking voices changed as well slightly between parts which made things more frustrating.

Beyond that I wouldn’t believe the hype of Dune the books. I understand why basement dwelling incels see Paul as a hero while the author stated that everyone got it wrong. This book is rough. I see the point the author was trying to make but stilted dialogue and needless introspection that went a bit off the rails made it hard to get into the world.

Watch the movies if you enjoy the genre - skip the book.

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