Dune by Frank Herbert

Rating: 5 out of 5


The first of a series of novels, few sci-fi books come as good as this one. Few sci-fi authors even come close to the imagination of Frank Herbert. No other world (sci-fi or otherwise) will ever imprint itself to the human mind the way does the novel's lonely, dry and harsh desert planet. The planet Dune will haunt you.

Set tens of thousands of years in the future, Dune is the story of the young Paul Atreides, heir apparent to the House Atreides. He finds himself caught up in the byzantine and deadly power struggle between his family’s house and that of House Harkkonen. Trouble begins to escalate as the House Atreides takes over the rule of the planet Arrakis (also known as Dune), where the family relocates therefore giving them control of the most important planet in the system. Arrakis is the only source of the all-important spice melange, which is practically the lifeblood of society as a whole. Melange, among other things, can give extended life and increased awareness and mental capacity to those who ingest it. It is also the most necessary component of space travel as melange is needed for pilots to guide their spacecraft through the “folds” of space.

Naturally, the Atreides relocation move is opposed by House Harkkonen, who with the help of the Emperor, launch a suprise attack on Dune that sends the boy Paul and his mother into the desert and into the hands of the enigmatic tribe of human warriors known as the Fremen. Among them, Paul, who may have the ability to “see” visions of the future, learns of a local prophesy about the coming of a Messianic figure, the Muad’dib who will one day transform Arrakis into a paradise. And to Paul’s horror, he and the Fremen come to realize that he might just be the Muad’dib himself. Paul desperately tries to avoid fulfilling the prophesy, since in his visions, the coming of Muad’dib would also unleash a holy war or jihad across the galaxy that will result in the mass slaughter of millions.

In Dune, Frank Herbert creates a world of terrible and deadly beauty filled with super-powerful sandstorms, brave smugglers, deadly warriors and majestic giant sandworms. Dune, as a planet is as much a character as any person in the story and probably the greatest character in the whole series of the Dune novels. The planet comes alive in the pages of the book. In it, Herbert brings to front the ecology which depicts man’s struggle against his environment and vice-versa. How do the surroundings affect the development of human society and his culture? How does man affect the environment in his struggle to survive? Dune, the novel, is said to be the first great ecological novel. Herbert also presents to his reader the question of man’s dependence on one product to support his way of life. The spice melange becomes an analogy of petroleum and present-day man’s dependence on it.

The author also creates a mesmerizing society which is heavily influenced by Arabic culture in terms of customs and language. But he also mixes some touches of Zen Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Zionism giving the novel a quasi-religious feel. One can suspect the possibility that Herbert may be examining the roles of ancient prophets and their part in the evolution of religion and their effects on human society and politics throughout our history.

More themes are explored in the book like substance addiction, human potential, evolution and breeding, free will and destiny, aspects of leadership, and much more. It was the themes that made the novel fascinating. But these would amount to little if it is not as beautifully written as it is by Frank Herbert. One can only compare the effort made by his son, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson when they tried to continue Frank’s story after his death, and see the huge difference in quality in the way their works were written (and it is strongly suggested to think it over before deciding to read the Dune "expanded universe" books of BH and KJA, which, while readable and probably entertaining to some, might be a hugely disappointing excercise.) Frank Herbert gives his readers profound ideas and ingenious settings, makes them think and imprints lasting images on their minds. And he presents them in such a lyrical way that his science fiction almost reads like fantasy.

Dune and the succeeding books make one of the best sci-fi stories of all time. It won the Nebula Award in 1965 and shared the Hugo Award in 1966. For many, it is the greatest sci-fi novel ever. Often compared to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, no sci-fi universe can ever compare to it (with sincere apologies to George Lucas). Herbert has written the book that still stands the test of time in terms of the story, literary style and speculative concepts. He concentrated on a setting and perceived future which focused on the humanity aspects instead of technological advancement, where he was deliberatly vague on the subject - except that thinking machines (computers) were banned in his universe. This stroke of genius has prevented the novel from becoming, unlike earlier works of science fiction, outdated or too over-the-top and is one of the factors that has made his story forever enduring. Dune will always be considered one of the world’s classics of literature. And rightfully so.

Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

Rating: 4 out of 5


3 Volumes:
Dragons of Autumn Twilight
Dragons of Winter Night
Dragons of Spring Dawning


It’s not literature. The books will probably never be considered to be even close to a fantasy classic. It suffers from being a book created to market an RPG gaming product. Its characters are the usual types. It borrows most of its concepts and plot elements from The Lord of the Rings. Its dialogue is simple and even anachronistic at times. The story was probably aimed at teenaged RPG gamers back in the late 80s. It’s world-building, its characters and plot, though extensive and detailed, were not created solely by the authors but helped along by a whole team of RPG game designers. But having said that, when it came out back in 1984-1985, the story quickly became the favorite of many readers and its popularity just grew (it’s still being read today, although “serious” fantasy readers still avoid them). Its success has even spawned a sub-genre of fantasy, gaming-related novels and series.

The plot was typical Tolkienesque. A group of friends, composed of every prototypical character and race in fantasy, find themselves unwillingly involved in a fight against strange creatures that invade their homes. Soon, they find themselves running and along the way meet a beautiful woman bearing a strange and powerful treasure that might just be connected to their plight. This sends them on a quest where they discover that evil is awakening throughout their world and the gods have come down to prepare their forces for a war. Needless to say, the companions find out that they have been chosen to champion the cause of good and they must find other long-lost artefacts in order to combat the power that is trying to destroy everything they love. Sort of like, LOTR for High School...

Despite its pitfalls, what made Dragonlance Chronicles loved by many (including this reviewer)? Well, in the simple way the authors tell their story, they made the characters seem “real”. Most other characters from other stories up to this point seemed larger-than-life with very profound problems. The Companions (as they are to be called) are down-to-earth, have “real-life” problems like every other normal person. They quarrel with each other, joke around with each other, and love each other as friends. They have differences, but try to find a way around them. The characters grew because of each other. For that reason, the authors make it easier to relate to the characters and make people actually care for them. For the readers, the world being conquered by evil didn’t matter as much as what would happened to each individual character. (“Who cares what the Queen of Darkness does, I wanna know what happens to Raistlin!”) You laugh with them, you cry with them. You feel their wonder and horror. You live with them. You even die with them. (The story contains probably the most heart-wrenching and poignant death scene I have ever read in any novel in my life.)

It is through the characters that we are transported to the continent of Ansalon and see it through their eyes. And there lies the magic of Dragonlance Chronicles, a clichéd and flawed story but with wonderful and timeless characters that will live forever inside those of us who have been fortunate enough to get to know them.

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Rating: 5 out of 5

3 Volumes:
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
The Return of the King

To the serious reader, it's hard to imagine what popular adventure fiction would be like without the influence of J.R.R. Tolkien and his masterpiece. For one, it created a demand of books in the Fantasy genre influencing a great number of authors that would come after, and along with C.S. Lewis and Ursula K. Le Guin would cement the fantasy genre into modern mainstream literature. Tolkien's epic style would define modern heroic fantasy fiction for the next 50 years.

And, as many followers of fantasy are also into Science Fiction, both genres influencing one another, it wasn't long before elements of Tolkien's stories could be found in the works of Sci-Fi authors and filmmakers. One can only look at Star Wars and see the similarities between the characters.

The book also strongly made its mark in the role-playing game industry which achieved poplularity since the 1970's in what is now called the pencil-and-paper version and has now evolved into the computer-gaming world of the 90's and the virtual cyberworlds since 2000. From them, one can say that Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings has played a major part the formation of late 20th century and early 21st century popular world culture.

Basically look at fantasy adventure stories of today and it may, to a lesser or greater degree, be described as "Tolkienesque" - basically a group of adventurers going on a quest to save the world from the armies of an Evil Dark Lord. Furthermore, one would be hard-pressed to find any fantasy story before the turn of the century that's a standalone book. Most are trilogies. At least! Some even stretch their stories to 4, 5, 6 even 10 books even though it was initially promised as a trilogy to cash out on the success of their initial books. (The funny thing is that Tolkien meant this to be one book, but his publishers decided to release them in three parts due to the high cost of paper at the time.)

Why is it so popular? It practically became the second-most read book of the 20th century after the Bible. Plus, the success of the Peter Jackson films has reintroduced the books to the public and has propelled its popularity to new heights. This, in spite of the fact that even die-hard Tolkien fans regard the books as not an easy read, as Tolkien approached his writing in a linguistic point-of-view and disregarded most of the rules of literary writing.

Tolkien introduces the reader to a world never seen before at the time of its publication - Middle-Earth. A magical world of hobbits, wizards, rangers, elves and dwarves. Of giant spiders, goblins, orcs, trolls, wraiths, giant eagles, talking and walking trees and other magical creatures. In it, a young Hobbit (and to anyone who still doesn't know what this little creatures are, what hole have you been hiding in for the past 50 years?) named Frodo Baggins inherits a ring from his guardian Bilbo Baggins. To Frodo's horror, he learns that the said ring is the actual long-lost Ring of Power which belongs to the Dark Lord Sauron, who now is looking for it in order to launch his next assault on the world of Men. (For the story on how Bilbo actually got the ring, see Tolkien's other great book, The Hobbit.) With help of the Gandalf the Wizard, three other Hobbits, Sam, Merry and Pippin, the Ranger Aragorn, and later the elf Legolas, the dwarf Gimli, and Boromir of the Kingdom of Gondor, Frodo begins a journey that will lead him towards the fires of Mt. Doom, the only place where the Ring can be destroyed. Along the way, he will be aided or hindered by different wonderful creatures that inhabit Middle-Earth such as Wraiths, Trolls, Orcs, Ents, Eagles, Wargs, Mearas and much, much more. And through Frodo's journey, one gets to learn of Middle-Earth, a world painstakingly created by Tolkien complete with its very own detailed history, culture, geography, language, and literature.

If the plot is a wee bit familiar, it's because this is THE plot. This is the plot from which most other heroic fantasy story's plots come from. It was as if for 50 years, fantasy authors thought that (1) anything other than Tolkien's plotline would be inferior, and (2) they loved the story so much, that they want to repeat it over and over again while putting little personal touches to differentiate it and make it their own (like put some dark shadowy terrifying creatures like Wraiths but calling them by another name.)

Yet, this is a book whose story is timeless as it talks about themes that touch everyone's soul. It talks about despair and hoplessness, and finding hope where there is none. It talks about courage, not as fearlessness, but as confronting your darkest fears and terrors, and accepting the consequences of your actions and decisions even if it means the very worst. It talks about the nature of evil and how it influences us all. It talks about the dangers of modernization and its effect on the environment. (As early as his time, Tolkien did see the coming dangers of the modern world and the price it obtains from nature.) And most of all, it talks about undying friendship and loyalty even, and especially, on the face of death. It asks one question of us all: "If you were to discover a thing so powerful that it can do almost anything, would you use it for the betterment of mankind or would you destroy it to keep it from falling into the wrong hands, and that includes yourself?"

So maybe, it's not really a fantasy story after all, but a story that needs a fantasy setting to say all the things it needs to say. And that is why, like all great works, it is a story that transcends it genre, and is a classic.