How easy are they to get into? I'm an avid reader but recently have found myself struggling through some pretty lengthy novels. I do not expect Dune to be a light read but have been meaning to give it a go for many years. Are they a dense and difficult read?
shareI read Dune around 1970 0r 1971, when I was twelve... I didn't find it tough going, but I had a tendency to read everything I could find that sounded cool to a science fiction and fantasy fan. I read pulpy space opera and lots of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert Howard and imitators thereof. I read Heinlein Juveniles and Andre Norton. I also read Doc Savage adventures, H.G Wells, and stuff by Olaf Stapledon. Dune felt like a giant adventure to me, with the added bonus of a map (I love maps), and appendices with all kinds of convincing detail.
So. I'd say Dune is not that dense or difficult... There's lots of interior monologue but it seems to move right along to me. Additionally, I think that what matters is just Dune and Dune Messiah. I stopped reading the books after Children of Dune.
I'm not up on what's leaked about the movie but my ideal version would be three movies - Dune Part 1, Dune Part 2 and Dune Messiah (Dune Part 3).
Read Dune in a college class... It doesn't take that long to read and if you expect to ever understand a movie they make about it you probably need to read the books first. You get lots of what the various characters are thinking while dealing with other characters which in past attempts at turning it into a movie have never worked.
shareThe books are actually more informative than what goes on in the movies. You read a lot of information that was never mentioned in the movies, because frankly, such information couldn't really be incorporated into visible form. Either that, or they thought it wasn't necessary.
You also get to see just how close to the novels the movie and miniseries' were, and weren't.