Many of my friends and acquaintances love science fiction. It’s almost like an elite club of book-lovers that I’ve always been curious about. And Dune, unfortunately, has still left me unconverted. Here’s, perhaps, a few thoughts I have around why that’s the case:

• Why do these stories need to take place in the backdrop of other planets during a time frame far in the future? The plot, the character development, the struggles are all stories that have existed in either true history or in present world. Perhaps I’m just missing the essence here?
• It’s too complicated. And I don’t see to value of the added complication. Stillsuits, the bene gesserit, House Harkonnen (among many others), Kwisatz Haderach, Sardaukar, etc…is all that really necessary? I was about halfway through the book when I found myself venting this particular frustration to a Dune-fan friend, he enlightened me; “Why don’t you just reference the appendix?” Because I was reading on a kindle, I hadn’t known there was an appendix. Kindles are actually great for term-lookups, but useless unless you know it’s there.

Contrary to what it may seem, I actually didn’t dislike the book, overall. The story moved at a great pace and painted a good picture (I haven’t seen the movie) for my mind.

When it comes to science fiction, perhaps, I still haven’t picked up the right one. But, I won’t quite give up yet.