However, of course, I plodded on and could feel the gap closing in with every page much to my joy and relief.
I felt a yawning chasm between Herbert's vision and my limited understanding of it. I knew there were dialogues which meant much more than their superficial meaning and was unable to grasp at it. The challenge was the complexity and depth of the plot, which left me perplexed, in the beginning. It was intriguing and challenging and heck, since I live for challenges I decided to take this one up too, gladly. The tone was umistakably sombre and I realized Herbert was not here to merely entertain me, he was here to make me part of the legend of Muad'Dib. The very first stirring I felt upon opening the yellowed pages of Dune was that of stumbling upon an English translation of an ancient Arabic manuscript of undeniable power and potence which had an epic story to narrate.
All this set in a mind-boggling, frighteningly original world which Herbert ominously terms as an 'effort at prediction'. Machiavellian intrigue, mythology, religion, politics, imperialism, environmentalism, the nature of power. In my head, the purpose of this review is very clear.
