Dune by Frank Herbert

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Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 118 comments. Each links to the original.

1. Herbert's point about dependence on machines creating machine-dependent humans, trapped in a deterministic arc of evolution

   Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Butlerian Jihad”

2. the biggest plot hole in Dune, because a superintelligent AI would have precluded a lot of the dynamics in the stories

   Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “Butlerian Jihad”

3. Prefer Herbert's simpler, more self-reflective, nuanced warning to not desecrate the divine mystery of mind.

   Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “'Dune' tried to warn us against AI”

4. Though Dune is highly acclaimed for its concepts, I couldn't quite get into it personally.

   Mixed · Apr 2026 · in “Isaac Asimov: The Last Question”

5. the joy of the books was developing a deep understanding of the societies and their norms

   Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “DeepSeek-V4-Flash Update”

6. the biggest plot hole in Dune, but I deeply appreciate the world and narrative it enabled

   Mixed · Apr 2026 · in “The Future of Everything Is Lies, I Guess: Where Do We Go from Here?”

7. I really enjoy watching Dune (or Openheimer, or even less bombastic movies) on my 65" TV

   Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Roger Ebert Reviews "The Shawshank Redemption"”

8. It's one of the best SF books of all time, with a voice that still seems fresh today.

   Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Book Prizes Don't Work How You Think”

9. I liked the book a lot, and had a very personal image of what the world looked like

   Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “The new rules of context engineering for Claude 5 generation models”

10. Whatever virtues you care to ascribe to Dune, “succinct” is not one of them.

    Mixed · Jun 2026 · in “The Butlerian Jihad Has Begun”

11. I didn't like that it was so thick, but it was a small book dimensionally.

    Mixed · Sep 2026 · in “Chopping up books when they're physically too big”

12. I love Dune personally, but it definitely doesn't get better after that.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Judge a book by its first pages”

13. I was properly blown away. Started me on a lifetime of loving SciFi.

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Computing Across America (1983-1985)”

14. Very interesting reflections in those books on power/human nature

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “I don't care how well your "AI" works”

15. The dialogue in Dune and Dune part 2 was very clear in theater.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Stranger Things Creator Says Turn Off "Garbage" Settings”

16. Dune is a landmark work that still influences modern writers

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Book Prizes Don't Work How You Think”

17. the 4K Dune and few other titles looks absolutely stupendous

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Netflix Prices Went Up Again – I Bought a DVD Player Instead”

18. Dune (just know it goes downhill fast after the first book)

    Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “Maybe the Default Settings Are Too High”

19. I didn't enjoy Dune, by the way. No shade on those who did, of course, but I couldn't bring myself to finish it.

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “UBlockOrigin and UBlacklist AI Blocklist”

20. for a long while in e-book editions on Amazon Kindle the word "pogrom" was rendered as "program"

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “Butlerian Jihad”

21. "pogrom" was mis-spelled as "program" and there was an error in formatting in the glossary

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “The New Kindle Scribes Are Great, but Not Great Enough”

22. the stillsuits they wear are hand made, but are exquisitely high–tech and display an ethos of perfectionism in their construction

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Butlerian Jihad”

23. which I found fun and reasonable to avoid trying to explain hierarchy where doing so would break the narrative flow

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class”

24. The Butlerian jihad is mentioned once or twice (though it does underlay the structure of the worldbuilding).

    Mixed · Mar 2026 · in “'Dune' tried to warn us against AI”

25. you can watch the new Dune and Lawrence of Arabia back to back and have similarly enjoyable time

    Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “PlayStation 2 Recompilation Project Is Absolutely Incredible”

26. The new movies have a good Hans Zimmer soundtrack, but I would argue a bit less innovative

    Mixed · May 2026 · in “UnDUNE II”

27. My favorite scene with Patrick Stewart is him leading the defence of the Atreides palace

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Patrick Stewart has died”

28. Oddly enough, I sort of appreicated the David Lynch movie more after the recent movies

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Get alerts for good seats at 70mm IMAX showings of The Odyssey”

29. It was fantastic, but people who hadn't read the novel were left very short on story.

    Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “Stranger Things Creator Says Turn Off "Garbage" Settings”

30. Herbert wrote Muad'dib's Jihad as historically analogous to the early rise of Islam

    Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “YousefAbdulHusain – The Dune Movies Erase Islam [video]”

31. They are different styles but definitely enjoyed by someone who also likes Asimov.

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Isaac Asimov: The Last Question”

32. I've read complaints about opam/dune, but for simple stuff it seems to work fine.

    Mixed · Nov 2025 · in “Pain Points of OCaml”

33. Both very enjoyable reads, but quite different from the modern interpretations.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?”

34. Much as I liked the books, enjoyed the most recent movies, big fan of Herbert

    Mixed · Jun 2026 · in “Dune's Butlerian Jihad and the Future of AI”

35. I liked the first three (Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune) the best

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Ask HN: Have you read the Dune books by Frank Herbert?”

36. The Butlerians simply exist to justify Mentats, and then get tossed aside.

    Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “Butlerian Jihad”

37. this is what made Dune so different, and for me, fascinating as I grew up

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Butlerian Jihad”

38. Use "dune test" to run the tests and review failures with "git diff".

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Jane Street Blog – What if writing tests was a joyful experience?”

39. Dune is a pretty good book and I attribute that to a ruthless editor.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Talking to 35 Strangers at the Gym”

40. Scott Pilgrim, Hunt for Red October, Neuromancer, Dune grade content

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Using LLM for confidence scoring is a bad idea”