The only problems I had with Dune were those occasional mix-up in voices. This recording won an Audie Award in 2008, and it deserved it. Occasionally, the voice of one character would bleed over into another, but these occurrences were rare. The remaining cast (Orlagh Cassidy, Euan Morton, Simon Vance, and Ilyana Kadushin), along with Brick, each voiced a variety of characters and made them each unique. The main narrator (Scott Brick) has an easy voice that draws you into the story of Dune. The quality of the recording was wonderful, and the sound effects were used well.

Despite the vast differences between the cultures in the book and cultures now, Herbert made the characters accessible and interesting. The book has a richness and depth that was hard to find back then, and it still stands out as one of the best science fiction novels of all time. I had forgotten how different it was from the film and the television series. Reading (or rather, listening) to Dune again after so long was great fun. Control of the planet was taken from the Baron Harkonnen, and they are not happy about it. Arrakis is the source of melange (or “spice”), a substance that allows the far-flung humanity to travel the stars. Set 10,000 years or so in the future, the young Paul Atreides goes with his family to the planet of Arrakis as his father assumes control over the planet at the command of the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV.

This one has remained my favorite, however. I really enjoyed it, and spent a lot of time in that world reading the other books in the series. “Dune” by Frank Herbert – audiobook cover.I first read Dune back in the 1980s sometime, around 20 years after it was originally released.

Dune audiobook unabridged