Dune - The Graphic Novel

Dune is one of the classics of science fiction; some critics have said that it's the best SF novel of all time. I am not sure I would go that far, but it certainly is one of the genre's best, most popular, and most influential books. It's already been filmed once and a new adaptation will be out sometime later this year.

So when I logged into Hoopla late last month and saw that they had the graphic novel adaptation, I downloaded it immediately. I'm glad I did. 

The adaptation is written by Brian Herbert (Frank Herbert's son) and Kevin J. Anderson, who have collaborated on many Dune sequels. (I've read and enjoyed the first trilogy they wrote, House Atreides, House Harkonnen, and House Corrino). It's illustrated by Raúl Allén and Patricia Martín.

The book covers roughly the first third of the original novel. It is faithful to the events of the original novel but adds a fair amount of new material, which like the Prelude to Dune trilogy I mentioned above, was based on Frank Herbert's notes. This adds substantially to the characterization, especially for some of the secondary characters. 

The artwork doesn't have the gravitas of John Schoenherr's illustrations for the Analog serialization of Dune in the early 1960s, but is generally fine, although I didn't care much care for the pinkish tone of some of the Arrakis scenes. 

I enjoyed this more than I thought I might and am looking forward to the second volume, which unfortunately won't be out until spring 2022. In the meantime I will console myself with reading the graphic novel adaptation of House Atreides. It has kindled the urge to reread the original Dune, although I probably won't due to the lack of time and the size of my to-be-read list.