On one hand, this is a conventional story of a boy trying to avenge his fathers death, but it goes beyond convention with its creative and exiting plot twists. The story constantly changes from escape, to desert survival, to revenge. For example, after Paul and Lady Jessica have joined up with the Freemen, one man, Jamis, doesn't like Paul, so he challenges him to a fight. In Freemen tradition, this means a knife fight to the death. Jamis is a man and Paul is still a teenager. No one thinks Paul can win, but he does. Paul gets his tribe name, Usal, which means the base of the pillar, a Freemen name, Maud'Dib, a kind of kangaroo mouse that is in much of the Freemen mythology. "Maud'Dib creates his own water. Maud'Dib hides from the sun and travels by the cool of night. Maud'Dib is fruitful and multiplies over the land. Maud'Dib we call our 'instructor of boys.' That is a powerful base on which to build your life, Paul-Maud'Dib who is Usal among us. We welcome you"(p.245). After he is named, he is seen as a man, and respected as an adult. We go with Paul through the rights of passage into manhood.
Herbert goes into great depth on every subject in the book. He creates for the reader the hostile world called Dune: " Paul swallowed, suddenly aware of the moisture in his mouth, remembering a dream of thirst. That the people could want so for water they had to recycle their body moisture struck him with a feeling of desolation. 'Water's precious there,' he said.
"Hawat nodded, thinking: Perhaps I'm doing it, getting across to him the importance of this planet as an enemy. It's madness to go there without caution in our minds" (p.24).
The reader is reminded throughout of the hardships of this desert world. The book includes a dictionary of terminology of the Emperium, a map of Dune, an appendix on the religion, an appendix on the ecology of Dune, an appendix on the Bene Gesserit beliefs, and selected excerpts of the Noble Houses.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Never expect the expected, there is always a twist. For those who like science fiction, I think you will be pulled into the amazing world of these people and this planet, Dune.