Dune
It was the Sci-Fi channel's mini-series that got me to finally pick up this book, but I'd been introduced to 'Dune' before that by mom. She's the kind of lady who won't bother you with her opinion about a book, but will detail several key scenes for your benefit. When we came across her 'Dune' books while going through boxes in the garage, I was given a verbal sketch of a mother and son caught in a desert planet, driven to the edges of everything that they knew. In that way a lot of books were impressed on me long before I picked them up for myself.
'Dune' is a vast book and one that is as successful today as it was when it was first written. Herbert did an extraordinary thing with his chapter headings, snippets from histories, songs, prayers, etc., that foreshadowed and enhanced events of the book that are hundreds of pages away. I have yet to read any other book that uses this method so effectively to develop the awesome scale of history and tradition that most other authors can only attempt to mimic. The future here is by millenia more distant than that dealt with by most novelists, but Herbert makes his feudal space society plausible.
The more of these great, influential books I reread the more I realize how rare the ones that stand up to my oh-so-adult scrutiny are, how few don't fall prey to the weaknesses of their times. Herbert had some heavy homophobia issues, quite literally in the case of the vile Baron Harkonnen, and his women often failed to come out from their behind-the-throne string pulling or homemaker roles, but the book is so well-balanced that I'm not sidetracked by them as I have been by others. Plus, I have high hopes for the sequels, which I'm reading soon, to advance certain characters more, such as Alia and Irulan (I have no hope for Chani), even if on the whole the sequels are not as great as the original.
One last thing, I love how perfect the ending of 'Dune' is, the whole book we're treated to excerpts from books written or compiled by Princess Irulan only to be given that punch of an ending line. It still shocks me and adds a disquieting edge to Paul's own thoughts earlier on how he can't prevent the coming jihad that will be held in his name.
Dune
Next: 'Dune Messiah'
