With the new Dune film coming out this week, I find myself drawn into conversations comparing Dune and Lord of the Rings on an almost daily basis. Granted, I’m a Tolkien geek who often seeks out these conversations, but as a full-fledged geek, I couldn’t help examining comparable traits of these two books. Here follows my definitive* comparison of Lord of the Rings** and Dune***:
*This is in no way definitive. I’d love to hear feedback, particularly as I’m biased by having spent far more years studying Tolkien’s work.
**Lord of the Rings is one book, not a trilogy. I will die on this hill.
***For the purposes of this comparison, I’m looking only at the individual books, not the series or material from the expanded worlds – a broader comparison would be great, but it’s way beyond my knowledge base and time constraints right now.
| Lord of the Rings | Dune | |
| Author | J. R. R. Tolkien | Frank Herbert |
| Birth/Death Dates | 1892-1973 | 1920-1986 |
| Nationality | UK | USA |
| Publication Date | 1955-56 | 1965 |
| Time to Write | 10 years | 6 years |
| Length | 576,459 words | 72,449 words |
| Prose | C | B |
| Is the writing itself enjoyable, descriptive, believable? Does it bring the reader into the story? | Dry, slow, excessive, and much of the dialogue is terribly stilted. I absolutely love Tolkien’s attention to diction and the meaning he packs into a single word choice, but it requires background knowledge to understand all of it, making the story less accessible. | Certainly more exciting than Tolkien, but still kinda dry. Dialogue is more convincing, but still not amazing. I’m still angry about so many key parts of the world only existing in the appendices. |
| World-Building | A- | B- |
| Is it thorough, convincing, internally consistent? | Clearly the gold standard for world building. Incredibly detailed, internally consistent, thorough enough to be fleshed out in other books, took good advantage of Tolkien’s knowledge of medieval northern European cultures and languages. Admittedly excessive to include as much detail as he did in a single book, but those details also draw the reader into that world such that they understand the stakes as they watch it change and come under greater and greater threat. | Clearly outstanding. Also detailed, internally consistent, thorough enough to be fleshed out in other books, and thoroughly researched. Unfortunately, many key aspects of the world that are directly relevant to understanding the story only appear in the appendices. |
| Gender | C | D |
| How does gender exist in this world? How does the author handle characters of different genders? | Eowyn is a badass, but she’s almost the only female character in the whole enormous book that covers 8 different societies across half the world. Strict gender binary, but doesn’t rely on many common stereotypes, so points for that. | Strict gender binary based almost entirely on stereotypes. Female characters are all duplicitous or subservient and exist only to create the Chosen Male. |
| POC | C | B |
| How do different people’s and cultures exist in this world? How does the author handle diversity of characters? (This isn’t a direct comparison because Tolkien’s world includes numerous species (and sub-species, but that’s a whole other conversation), while Herbert’s only includes human characters. I’ve chosen to compare based on the message being expressed to our world via the context of the each story’s own world.) | The first fantasy novel to feature characters of different Races as equals and companions, with their own fully developed cultures, histories, and languages. More diversity than people usually credit (Hobbits are medium- to dark-brown skinned; the vast majority of Elves are dark-haired). Still mostly white people and some highly problematic descriptions that associate dark skin and slanted eyes with evil. | Dune’s approach to different races, cultures, and languages is complicated. On the one hand, I appreciate that Herbert derived aspects of the Fremen from SWANA cultures, Arabic, and Islam, rather than rehashing yet another version of medieval Europe. On the other hand, it’s concerning that a white, American man was able to have his novel published, which then became a huge commercial success, when so many SWANA authors never get published or promoted for talking about their own cultures (not Herbert’s fault, but still problematic). He did a lot of research, treats these cultures with respect, didn’t create over-simplistic or stereotypical versions of them, and it avoids the “white savior” problem, since the Fremen actually save Paul and Jessica. However, Paul’s role as Chosen White Man makes him the leader of the Fremen despite knowing comparatively little about them, and the story is still about and, to my mind, too sympathetic to, Paul. |
| Ending | A- | D |
| Does the story end well? Does it leave the reader with a sense of meaning? Does it tie up the story in its particular context? | Okay, yes, it goes on a bit. But I think it’s valuable to have a story that doesn’t just end when the good folks beat the bad folks, but rather shows the consequences of the battle and requires them to do the work to repair their own home. I also love stories that tell you a lot about what the characters did with the rest of their lives after the plot ends. In the final pages, I think LotR has one of the most perfect endings I’ve ever read. | Granted this book was planned from the start to be the first book in a series (this is the only reason is doesn’t get an F, but WTF?!). There’s barely a denouement and then it just … stops. Not only that, it stops with a sexist platitude. Not cool, Frank. |
| Cool Maps | A+ | B- |
| I like maps. | Many, with enormous detail, covering areas even outside the events of the story, with names listed in multiple language. | Adequate. There is a map. You can see where most of the story takes place. |
| Notes: | ||
| I don’t have a rating system for this, but a couple ways I personally think LotR does some wonderful and rare things, while Dune falls into trope: | 1) Comradery. LotR is very much a group effort, which is a far better message and more practical in the real world. Frodo was never destined to take the Ring to Mount Doom, but even once he decided to do it, it couldn’t have happened without others, in particular Sam and Gollum. There’s also a repeated emphasis on the importance of everyone participating in making the world better and in the importance of inclusion and representation. | Dune is, first and foremost, about Paul Atreides and his pre-ordained fate – every other character exists to help or hinder that fate. We do see a lot about Paul’s training at least, but he has abilities that are innate because of his Chosen White Guy status. |
| 2) Choice. Time and again, Tolkien uses this story to emphasize the important of personal choice. There are events that are “meant to be” and that are influenced by divine intervention, but Tolkien repeatedly has characters talk explicitly about the choices they make. It’s far too easy for a belief in “destiny” to make people complacent or unwilling to risk their own comfort for the safety of others, and so I feel it’s important to acknowledge how much our choices make the world around us. | Dune, in contrast, is entirely centered on prophesied and other foreseen events. Even individual “choices” that seem to deviate from that ultimately, in the way of Greek drama-style prophesy, serve this destiny (see: Jessica’s ‘choice’ to have a boy instead of the girl the Bene Gesserit insisted on literally creates the Chosen One). |