Frank Herbert's 1965 novel Dune remains a classic more than a half century after its release.

Dune The Graphic Novel Book 1 shows how hard it is to adapt this great novel visually. David Lynch failed miserably with his 1984 movie and the Syfy Channel had slight success with 2000 mini-series.

Herbert's son Brian Herbert teams with author Kevin J. Anderson to write the text for this adaptation and they do a good job. The pair have made their reputation with a series of respectable novels set in the Dune universe. They are assisted by artist Raul Allen and letterer Patricia Martin.

The graphic novel is good; The storytelling is faithful to the original; the art is attractive; the lettering is good (although I had an issue with some unnecessary low-contrast text on backgrounds), so overall I liked this graphic novel. The main issue comes with the lack of subtlety. While the elder Herbert infused his story with multiple layer and secreted hidden meanings within each line of dialogue, this story is much more straightforward. As such, it lacks the subtlety that made the original so great.

This graphic novel is good to read after finishing the Dune book. The novel can be intimidating, and it is easy to miss things the first time around. This comic helps to clarify them. But do yourself a favour and do not start with the graphic novel. You will miss the excitement of discovering the story layers as they are slowly unfolded within Frank Herbert's original prose.