Love Dune! - agree, book one is a strain, but then it picks up - even the later one's after FH died are good!
I remember my dad turning his nose up the books when I read them as a kid - later, he picked up Dune when he was bored one day, and the next thing I knew he was hooked - now he's read them all at least twice!
Great shot there not labelled at the botanical garden so students of botany can go around and identify them in Cambridge not a lot of help but as its paid for by the University