Dune

Dune is a science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert and published in 1965. A winner of the Hugo Award and Nebula Award for outstanding science fiction, Dune is popularly considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, and is frequently cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history. Dune spawned five sequels written by Herbert, and inspired a film adaptation by David Lynch, two mini-series made by the Sci Fi Channel (United States), computer games, and a series of prequels co-written by Brian Herbert, the author’s son, and Kevin J. Anderson.

Dune is set far in the future amidst a sprawling feudal intergalactic empire where planetary fiefdoms are controlled by noble Houses that owe allegiance to the Imperial House Corrino. The novel tells the story of young Paul Atreides, heir apparent to Duke Leto Atreides and scion of House Atreides, as he and his family relocate to the planet Arrakis, the universe’s only source of the spice melange. In a story that explores the complex interactions of politics, religion, ecology, technology, and human emotion, the fate of Paul, his family, his new planet and its native inhabitants, as well as the Padishah Emperor, the powerful Spacing Guild, and the secretive female order of the Bene Gesserit, are all drawn together into a confrontation that will change the course of humanity.

The novel was originally serialised in the magazine Analog from 1963 to 1965 as two shorter works, Dune World and The Prophet of Dune. Herbert’s dedicatory remarks were, “to the people whose labors go beyond ideas into the realm of ‘real materials’- to the dry-land ecologists, wherever they may be, in whatever time they work, this effort at prediction is dedicated in humility and admiration.”