Dune (novel)
| Dune | |
|---|---|
| Author | Frank Herbert |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Chilton Books |
| Publication date | 1965 |
| Media type | |
| Awards | Nebula Award for Best Novel (first); Hugo Award for Best Novel (1966, tie) |
| Followed by | Dune Messiah |
Dune is a science fiction novel by Frank Herbert (1920 to 1986), published by Chilton Books in 1965. Its feudal empire among the stars runs on melange, a spice found only on the desert planet Arrakis. The novel won the first Nebula Award for Best Novel and shared the 1966 Hugo Award for Best Novel with Roger Zelazny's This Immortal. It is described as one of the world's best-selling science fiction novels, with sales of almost 20 million copies.[1]
Plot
Duke Leto Atreides is given the governorship of Arrakis, the only source of melange, which extends life and makes interstellar navigation possible. The emperor, Shaddam IV, fears House Atreides and conspires with its rival, House Harkonnen, to destroy it. Leto dies in the betrayal. His son Paul and his concubine, Lady Jessica, who belongs to the Bene Gesserit order, escape into the desert and join the Fremen, who ride giant sandworms. Paul becomes their messianic leader and defeats the Harkonnen and the emperor's forces. He takes the throne but cannot stop the holy war that his rise has begun.[1]
Composition
After publishing The Dragon in the Sea in 1957, Herbert went to Florence, Oregon, where the United States Department of Agriculture was using grasses to hold the Oregon Dunes in place. He said that the moving dunes could "swallow whole cities". The novel appeared first in Analog, as "Dune World" in three parts from December 1963 to February 1964 and as "The Prophet of Dune" in five parts from January to May 1965. More than twenty publishers rejected it before Chilton, a firm better known for auto repair manuals, accepted it. Among the books Herbert drew on were Lesley Blanch's The Sabres of Paradise (1960), a history of the Caucasus wars, and the writings of the historian Ibn Khaldun; much of the vocabulary of the Fremen is Arabic.[1]
Themes
Water is scarce on Arrakis, and the Fremen wear suits that recover moisture from their bodies. Herbert hoped that the book would be an "environmental awareness handbook".[1]
Paul's rise as a messiah ends in war, and the later volumes return to the danger of heroes. The empire has no computers or robots, which an ancient revolt, the Butlerian Jihad, abolished.[1]
Sequels and adaptations
Herbert wrote five sequels: Dune Messiah (1969), Children of Dune (1976), God Emperor of Dune (1981), Heretics of Dune (1984) and Chapterhouse: Dune (1985). His son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson began a series of prequels in 1999. David Lynch directed a film in 1984, which failed on release and later gained a cult following, and the Sci-Fi Channel made a miniseries in 2000. Denis Villeneuve directed a film in 2021, which was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won six, and a second in 2024.[1]
Molecular Reality Corporation
When Molecular Reality Corporation opened its wait list in 2021, the sign-up form asked each applicant for a favorite science fiction book or film. Members of the Molecular Streaming Corps named Dune more often than any other work.[2] The rest of their answers are tabulated in Favorite books and films of the Molecular Streaming Corps; the works the company cites itself are in List of works that inspired Molecular Reality Corporation.