A story of religious fanaticism, Dune Messiah shows Dune’s hero, Paul, as a conflicted figure, at times villainous. Herbert’s main theme is the idea of how dangerous is it to canonize an individual, a dictator. The novel is the shortest in the series and the plot is a simple one- a group forms together to plot against Paul to eliminate him. Set just twelve years after the events of Dune, Paul Atreides is now emperor. Even without its sequels to build the story more, Dune is so full of a solid mix of snappy dialogue and action set pieces and sequences so as to make the reader turn the pages.

Despite this, Dune remains the standard, for it is the most complete story some fans choose to end the tale at the end of book one.

Within Dune’s pages, Herbert creates a vast world, setting the stage for the subsequent volumes, all unique in their own right. Paul himself becomes the Kwisatz Haaderach, a godlike figure predicted for thousands of years by the Bene Gesserit, a powerful religious and political group of women. A story of political intrigue, colorful characters, and immense worldbuilding, this is a science fiction classic along the lines of The Lord of the Rings as a fantasy classic. With control of the planet comes control of the spice, Melange, produced by the giant sandworms who inherit the desert and is well sought after and addictive. Set in the far distant future, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, heir of House Atreides, and his battle against the evil House Harkonnen, the sworn enemy of the Atreides, over control of the desert planet Arrakis, also known as Dune. This gave Herbert an idea for an article, to be titled “They Stopped the Moving Sands.” While ultimately unpublished, Herbert’s fascination with the dunes, plus a concept for a story of a boy prophet circling in his mind, lead to a series still being discussed over sixty years later.

The USDA, concerned over the drifting of Oregon’s sand dunes, began planting grass in order to stagnate their movement. The saga consists of six novels: Dune (1965), Dune Messiah (1969), Children of Dune (1976), God Emperor of Dune (1981), Heretics of Dune (1984), and Chapterhouse: Dune (1985).ġ956 was a life changing year for Frank Herbert, for he learned of a project enacted by the U.S. For a span of twenty years, genre fiction fans had the opportunity to live through what many call the greatest science fiction tale of all tune, Frank Herbet’s epic Dune series.

Dune trilogy