Dune (novel)

Dune

1st edition cover 1st edition cover
Author	Frank Herbert
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Dune series
Genre	Science Fiction Novel
Publisher	Chilton Books
Publication date	1965
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	544 (US paperback); 447 (UK hardcover)
ISBN	NA
Followed by	Dune Messiah

Dune is a science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert and published in 1965. A joint winner of the 1966 Hugo Award and the winner of the first Nebula Award for Best Novel, Dune is popularly considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, is frequently cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history, and was the first bestselling hardcover science fiction novel ever.

Dune spawned five sequels written by Herbert before his death in 1986: Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, and Chapterhouse Dune. It also inspired a 1984 film adaptation by David Lynch, a 2000 Sci Fi Channel miniseries and its 2003 sequel, computer games, a board game and a series of prequels and sequels co-written by the author's son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson starting in 1999.

Dune is set far in the future amidst a sprawling feudal interstellar 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 only source of the spice melange, the most important and valuable substance in the universe. 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.

In 1957, after the publication of The Dragon in the Sea, Herbert had begun the initial stages of planning his next novel. He took a plane to Florence, Oregon, where the USDA was sponsoring a lengthy series of experiments in using poverty grasses to stabilize and slow down the damaging sand dunes, which could "swallow whole cities, lakes, rivers, highways." Herbert's article on the dunes, "They Stopped the Moving Sands," was never completed (and only published decades later in an incomplete form in The Road to Dune), but it sparked Herbert's interest in the general subject of ecology and related matters. Herbert spent the next five years continuing research and writing and rewriting what would eventually become Dune, later serialized in Analog magazine from 1963 to 1965 as two shorter works, Dune World and The Prophet of Dune. Herbert dedicated the work "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." The serialized version was expanded and reworked, and ultimately rejected by twenty publishers prior to its eventual publication. At least one editor realized the possible mistake: "I was unhappy to learn that Scribner's rejected Dune. The editor's comment that he may have been mistaken (in doing so) — let us hope that's prophetic."

Synopsis

The first novel by Frank Herbert sets the year as 10,191 After Guild, a period in our distant future at a time where much historical knowledge of humanity's past has been lost, although some cultural and religious traditions remain. The calendar used in this time is not the same as the Gregorian calendar system, so it is difficult, or impossible, to identify just how far in the future the events described take place.

The main conflict driving the narrative of Dune is a political struggle among three noble houses: House Atreides, House Harkonnen, and the Imperial House Corrino.

The Corrino Emperor, Shaddam IV, has come to fear the Atreides, in part because of the popularity of Duke Leto Atreides (Shaddam's cousin and the leader of House Atreides) with the noble houses of the Imperium, represented in the Landsraad assembly. In addition, the Duke and his talented lieutenants, Duncan Idaho, Gurney Halleck and Mentat-assassin Thufir Hawat, are making the fighting force of House Atreides equal in effectiveness to the dreaded Imperial Sardaukar, although they are much fewer in number.

The Emperor decides that House Atreides must be destroyed, but he cannot risk an overt attack on a single House; to do so would by necessity unite the other houses against him in an all out Galactic War. Instead, Shaddam uses the centuries-old feud between House Atreides and House Harkonnen to disguise his assault, enlisting the brilliant and power-hungry Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in a plan to eliminate the man he fears.

The Atreides are forced to accept the lucrative fief of the desert planet Arrakis, also known as "Dune," replacing the Harkonnens. Dune is the only known source of the spice melange, the most valuable commodity in the universe: it is needed by the navigators of the Spacing Guild for interstellar travel; it is used by the secretive and powerful Bene Gesserit sisterhood to awaken the genetic memories of their ancestors; and it greatly extends the human lifespan and expands awareness. Without spice production, all interstellar activity would cease, and the Landsraad, the federation of Great Houses, would crumble.

Complicating the political intrigue is the fact that both Paul Atreides, the Duke's son, and Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, the Baron's nephew and heir, are essential parts of the Bene Gesserit's secret, centuries-old breeding program to create a prescient superhuman — and male equivalent to a Bene Gesserit — called the Kwisatz Haderach. The Bene Gesserit had planned to breed an Atreides daughter with Feyd-Rautha to unite the two bloodlines and produce their long-awaited prize. But instead of bearing a daughter as ordered, the Lady Jessica fulfilled her beloved Duke's wishes for a son and bore Paul. This was a tremendous setback for the breeding program, as the Bene Gesserit knew of the Emperor's plans to destroy House Atreides, putting their most valued bloodlines in great jeopardy, just as they were so close to reaching their goal. Further, there were signs that Paul might actually be the Kwisatz Haderach, born one generation earlier than expected. (This may have been literary foreshadowing, in that Kwisatz Haderach means "Shortening of the Way".) The prospect of a rogue Kwisatz Haderach beyond Bene Gesserit control was terrifying to the Sisterhood.

The transfer of control of Arrakis creates another pretext for conflict between the Harkonnens and the Atreides, and removes Duke Leto from his power base on his home world of Caladan. While they anticipate a trap, the Atreides are unable to withstand a devastating Harkonnen attack, supported by Imperial Sardaukar disguised as Harkonnen troops and aided by a traitor within House Atreides itself, the Suk doctor, Wellington Yueh.

Captured, Duke Leto dies in a failed attempt to assassinate the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen using a poison gas capsule planted in a fake tooth by Dr. Yueh, but Paul and Jessica escape into the deep desert. With Jessica's Bene Gesserit abilities and Paul's developing skills, they manage to join a band of native Fremen, ferocious fighters who ride the giant sandworms that dominate the desert planet. Paul emerges as the Kwisatz Haderach, and Jessica's knowledge of the secret religious myths of the Fremen, planted by the Bene Gesserit Missionaria Protectiva long ago, enable him to become acknowledged as the Lisan al-Gaib, the religious and political leader the Fremen have been waiting for. Paul unites millions of the Fremen into an unstoppable military force, including the Fedaykin.

Paul seizes control of Arrakis and the spice, defeating the Sardaukar legions Shaddam had brought to Arrakis and avenging his family in a duel to the death with Feyd-Rautha. He forces Shaddam to abdicate and becomes Emperor in his place, establishing an Atreides dynasty.

Setting

Main article: Dune universe

In the novel's setting, advanced computers have been long banned following the Butlerian Jihad, a war between humans and thinking machines that takes place in the distant history of the story. In lieu of computer assistance, human skills have been developed to an astonishing degree:

• Mentats through intensive training learn to enter a heightened mental state in which they can perform complex logical computations. Not all people are capable of becoming a mentat, but it is implied that those who can are identifiable at an early age, Paul Atreides being one such individual. He is trained by his father's Master of Assassins, Thufir Hawat. It is implied that a Duke with Mentat abilities and training is a rare, if not unique, occurrence. "Twisted" mentats created by a compilation of genetic engineering techniques and a bastardised version of formal Mentat training are trained/grown by the Bene Tleilax. They lack the moral probity of fully developed Mentats and often display other character flaws (the twisted Mentat Piter De Vries is a sadist, for instance). They also lack the long term vision of a full mentat.
• The Spacing Guild holds a monopoly on interstellar transport. Its navigators use the spice/drug melange to gain limited prescient abilities, enabling them to safely plot a course for ships using the "fold space" technology — guiding Guild Heighliner ships safely to their destination by using a Holtzman engine, which allows instantaneous travel to anywhere in the galaxy.
• The Bene Gesserit are a secretive female society, often referred to as "witches," with mental and physical powers developed through thousands of generations of controlled gene lines and many years of physical and mental conditioning called prana-bindu training. When a Bene Gesserit acolyte becomes a full Reverend Mother by undergoing what Jessica calls "the Reverend Mother ordeal" (referred to as the Spice Agony later in the series), she gains access to her "ancestral memories" — the complete life experience of all her female ancestors back to the point of each life's conception. The Agony is induced by taking a massive overdose of "awareness spectrum narcotics", or as is discovered by the Lady Jessica, the Fremen way of drinking the bile of a dying sandworm, a melange-essence poison known as the Water of Life that they must change in their bodies.

On the fringes of the galaxy is Ix, a planet whose society is dominated by advanced technology which skirts the regulations of the Butlerian Jihad.

The CHOAM corporation is the major underpinning of the Imperial economy, with shares and directorships determining each House's income and financial leverage.

The universe's entire power structure, including the financial and military power of the Imperium and the Great Houses, the Guild's control of interstellar travel, and the Bene Gesserit's special powers, are all subject to the availability of Melange. The control of Melange by a single group is a socio-political condition known as hydraulic despotism (utilizing control of a commodity with a single source to hold power over others).

A prominent feature of the setting is the use of evolved languages and linguistic traits. (See Language and Linguistics in Frank Herbert's Dune.)

Themes

The consequences of the actions of superheroes, and humanity's responses, form an overarching theme in the Dune series. In an interview with Frank Herbert published in Omni Magazine in July 1980, the author said:

"Enormous problems arise when human mistakes are made on the grand scale available to a superhero... Heroes are painful, superheroes are a catastrophe. The mistakes of superheroes involve too many of us in disaster."

He added that:

"I had this theory that superheroes were disastrous for humans, that even if you postulated an infallible hero, the things this hero set in motion fell eventually into the hands of fallible mortals. What better way to destroy a civilization, society or a race than to set people into the wild oscillations which follow their turning over their critical judgment and decision-making faculties to a superhero?"

The book also sets people as either "human" or "animal", and there is an underground program to breed pure humans. The protagonists frequently refer to one of the key antagonists as an animal, justifying their on-going feud by portraying their enemy as a lesser creature. However, it is later revealed that he is actually human. This parallels the racial supremacism and eugenics that defined much of the 20th century, highlighting the lack of objectivity in judgements of racial superiority.

The emphasis on ecological and religious ideas and the use of many cultural themes made the novel a provocative departure from previous science fiction.

Political themes in the Dune series include human beings' susceptibility to mass manipulation by political propaganda, religious dogma (e.g., the Missionaria Protectiva), and sexual temptation, and the importance of self-awareness and self-mastery in resisting these types of control.

Necessity driving cultural and societal traditions is also a prevalent theme in Dune. The Fremen's practices such as taking the dead's "water" may seem barbaric to cultures from other worlds and certainly seem so to the reader at first glance, but necessity has obviously driven the people to this extreme. Cannibalism in this fashion is but a part of Fremen life justified by the harshness of their surroundings.

Detailed synopsis

The Atreides

The central figure of the book is Paul Atreides, son and heir presumptive to Duke Leto Atreides and his concubine, Lady Jessica, a Bene Gesserit. The Bene Gesserit perform many functions in the Empire, serving as Truthsayers (women able to detect lies), negotiators, advisors, and teachers, but all these functions serve one hidden, deeper purpose: they have been secretly trying to improve humanity through selective breeding for generations. The ultimate goal of their breeding program is the Kwisatz Haderach, a human being who will be aware of both maternal and paternal ancestral memories, and have prescient abilities greater than those of the Guild's navigators. The Bene Gesserit are close to the fruition of their plan, and Paul Atreides is at the heart of it. Jessica, his mother, disobeyed Bene Gesserit orders, and gave birth to a boy (Paul). She had been expressly ordered to produce a girl, whom the Bene Gesserit would have mated with a Harkonnen, to produce the Kwisatz Haderach. Ultimately, the birth of Paul Atreides introduced possibilities that were unforeseen by the Bene Gesserit plan.

The Harkonnen attack is more diabolical, more powerful, and comes more quickly than the Atreides expect. The sheer volume of the costly endeavor staggers the Atreides. Baron Harkonnen later comments to his nephew Glossu Rabban that the entire spice income of Arrakis over six decades might just cover the costs of the attack. The Harkonnens manage to suborn a member of the Atreides inner household, and in doing so achieve something unique in Imperial history: they break the "Imperial conditioning" of a Suk doctor, which had been universally believed to make a person incapable of consciously causing physical harm. The Harkonnens bend the Atreides doctor, Wellington Yueh, to their will by promising to release his wife from prolonged torture. When the Harkonnens attack, Yueh lowers the defensive house shields and uses sedative drugs to disable Leto, Paul, and Jessica, leaving the Atreides leaderless and disorganized under the Harkonnen and Sardaukar military onslaught. The Atreides army is crushed, with only a few fugitive survivors.

Yueh, eager for a chance at killing the Baron he despises and knowing he himself will not have the opportunity, plants a fake tooth in Duke Leto's mouth. When bitten, the tooth emits a poison gas. Yueh hands Leto over, and the Baron's adviser and Mentat, Piter de Vries, executes Yueh. Leto, helpless but conscious, breaks the gas capsule, but misjudges his moment, killing himself and Piter de Vries but allowing Baron Harkonnen to escape. Paul and Jessica manage to kill their would-be executioners and escape into the desert. Knowing he will surely have to face a Truthsayer, Baron Harkonnen needs to be able to state truthfully that he was not (directly) responsible for their deaths; Paul and Jessica are not pursued in their escape into the desert, and are presumed dead from the harsh conditions.

The Fremen

In the deep desert, under the pressure of extreme circumstances and the increased doses of spice that he has been ingesting simply by living on Arrakis, some of Paul's powers emerge — among them, his ability to see possible futures. He sees a way to restore the Atreides, if only he can make contact with the native Fremen and survive. Paul and Jessica meet up with a troop of Fremen. They prove their worth by disarming Fremen in combat, aided by Bene Gesserit prana-bindu training. Stilgar, the Fremen leader, gladly accepts them into his sietch (tribe) because he wants Paul and Jessica to train his people in the new fighting skills they have demonstrated. Jamis, the Fremen whom Paul had bested, takes offense at this "presumptuous" youth, and challenges Paul to a fight to the death. Superficially, this contest between a grown man and an untried fifteen-year-old boy appeared to be a mismatch. But Paul had been trained by masters and, although at first unwilling to kill, he triumphs, making his name in the tribe, and also acquiring the household of the dead man. Afterwards, Paul and Jessica are introduced to the deadly harshness of Fremen life, as Jamis' body is ritually rendered down for its water, a practice that is vital to Fremen survival. Stilgar gives Paul the name Usul, meaning "the strong base of a pillar," to be his private name within the troop. Paul also takes for himself the name "Paul-Muad'Dib" as his public Fremen name. Muad'Dib, "the instructor of boys," the little jumping mouse of the desert. He then meets a young woman, Chani, whom he has long seen in his dreams. Chani is the daughter of Liet-Kynes, the Imperial planetary ecologist who has "gone native," commanding much respect among the Fremen for his vision of an Arrakis made more friendly to human habitation.

When the party returns to the troop's hidden cave dwelling, known as a sietch, they discover that the resident Reverend Mother is near death. With the fortuitous arrival of Jessica, a Bene Gesserit, they seek to make Jessica their Sayyadina. The Fremen have been so influenced by the Bene Gesserit's Missionaria Protectiva that they have successfully emulated many of the Bene Gesserit's practices—including the creation of Reverend Mothers. Jessica, not realizing the consequences of what the Fremen are about to do, accepts in order to cement her place in the tribe. Halfway through the process she realizes that she has made a mistake; that she is involved in a process similar to the Bene Gesserit's own methods. Through the action of the spice poison, she becomes a Fremen/Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother, capable of retrieving the genetic memories of generations of Reverend Mothers before her. Too late, she realizes that the baby in her womb, fathered by Leto before his death, also goes through the process, in effect, becoming a Reverend Mother before her birth.

Muad'Dib

Years pass. Paul Muad'Dib learns to be a Fremen, and becomes a military and religious leader among the Fremen. Chani becomes his lover and bears him a son, whom he names Leto. Paul and his mother train the Fremen of Sietch Tabr in the fighting techniques of the Prana Bindu. Under his leadership his "Fedaykin" fighters experience victory after victory against the Harkonnens, and Paul's prestige among the Fremen grows.

But in order to be truly accepted by the Fremen, he feels he must become a sandrider. The Fremen have a great secret: they have learned to control the giant sandworms native to Arrakis. Through the use of tools called "maker hooks," they have learned to climb aboard the worms and take control of their course, enabling them to quickly move around the desert. This has given the Fremen better mobility than any of the series of occupying armies of Arrakis, as air power cannot be projected in the face of common Coriolis storms. Riding a giant sandworm is not the safest of tasks, but Paul attempts it and succeeds, becoming a full member of the sietch.

The same day, a band of smugglers seeking melange too deep in the desert, are caught in a trap sprung by the Fremen of Sietch Tabr. In the middle of the battle Paul recognizes his former Atreides companion, Gurney Halleck. Gurney had thought Paul killed in the initial Harkonnen attack. Paul calls on Gurney and his men to surrender. Gurney is overjoyed and overwhelmed in equal measure. He surrenders his men, and joins Paul's service. Among Gurney's men, however, are some Imperial spies who attempt to kill Muad'Dib. They are unsuccessful, and are captured by the Fedaykin. Paul gives secret orders for the spies to be allowed to escape, so that they will reveal to the Emperor that Paul Atreides still lives on Arrakis. Taking advantage of his reunion with Gurney Halleck, Paul uses the moment to solve his leadership problem. Since he has become a wormrider, many of his followers have expected Muad'Dib to challenge Stilgar, his greatest friend among the Fremen, and to take control of Sietch Tabr. But Paul breaks tradition, managing to sidestep this issue by proclaiming himself the ruling Duke of Arrakis, and thus taking power without killing his friend.

They return to Sietch Tabr. Gurney is shocked to discover that Jessica is still alive. Believing her to have been the traitor who betrayed the Atreides, Gurney is about to kill her, when Paul walks in, manages to stop him, and explains that Yueh was the traitor. Gurney is almost broken by his nearly fatal and tragic error, but Jessica forgives him and he is bound even further into Atreides (and Jessica's) service.

Paul's power among the Fremen grows, but he is still frustrated. He is not all he could be. He cannot control his journeys into the future, and much of it is still blank to him. So he takes a truly risky step and consumes a tiny amount of the poison Water of Life, and so attempts to perform the male equivalent of the Reverend Mother ceremony. Previously to this no man has survived this experience. It seems that he has failed, also, as he sinks into a coma.

Paul neglects to tell anyone what he is attempting. Many people think he is dead. Others, primarily the Fedaykin, believe he is in a religious trance. His mother, Jessica, does all she can to wake him, but fails. Out of desperation she calls Chani from the deep desert to help. Chani, through her more personal knowledge of Paul's dreams and desires, realizes what a mad thing Paul has done, and is about to use Water of Life converted by Jessica using her powers as a Reverend Mother to bring him out of his trance, when Paul awakens just in time to stop her. For Paul no time has passed, and he glories in his new memories and powers. He tells his mother and Chani immediately that the Emperor is currently orbiting the planet with many Sardaukar, ready to attack. He has proven the Bene Gesserit wrong: he is the Kwisatz Haderach, appearing one generation before predicted. He declares that it is now time to destroy the Harkonnens.

The rise of Paul Atreides

Fremen attacks on the Harkonnens had already managed to almost entirely stop the flow of spice from Arrakis. This has forced the Emperor to act; he comes to Arrakis with five legions of his Sardaukar, along with levies of all the other noble houses, to annihilate the Fremen if necessary in order to get the spice flowing again. Seeing a terrifying possible future in which the spice vanishes and civilization is destroyed, the Guild has dropped transport costs to the point that even the weakest of houses is waiting to attack. By this point even the Emperor has heard of Muad'Dib; in advance of his arrival, Shaddam sends a small Sardaukar scouting force into the deep desert for information. Attacking a sietch, they manage to kill Paul's son, and capture Alia, Paul's sister. But they are driven off by Fremen children, old people and women, who, like all Fremen, are fierce fighters.

After the Emperor has landed, Paul launches the final attack, in what will later be called the Battle of Arrakeen. Using the House Atreides' family atomics (nuclear weapons) that his men managed to retrieve after the Harkonnen attack, he blows a hole in the Shield Wall (a mountain/rock wall) that protects the capital of Dune, Arrakeen, from the surrounding desert, the sandworms, and the desert's fierce storms. By using the weapons this way, he narrowly avoids contravening the universal ban against using atomics on people, which would have required the other noble houses to retaliate with "planetary annihilation." The Fremen attack under cover of a huge desert storm, riding sandworms from the desert and through the hole in the Shield Wall. The great static electricity force of the sandstorm shorts out all of the Sarduakar's defensive shields and the storm itself nullifies the air and space power of the defenders. The Sardaukar and Harkonnen forces are unable to withstand the full force of the Fremen, caught as they are in total surprise, and the Emperor is forced to surrender. In the surprise of Muad'Dib's attack, Alia manages to escape, and in the process kills Baron Harkonnen, by now revealed to be her and Paul's grandfather, having covertly and illegitimately sired Jessica as part of the Bene Gesserit's breeding program.

Realizing that Muad'Dib is not some mad Fremen religious leader changes the situation dramatically for the Emperor. Feyd-Rautha, the Baron's nephew, an acclaimed gladiator, challenges Paul to single combat, claiming rights of kanly as had been declared by Paul's father Leto. Kanly is a formal feud or vendetta under the rules of the Great Convention carried out according to the strictest limitations. Paul agrees even having foreseen the possibility that he will die. After a difficult fight, during which Feyd-Rautha attempts treachery in the form of a poisoned knife and needle, Paul eventually triumphs.

Following his victory, Paul forces the Emperor from the throne by threatening to destroy the spice if he does not remove his forces. The Spacing Guild has no choice. They see, through their limited powers of prescience, that Paul is capable of doing so; and without the spice, no faster-than-light travel is possible. The Emperor abdicates and retires, in exile, to his House's home planet, Salusa Secundus. Paul solidifies his claim to the throne by marrying the Emperor's eldest daughter, Princess Irulan (though in name only; Chani remains his close companion and mother of his heirs, as Jessica had been for Leto), and assumes control of the Empire. Irulan becomes a sympathetic historian, and writes extensively on the subject of Muad'Dib, and Paul promises the Fremen that he will turn Arrakis into a garden planet, while conserving the desert so the sandworms (and consequently the melange) will survive.

Characters in Dune

The characters are listed by primary allegiances. In some cases these allegiances change or reveal themselves to be different in the course of the novels.

House Atreides

• Duke Leto Atreides, head of House Atreides
• Lady Jessica, Bene Gesserit and concubine of the Duke, mother of Paul and Alia
• Paul Atreides, the Duke's only surviving son
• Alia Atreides, Paul's younger sister
• Thufir Hawat, mentat and Master of Assassins to House Atreides
• Gurney Halleck, staunchly loyal troubadour warrior of the Atreides
• Duncan Idaho, Sword Master for House Atreides, graduate of the Ginaz school
• Dr. Wellington Yueh, Suk doctor for the Atreides

House Harkonnen

• Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, head of House Harkonnen
• Piter De Vries, twisted Mentat
• Feyd-Rautha, nephew and heir of the Baron
• Glossu 'Beast' Rabban, also called Rabban Harkonnen, older nephew of the Baron
• Iakin Nefud, Captain of the Guard

House Corrino

• Shaddam IV, the Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe
• Princess Irulan, the Emperor's eldest daughter and heir, also a historian
• Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, Bene Gesserit schemer, the Emperor's Truthsayer
• Count Hasimir Fenring, a genetic eunuch and the Emperor's closest friend, advisor, and errand-runner.
• Lady Margot Fenring, Bene Gesserit wife of the Count

Fremen

• The Fremen as a collective
• Stilgar, Fremen Naib (chieftain); Stilgar is a skilled politician.
• Chani, Paul's Fremen concubine.
• Liet-Kynes, the half-Fremen son of Imperial Planetologist Pardot Kynes on Arrakis and his Fremen wife Frieth; Liet is the father of Chani, and a revered figure among the Fremen.
• Esmar Tuek, leader of the smugglers who help Gurney Halleck out.

Cultural influence of Dune

See also: List of fiction inspired by Dune and Dune (film) § Influence on popular culture

Dune has been widely influential, inspiring other novels, music, films (including Star Wars), television, videogames, and even comic books. Dune itself spawned five sequels written by Herbert, a 1984 film adaptation by David Lynch, two TV miniseries, computer games, board games, action figures, and a series of prequels and sequels co-written by Brian Herbert, the author's son, and Kevin J. Anderson.

Dune inspired the Iron Maiden song "To Tame A Land." However, when songwriter Steve Harris requested permission from the author to name the song "Dune," his request was met with a stern refusal — backed up with a legal threat — which noted that "Herbert doesn't like rock bands, particularly heavy rock bands, and especially rock bands like Iron Maiden." The song was renamed "To Tame a Land" and released in 1983.

Awards and nominations

• Nebula award for best novel in 1965
• Hugo award for best novel 1966. Joint first place with ...And Call Me Conrad by Roger Zelazny

Adaptations

• Dune (1984), film adaptation directed by David Lynch
• Frank Herbert's Dune (2000), TV miniseries produced by the Sci Fi Channel
• Doon, novel parody

See also

• Dune universe
• List of Family Houses in Dune
• List of Dune characters
• List of Dune terminology
• List of fiction inspired by Dune
• Fictional works invented by Frank Herbert

References

Bibliography

• Clute, John (1995). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 1386. ISBN 0-312134-86-X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Clute, John (1995). The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Danbury, CT: Grolier. pp. CD-ROM. ISBN 0-7172-3999-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Nicholls, Peter (1979). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. St Albans, Herts, UK: Granada Publishing Ltd. p. 672. ISBN 0-586-05380-8.
• Jakubowski, Maxim (1983). The Complete Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy Lists. St Albans, Herts, UK: Granada Publishing Ltd. p. 350. ISBN 0-586-05678-5. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Pringle, David (1990). The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction. London: Grafton Books Ltd. p. 407. ISBN 0-246-13635-9.
• Tuck, Donald H. (1974). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Chicago: Advent. p. 136. ISBN 0-911682-20-1.

External links

• Official website for Dune and its sequels
• "Dune Genesis" by Frank Herbert ~ Originally published in Omni (July 1980)
• DuneAudio.com - The Offical Dune Audiobook Site ~ news and contests for Dune audiobooks
• Spark Notes: Dune, detailed study guide
• DuneQuotes.com - Comprehensive collection of quotes from the Dune series
• Dune at Curlie