This is the cover of my copy of Dune

(Although mine has one of those obnoxious "Now a Major Motion Picture" stickers baked into the design...)

What is Dune?

“He who controls the spice controls the universe.”

- Frank Herbert, Dune

Dune is a highly influential sci-fi book first published in 1965 by American author Frank Herbert. Frank would create two trilogies of Dune books in his lifetime. Since his passing, the series has been continued by his son, Brian Herbert, and co-writer Kevin J. Anderson (to much controversy).

Dune is your favourite sci-fi creator's favourite sci-fi book. Concepts that originate from Dune can be found everywhere, from Vocaloid songs, to Rimworld, to Star Wars (even if George Lucas won't admit it).

As of writing this, Dune has 23 books, 3* movie adaptations, 3* TV shows, 6* video games, 6 tabletop/board games and 3 graphic novels. However, most people only consider Frank's original 6 books to be "canon".

*A film adaptation of Dune Messiah, a prequel TV series called Dune: Prophecy, and a new surivival MMO video game called Dune: Awakening have all been announced, but are yet to release.



What is Dune about?

Oh God where do I start?

There's a TL;DR at the bottom.

“Would you still love me if I was a worm?”

- God Emperor of Dune


Dune is set in the very distant future, where people have long abandoned Earth and taken to the stars. Despite being set far into the future, humanity has wrapped back around to feudalism, with the Known Universe being ruled by a Padishah Emperor, and noble houses in control of specific planets, vying for the throne.

However, arguably more important than the Emperor's throne is the control of the planet Arrakis. Arrakis is the only known planet where one can harvest a spice known as melange (a spice more commonly known as... "spice"). This spice has the ability to vastly prolong somebody's life, can produce hallucinations, and, most importantly, is the key to efficient space-travel. Therefore, controlling spice harvesting makes one very powerful.

But the planet Arrakis is not easy to survive on. It is an incredibly hot desert planet with almost no moisture at all. The planet is also inhabited by gigantic sandworms who are alerted by almost any movement on the planet's surface. However, a group of people known as the 'Fremen' have learned to co-exist with the desert and developed techniques and technology to survive on Arrakis. They also consider Arrakis their rightful home, and hold spice as sacred.

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The books primarily follow Paul Atreides, the young heir of House Atreides, after his family gains control of Arrakis amidst a long-standing feud with House Harkonnen, the previous barbaric owners of Arrakis.

Paul is raised in the ways of the Bene Gesserit, a shady group of scheming eugenicist witches with pseudo-psychic powers, by his mother, Lady Jessica. She believes that Paul could be the Kwisatz Haderach, a powerful male Bene Gesserit that could hold total control over humanity. Similarly, the Fremen believe Paul to be their messiah - Lisan al Gaib - due to propaganda spread on the planet by the Bene Gesserit.

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TL;DR Dune is about religion, worms, environmental science and getting very very very high.


"But, Rabbit, You Hate Space!"

This is true. I don't know why, but I find space incredibly boring and space sci-fi even more so.

I really especially hate when sci-fi has a bunch of technobabble gobbletygook terminology for everything that you have to learn.

I also hate fantasy politics. I don't have a strategic brain (outside of like... XCom 2) and I can never care to learn all the minutae of laws and policies and alliences among people in a fantasy context.

So why do I like Dune?

I guess a possible answer is just that Dune is really good. I genuinely cannot fathom how Frank Herbert developed the world of Dune. Everything is grounded and believable, except when it isn't. Dune is also fantastical and over-the-top and sometimes campy in a way that other super-serious sci-fi rarely is.

I got invested in Dune with the Denis Villeneuve adaptation, so I'm a pretty late adopter. I think part of why those films resonated with me so much was the craftsmanship and love that went into them. Denis clearly loves Dune, even if his adaptations make many significant changes to the source material. And even outside of being an adaptation, the films are just excellently put together with amazing effects and performances. They're on the level of Percy Jackson's Lord of the Rings, to me.

I saw Dune Part 2 in cinemas and honestly felt like I was having a religious experience. I've seen Dune Part 2 way too many times now, and I still feel like I'm not bored of it. I then rushed to watch every other adaptation of Dune I could, good or bad, and I'm currently in the process of reading the books.

Basically, Dune good.