If you’ve ever dipped your toes into the realm of science fiction, you’ve likely heard of Frank Herbert’s Dune and for good reason. It’s basically Lord of the Rings for the sci-fi genre. Much like how Scarface, a hip-hop artist from the ‘90s, is said to be your favourite rapper’s rapper, Dune has heavily influenced some of Hollywood’s most beloved series while not reaching the same notoriety as what it inspired — take Star Wars and Game of Thrones for example.
Okay, I’ve hyped up Dune just to break the news to you that it’s not perfect — but it’s one hell of a journey. The desert planet of Arrakis is home to the universe’s only known source of melange, the infamous “spice” that can extend life, allow for space travel, and more. The native people of this inhospitable planet are the Fremen who are known to battle fiercely, preserve every drop of their body’s moisture, and ride sand worms. A few key noble families are battling for control over this planet — and its spice — even if it means murder or betrayal.
While this premise is suitably badass, unfortunately, the details of the plot are revealed through long-winded descriptions, characters who over analyze each other, and a plot that takes its sweet time getting off the ground. At the same time, Dune is charming in a way that makes these faults forgivable. Much like how Lord of the Rings has its own language, culture, and world building, Dune throws its readers head first into its rich and complex universe. It’s confusing at first to keep track of characters and terminology, but readers can pick up the nuances of this newfound world as they trudge deeper.
Dune reads like an epic — and one with real-life implications if you gaze deep enough. It has the characteristics of any good epic: a prolonged narrative, a talented hero in the form of its protagonist, Paul Atreides, supernaturalism, and it even tackles morality. Paul develops the ability to see into the future, and he concerns himself with preventing an intergalactic jihad — a war where the Fremen people massacre indiscriminately on his behalf. And where might one have heard of a jihad before? It’s an Arabic word meaning struggle in the cause of God that is associated with Islam, but has been misinterpreted in the West to mean a holy war. The Fremen and their desert planet are reminiscent of stereotypes about the Middle East, and they are discriminated against by those that want to take advantage of their natural resource, melange. An easy parallel for this powerful spice that the world has become dependent on is oil. Whether Herbert intentionally meant to draw these parallels to modern politics surrounding oil and the Middle East remains a mystery, but they help ground Dune’s modern relevance.
While Dune is the first book in an expansive series, it can also serve as a stand-alone novel for those curious but not fully committed. And if you’re interested in Dune but not the fact that it’s almost 700 pages long, the audiobook is easy to find, or you can wait for the 2021 film release starring Zendaya Coleman and Timothée Chalamet. It’s a book that’s had a profound impact on the sci-fi genre since its 1965 release, and it still holds up today.
Dune. (John Schonenheer)
Chandy is a biology major/chemistry minor who's been a staff writer, Arts editor, and Managing Editor at The Cascade. She began writing in elementary school when she produced Tamagotchi fanfiction to show her peers at school -- she now lives in fear that this may have been her creative peak.
