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DUNE by Frank Herbert
Oh how I love this book. I first read this in junior high ... I even remember finding it on the shelves in the library at Lewis and Clark Junior High. What an amazing world Herbert built and the philosophies and ethics to be found in a story of political power plays and religious manipulations all based around who controls the Spice. I knew little of how the world worked back then but it started to open my eyes. The cover here isn't the one from the first edition. This is the cover of the one I first read. Just seeing this cover gives me this internal thrill, a buzzing, of recognition that is difficult to describe.
It was published in 1965. It won the Hugo Award in 1966, and the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel. Dune is frequently cited as the world's best-selling science fiction novel.It is one thing to postulate the existence of intelligent life in another part of the universe, it is a much different (and more challenging) task to situate this alien culture in a rich world, fully equipped with distinctive flora, fauna, ecology, traditions, institutions, religious beliefs, ancestral conflicts, technologies, myths and other cultural details. The richness of this contextual framework is what typically sets the finer works of speculative fiction apart from the rest. Only a few authors have achieved this at a very high degree.
Here is the story:
Emperor Shaddam IV has come to fear House Atreides because of the growing popularity of Duke Leto Atreides and the fact that Leto's fighting force is beginning to rival the effectiveness of the Emperor's own dreaded Sardaukar, whose (perceived) invincibility helps guarantee the Emperor's power. Shaddam decides that House Atreides must be destroyed, but cannot risk an overt attack on a single House, as this would not be accepted by the Landsraad, the convocation of ruling Houses. The Emperor instead 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 his plan to trap and eliminate the Atreides. Shaddam entices Leto to accept the lucrative fief of the desert planet Arrakis, previously controlled by the Harkonnens, and the only known source of the spice melange.
Complicating the political intrigue is the fact that the Duke's son Paul Atreides is an essential part of the Bene Gesserit's secret, centuries-old breeding program to create a superhuman called the Kwisatz Haderach. Leto's concubine, the Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica, had been ordered by the Sisterhood to bear him a daughter who would then be bred with the Harkonnen heir in a union that would likely produce the Kwisatz Haderach. Jessica had defied these orders and instead bore her lover the son he desired, and Jessica recognizes that Paul might actually be the Kwisatz Haderach, born one generation earlier than expected.
The Atreides expect plots and challenges to their rule over Arrakis, and are able to thwart initial Harkonnen traps and complications while simultaneously building trust with the local population of Fremen, humans who live in the deep desert, with whom they hope to ally. However, the Atreides are ultimately 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. House Atreides is scattered. Of its important retainers, the Mentat Thufir Hawat is taken by the Baron and eventually convinced to work for his captors; the troubador-soldier Gurney Halleck escapes with the aid of smugglers, whom he also joins; and Duncan Idaho is killed defending Paul and Jessica. Per his bargain, Yueh delivers a captive Leto to the Baron, but double-crosses Harkonnen by ensuring Paul and Jessica's escape. He also provides Leto with a fake tooth that is actually a poison-gas capsule, which he can bite down on, simultaneously committing suicide and assassinating the Baron Harkonnen. The Baron kills Yueh, and Leto dies in this failed attempt on the Baron's life, though the Baron's twisted Mentat Piter De Vries dies with him. Paul and Jessica, aided variously by Duncan, Yueh, and the Fremen leader Liet-Kynes, escape their captors and flee into the deep desert.
Jessica's Bene Gesserit abilities and Paul's developing skills help them join a band of Fremen. Paul and his mother quickly learn Fremen ways while teaching the Fremen the weirding way, a Bene Gesserit method of fighting. Jessica becomes a Reverend Mother, swallowing the poisonous Water of Life while pregnant with her second child; this unborn daughter Alia is subjected to the same ordeal, dangerously acquiring the full abilities of a Reverend Mother before even being born. Paul takes a Fremen lover, Chani, with whom he fathers a son. Years pass, and Paul increasingly recognizes the strength of the Fremen fighting force — during the joint Sardaukar/Harkonnen invasion, the Fremen had killed three Sardaukar for every man they lost — and their potential to overtake even the Sardaukar and win back Arrakis. Living on the spice diet of the Fremen, Paul's prescience increases dramatically, enabling him to foresee future events and gaining him a religious respect from the Fremen, who regard him as their prophesied messiah. As Paul grows in influence, he begins a jihad against Harkonnen rule of the planet under his new Fremen name, Muad'Dib. However, Paul becomes aware through his prescience that, if he is not careful, the Fremen will extend that jihad against all the known universe, which Paul describes as a humanity-spanning subconscious effort to avoid genetic stagnation.
Both the Emperor and the Baron Harkonnen show increasing concern at the fervor of religious fanaticism shown on Arrakis for this "Muad'Dib," not guessing that this leader is the presumed-dead Paul. Harkonnen plots to send his nephew and heir Feyd Rautha as a replacement for his more brutish nephew Glossu Rabban — who is currently in charge of the planet — with the hope of gaining the respect of the now-troublesome Fremen. Winning them over as a fighting force would give him enough power to overtake the Emperor himself. The Emperor, however, is highly suspicious of the Baron and sends spies to watch his movements. Hawat explains the Emperor's suspicions: the Sardaukar, nearly invincible in battle, are trained on the prison planet Salusa Secundus, whose inhospitable conditions allow only the best to survive. Arrakis serves as a similar crucible, and the Emperor fears that the Baron could recruit from it a fighting force to rival his Sardaukar, just as House Atreides had intended to do before their destruction. Paul is reunited with Gurney. Completely loyal to the Atreides, Gurney is convinced that Jessica is the traitor who caused the House's downfall, and nearly kills her before being stopped by Paul. Disturbed that his prescience had not predicted this possibility, Paul decides to take the Water of Life, an act which will either confirm his status as the Kwisatz Haderach or kill him. After three weeks in a near-death state, Paul emerges with his powers refined and focused; he is able to see past, present, and future at will. Looking into space, he sees that the Emperor and the Harkonnens have amassed a huge armada to invade the planet and regain control. Paul also realizes the way to control spice production on Arrakis: saturating spice fields with the water of life would cause a chain reaction that would destroy all spice on the planet.
In an Imperial attack on a Fremen settlement, Paul and Chani's son Leto is killed, and the four-year-old Alia is captured by Sardaukar and brought to the planet's capital Arrakeen, where the Baron Harkonnen is nervously attempting to thwart the Fremen jihad under the close watch of the Emperor. The Emperor is surprised at Alia's defiance of his power and her confidence in her brother, whom she reveals to be Paul Atreides. At that moment, under cover of a gigantic sandstorm, Paul and his army of Fremen attack the city; Alia kills the Baron during the confusion. Paul quickly overtakes the city's defenses and confronts the Emperor, threatening to destroy the spice, thereby ending space travel and crippling both Imperial power and the Bene Gesserit in one blow. Feyd-Rautha challenges Paul to a knife-duel in a final attempt to stop his overthrow, but is defeated despite an attempt at treachery. Realizing that Paul is capable of doing all he has threatened, the Emperor is forced to abdicate and to promise his daughter Princess Irulan in marriage to Paul. Paul ascends the throne, his control of Arrakis and the spice establishing a new kind of power over the Empire that will change the face of the known universe. However, despite being Emperor of the Known Universe, Paul realizes that he will not be able to stop the jihad he has seen in his visions, his legendary status among the Fremen having grown past the point where he can control it.
There are many editions, the book is approximately 600 pages. Do not watch the movie made in the 1980s. Bad. The miniseries made in about 2000 is better. There are many sequels, the best are the ones written by Frank Herbert himself; his son Brian and author Kevin Anderson have taken over the franchise and written in the back story supposedly based on Frank's notes.
Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster
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