Dune [series]
Entry updated 20 July 2026. Tagged: Community.
The best-known sf sequence by Frank Herbert, whose opening novel Dune (December 1963-February 1964 Analog as "Dune World"; January-May 1965 Analog as "The Prophet of Dune"; fixup 1965) offers a heady mixture of desert Ecology – in particular the complex life cycle of the titular world's immense, devouring sandworms – galactic Politics and the making of a Messiah. This was filmed as Dune (1984) directed by David Lynch. The novel was later filmed again in two parts as Dune: Part One (2021) and Dune: Part Two (2024), both directed by Denis Villeneuve.
Five Dune sequels by Frank Herbert himself followed the original novel (see his entry for fuller discussion), developing the themes over several millennia of Future History. Willis E McNelly's The Dune Encyclopedia (anth 1984) is a nonfiction reference or concordance presented as though written some 5000 years after the action of Dune. A broadly comic Parody of the original 1965 novel is National Lampoon's Doon (1984) by Ellis Weiner. After Herbert's death his son Brian Herbert collaborated with Kevin J Anderson on a number of prequels beginning with Prelude to Dune: House Atreides (1999) that were markedly different in tone from Frank Herbert's idiosyncratic philosophical vision, tending more towards crude Space Opera. The same writing team has added further sequels to the original series, beginning with Hunters of Dune (2006); they have to date published more than twenty volumes set in the Dune universe. [DRL]
see also: Board Game; Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty; Series.
further reading
- Ellis Weiner. National Lampoon's Doon (New York: Pocket Books, 1984) [Parody: pb/Doug Beekman]
- Ryan Britt. The Spice Must Flow: The Story of Dune, from Cult Novels to Visionary Sci-Fi Movies (New York: Penguin Random House/Plume Books, 2023) [pb/]
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