Dune [series]
Entry updated 25 September 2023. 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 first half of the novel was later filmed as Dune: Part One (2021) directed by Denis Villeneuve, with «Dune: Part Two» to follow.
Five Dune sequels followed the original novel (see Herbert's 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 (1950- ). 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 rather different in tone from Frank Herbert's idiosyncratic 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); in 2020 they published their sixteenth novel set in the Dune universe. [DRL]
see also: Board Game; Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty; Series.
further reading
- Ryan Britt. The Spice Must Flow (New York: Penguin/Plume Books, 2023) [pb/]
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