Frank Herbert
1 universe1 series6 books
Universes (1)
Series (1)
Books (6)
Dune
Dune (Original Series)
1965
On the desert planet Arrakis - known as Dune - the most valuable substance in the universe is found: the spice melange, which extends life, expands consciousness, and makes interstellar travel possible. When the noble House Atreides is granted stewardship of Arrakis, young Paul Atreides is thrust into a deadly political landscape where rival houses, imperial intrigue, and the planet's fierce native Fremen all converge. As Paul adapts to the harsh desert world, he begins to manifest abilities that mark him as something more than human - something the Fremen have been waiting for. A novel about power, religion, ecology, and the dangerous intersection of prophecy and politics, Dune is one of the most influential works in science fiction.
Dune Messiah
Dune (Original Series)
1969
Twelve years after claiming the imperial throne, Paul Muad'Dib rules an empire built on religious fervour and conquest. The jihad waged in his name has swept across the galaxy, killing billions - and Paul, despite his prescient visions, has been powerless to stop it. Now a conspiracy unites his most dangerous enemies: the Bene Gesserit sisterhood, the Spacing Guild, the Tleilaxu, and Paul's own wife, Princess Irulan. At the centre of their plot is a gift - a ghola, a being reconstructed from the dead - that carries a purpose Paul can foresee but cannot avoid. A novel about the trap of power and the price of godhood.
Children of Dune
Dune (Original Series)
1976
Nine years after Paul Muad'Dib walked into the desert, his twin children Leto and Ghanima have become the most valuable - and most dangerous - figures in the empire. Like their father, the twins possess prescient abilities that make them targets for every faction seeking to control the imperial throne. Their aunt Alia rules as regent, but something is wrong with Alia - the ancestral memories she carries are overwhelming her from within. As plots converge on the twins from all directions, young Leto faces a choice that could transform humanity's future or destroy it.
God Emperor of Dune
Dune (Original Series)
1981
Three thousand five hundred years have passed. Leto II, son of Paul Muad'Dib, has merged with the sandtrout of Arrakis and transformed into something no longer human - a vast, near-immortal worm-creature who rules the known universe as a tyrant-god. Leto's Golden Path - a prescient vision of the only future in which humanity survives - demands millennia of enforced stagnation, and he has made himself the instrument of that stagnation. Around him, a series of Duncan Idaho gholas serve and rebel, a young woman named Hwi Noree tests his remaining humanity, and the seeds of rebellion grow in the very oppression he has engineered. A novel about the loneliness of absolute power and the terrible logic of long-term survival.
Heretics of Dune
Dune (Original Series)
1984
Fifteen hundred years after the death of the God Emperor, the scattered peoples of the galaxy are returning. The Scattering - Leto II's final gift to humanity - sent millions fleeing beyond the reach of prescience, and now their descendants are coming home, bringing new technologies, new religions, and new dangers. On Rakis, the planet once called Dune, a young girl named Sheeana can control the reborn sandworms. The Bene Gesserit want her. The Tleilaxu want her. And from the Scattering, a terrifying new enemy is approaching - one the old powers of the galaxy may not survive.
Chapterhouse: Dune
Dune (Original Series)
1985
The Bene Gesserit are under siege. The Honored Matres - a violent and mysterious faction that emerged from the Scattering - are systematically destroying Bene Gesserit planets, and Chapterhouse, the sisterhood's hidden homeworld, may be next. Mother Superior Darwi Odrade must forge an unprecedented strategy to save her order: transforming Chapterhouse itself into a new Arrakis by introducing sandworms to create a spice cycle, while simultaneously attempting to absorb and neutralise the Honored Matres rather than fight them. Chapterhouse: Dune is Frank Herbert's final novel, published the year before his death, and it ends on a deliberate cliffhanger - two characters fleeing into the unknown aboard a no-ship, with the nature of their pursuers left tantalizingly unresolved. It remains a powerful and unsettling conclusion to one of science fiction's greatest achievements.