Science Fiction History: 1965 Frank Herbert Writes Dune

About the 1965 sci-fi novel Dune by Frank Herbert.

--1965. In Dune, Frank Herbert depicted the far-distant planet of Arrakis, inhabited by descendants of earthfolk. In a way, it may be described as an "ecology" novel, although certainly not propagandistic: It is simply that the one most important circumstance of life on Dune World was its exceeding lack of water; everything else--economics, sociology, war, peace, religion--derived from and depended on this perpetual and terrible scarcity. The abrupt expansion of the Sahara since the book was written makes it, in a way, horribly prophetic. (Dune Messiah, 1969, was its sequel.)