In undoubtedly one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, Frank Herbert’s Dune focuses on a blend of politics, environmentalism, adventure, and mysticism. Recipient of the Nebula and Hugo Award, Dune explores the effects of changing global climate most prominently. The role of science fiction isn’t so much to predict the future, rather to astound the audience with its possible leading avenues.  

Unlike most sci-fi of its time, Dune isn’t much about technology as it is about ecology and ecology issues, something still relevant today, proving yet again the timelessness and genius of Dune. On the dedication page of the book, Frank Herbert writes that this is for “the people whose labor goes beyond ideas into the realm of ‘real materials’—to the dry-land ecologists, wherever they may be, in whatever time they work, this effort at prediction is dedicated in humility and admiration”. Environmental science is the critical real-world underpinning of the Dune universe (the Dune-iverse if you will). In fact, some have argued that Dune is one of the, if not the, earliest examples of climate fiction, a story concerned with exploring the relationships and interactions between organisms and their environment. The text is also filled with allegory, inviting the reader to draw parallels and make connections to real-world environmental issues. The substance known as spice melange, produced by gigantic sandworms on the remote desert planet of Arrakis, is central to the series. Various factions throughout the galaxy are dependent on spice, including the Spice Guild (responsible for interstellar travel) and the Bene Gesserit (who use it to expand their mental powers). Critics view spice as an analogy for oil and the oil trade. In The Dune Encyclopedia, writer (and close friend of Frank Herbert) Willis E. McNelly points out that the Dune series can “be construed as a thinly veiled allegory of our world’s insatiable appetite for oil and other petroleum products.”  

Religion, second to ecology, is a very present theme in Dune and yet another reason the book is so engaging. Of course, the biggest question of all might be: What is religion in Dune? Well, it is two things really, a way of life and a political tool. Most of the people in the upper echelon of Dune’s world —like the spacing guild, are agnostic. Even the Bene Gesserit doesn’t consider itself to be a religious group, but its members fuel belief in others to serve their own ends. That’s because Frank Herbert’s series was designed to examine the dangerous intersection of religion and politics, partially inspired by growing up in Catholicism. Nevertheless, Herbert's approach to religion is extremely broad in its approach. This is what makes Dune more enjoyable than, say, the spectacle of a blonde-wigged Emilia Clarke carried by ethnically undefined brown slaves in Game of Thrones, is the sincerity of Herbert’s identification with the Fremen. They are the moral center of the book, not an ignorant mass to be civilized. Paul does not transform them in his image but participates in their culture and is himself transformed into the prophet Muad’Dib. By drawing from many Eastern and MENA (Middle Easter and Northern African) cultures from the structural DNA and language of his story, which is an American English language book set to be read mostly by that demographic, at least upon release at the time in the mid-20th century, quite aggressively, Herbert forces white Americans to familiarize themselves with the meanings, semantics, and feelings from these cultures. So often, the word “jihad”, which roughly translates to “struggle” is connotated with shame or spite in 21st-century media. For so long, our stories have twisted and turned the idea of MENA culture and language into something every person of the Western world should be cautious of. But for example, when the protagonist, Paul Atreides’ journey of growth and power becomes known as “jihad”, it extracts those terms from cultural specifics and our perceived pre-history, to create a new, less sensitive meaning, one that is different from those prescribed by the structural political forces above us.  

Despite the fact that Dune is such an extraordinary piece of literature and so widely loved, it can be hard to get into in the beginning. The 1965 science-fiction classic is a doorstop of a book (my copy has nearly 700 pages), thick with unfamiliar terminology, elaborate world-building and high-minded concepts. David Lynch’s incomprehensible and unpleasant 1984 film likely doesn’t help much. However, Dune was never meant to be a children’s book, it’s certainly not a book that attempts to be dense either. Frank Herbert didn’t seem like he was out to impress the world with his literary talent, it was more like he has a really big story to tell and just told it. So, do not fear Dune, fear is the mind killer.