Last Updated: 2006/05/10
Dune is a great science fiction book written by Frank Herbert and published in 1965. In many ways it is the "Lord of the Rings" of the science fiction genre, as it is a story of epic proportions. It goes into depth on the science, religion, politics, and philosophy of several cultures giving the reader much more information than most other sci-fi books. For those of you who don't like long long drawn out stories with massive attention to detail covering many aspects of several different worlds you probably won't like this book. Dune's popularity is quite vast with plenty of added material to continue its legacy including several sequal books both by Frank Herbert, his son Brian, and other authors, a movie, two television miniserieses, and five computer games. The plot of the book is about a Duke's son named Paul Atreides. His empire (The house Atreides) is scheduled to take over the planet Arrakis (or Dune). Arrakis is the only planet in the known universe where the spice Malange exists. The spice is necessary to fold space and therefore necessary to travel about the universe. Paul finds out that the opposing empire (The house Harkonnen) is trying to murder him and his family. There is a grand battle and Duke Leto, Paul's Father, is killed and the house Atreides is practically destroyed. This puts the Harkonnen back into power. Paul eventually finds himself in the desert of Dune, trying to win back his heritage and discover his destiny which involves the Fremen. That is just a small taste of the starting plot. If you think that explanation is complicated just wait until you read the book!
Dune was made into a movie in 1984. It is a great movie which I love, but because of the vast scope of the book it had a lot of information cut out and changed in order to fit into the running time of a movie. With a large quantity of background taken out of the book, most people don't understand what they are seeing unless they've already read the book. This is a slight problem, but nothing that can't be fixed with a little research. Dune was recently released as a miniseries on the Sci-Fi channel. All the episodes combined to a total of about four hours. From what I've heard it was a great show, but not very true to the book. Once I see it I'll fill you in more. The Sci-Fi channel has also made another miniseries called "Children of Dune" which covers two books, "Dune Messiah" and "The Children of Dune". The original script from the movie Dune exists in it's final draft form (draft 7). Some data is missing, but here it is in its most complete form: SCRIPT DRAFT 7.
The first three computer games of Dune are terrific. The first Dune wasn't the biggest hit ever, but was still fun to play. Dune II was a monumental game that spawned the rise of the "real-time" strategy genre. Dune II was what started Westwood's "Command and Conquer" series (and Blizzard's "War Craft/Star Craft", and Ensemble Studio's "Age of Empires", etc.) The third Dune game (Dune 2000), is very similar to Dune II but with much better graphics, sound, cut-scenes, and many other added features. I haven't played or seen the others, so I can't give you much info on them.
To hear the DUNE 2000 soundtrack visit the Videogame Music Preservation Foundation.
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