Books: DUNE: Frank Herbert

Fifty years ago, Frank Herbert wrote what many consider the epitome of the science fiction novel.

Yes, “Dune” was first published in 1965.

Five decades later, the story of royal intrigue and giant spice worms on an arid, desolate mining planet still resonates.

Herbert’s prose remains crisp. The drama, invention and characters leap from each page. “Dune” is still both page-turner and thought-provoker.

Even with a half-century for others to rip off Herbert’s ideas, “Dune’s” multi-textured cultures, peoples, customs, etc., remain innovative. Other writers may have attempted to copy Herbert’s themes but few have succeeded where he excelled.

Herbert does several unexpected things with “Dune.”

Through prophetic passages opening each chapter, he tells readers almost from the start what will happen in the book — yet, these revelations add to the suspense rather than spoiling the plot. In lesser hands, this would have failed miserably.

He creates new worlds and cultures based on Earth-based religions, customs and peoples. The people of the desert-world Dune, or Arrakis, owe something deep to the people of the Middle East even to aspects of language. Other characters cite biblical references from the Old and New Testaments. There are dukes, barons, emperors.

Upon the strength of these familiar foundations, Herbert builds a world that is fantastic.

Especially among the Arrakis Fremen and their devotion to not just water but to moisture itself — their ways of conserving water, the sacrifice of shedding water (crying) for others, the pledge of allegiance sealed with a spit.

Herbert is devoted to details. He does not scrimp. “Dune” offers full-fledged personalities, politics, planets, etc.

The style remains universal. Herbert wrote in a style that defies categorization to a period of time. If “Dune” was regarded as ahead of its time in the 1960s, it remains a vitally contemporary read now 50 years and counting.

Frank Herbert died in 1986. He wrote several sequels to “Dune,” but it is the first book that remains not only his masterpiece but a masterpiece of literature.