Dune Novels
Dune Novels

Psst! My respect for Uday Chopra just went up. He’s a Dune fan! (I realise, with some dismay here, that there is a whole generation alive and kicking that has probably never even heard of Dune.) Sad as that may be I’m hoping this will tug at your nostalgic heart-strings just enough to go back and revisit those awesome, awesome books.

Dune

More than 20,000 years in the future, in approximately 23,090 AD, the human race has scattered throughout the known universe and populated countless planetary systems, which are ruled by aristocratic royal houses who in turn answer to the Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV. Science and technology have evolved far beyond that of our own time. Because of an incident 10,000 years in the past known as the Butlerian Jihad, computers and artificial intelligence are prohibited. In the absence of these devices, humans with highly developed minds called Mentats perform the functions of computers.

Besides mentats, various organizations were born to fill the space that once was occupied by “thinking machines.” Only two of these have survived: the Spacing Guild, which has specialized in areas like mathematics, and has monopolized space travel which has been made possible through their Navigators, and the powerful matriarchal order called the Bene Gesserit, whose main priority is to preserve and advance the human race. The source of all their skills depends on a valuable substance called melange, often referred to as “the spice,” which is found only on the desert planet Arrakis. The spice gives those who ingest it extended life and some prescient awareness.