Dune by Frank Herbert

Back in the '80s, a TV commercial for a bath-water softener named Calgon featured a harassed, stressed-out woman. She says, "Calgon, take me away," and is then transported to a bathtub surrounded by a calming, misty forest.

When I face stresses I wish to escape, I don't use Calgon. I read The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien), The Dark Tower series (Stephen King), or Dune. This time I chose Dune.


These three writers have created complete alternative worlds in which I can escape. The characters face seemingly unsolvable problems, but they keep on keeping on and they prevail. Luckily, I have the ability to lose myself in a well-told story, so these three, in particular, can "take me away."

Dune is the story of a feudal society of the future, when humans have spread to many planets. The Atreides House has been given control of Arrakis, a desert planet also known as Dune, which alone supplies "spice," a substance that has geriatric qualities and also allows the pilots of the Spacing Guild to navigate from planet to planet. Treachery awaits them, and the Duke Leto Atreides is killed, but his 15-year-old son Paul and his concubine Jessica escape into the desert. There they must face the dangers of the environment, of the natives of the planet, and of the worms, giant (really, really giant) sandworms, who devour everything that they sense.

Herbert has included every aspect of his created world in this book--the language patterns, the politics, the mythology, the religion, the life-style, the environment. His treatment of the science of desert ecology is apparently accurate (so I have read). Mysticism and mind-enhancing drugs also enter in, which may be one reason this book was so popular in the late '60s. This world is so clearly delineated that I would recognize it immediately if I ever found myself there.

The plot here is intricate and not easily anticipated; the politics are also intricate; the characters are somewhat archetypal, but that is fitting.

One must wonder at the kind of mind that can create an entire alternative universe. I believe these authors must have entered that universe themselves, because all three wrote sequels (and sequels) and included the universe in other things they wrote. Is it possible those universes do exist, or did exist once, or will exist in the future? (What a hippy-dippy comment!)

Suffice it to say, if you have the kind of mind that can suspend disbelief and escape from reality, you should read Dune and at least two of its sequels. If you have not read them already.