To appreciate Frank Herbert's achievement in the Dune trilogy, which concludes with "Children of Dune" …, you have to be a devotee of obsession. On the surface, the Dune books offer an unlikely combination of old-fashioned space opera, up-to-date ecological concern and breathtakingly ecumenical religiosity. The space opera elements include a decaying galactic empire, heroes and villains of nearly superhuman power, and truly formidable monsters. The ecology centers around the planet Dune, which is one vast desert, yet which supports a population of remarkably disciplined human beings known as Fremen….
Herbert's vision of a people forced by circumstance into total ecological awareness is worked out in convincing detail; and since the first book in the trilogy, "Dune," was published in 1965, he can hardly be accused of mere faddishness….
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