Dune

The far-future universe created by Herbert is nothing short of a phenomenon. After the novel’s publication in 1965, it won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, going on to sell over 12 million copies, and spawning five sequels, as well as multiple board games, computer games, television series and feature films. It is a universe of ‘traps within traps’, of human computers, secretive witch-cults and fanatic warriors, all with their own intricate histories and intentions. Humanity has resorted to a delicately balanced feudal system of governance, each aristocratic family struggling for survival, competing for control of a decadent empire. However, despite the grand scale of Herbert’s fully formed universe, at its heart Dune is the story of a single boy, Paul Atreides, who finds himself caught in the web of a myth, centuries in the making. Is he the fabled Kwisatz Haderach, able to span time – ‘who can be many places at once’? Betrayed and exiled into the waterless deserts of Arrakis, his destiny will not only be fulfilled, but the future of humankind decided, and from the dunes will arise a saviour – Muad’Dib – both terrible and beautiful in his absolute power.

In the construction of Dune Herbert drew on a range of influences, both literary and scientific, from the origin stories of the Abrahamic desert religions and T. E. Lawrence’s Bedouin desert revolt to cutting-edge terraforming techniques and the burgeoning environmentalist movement. For this edition, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Michael Dirda has contributed a new introduction, examining both the origins of Herbert’s unlikely success and the hidden depths of his ‘grand operatic vision’. On the surface it is a classic adventure story – a boy coming of age to reclaim his birthright – but soon Herbert strikes a darker vein, exploring the terrors of prescribed destiny and the problematic notion of hero-making. As the chosen ‘one’ emerges, we discover his role has little to do with goodness; the quakes of fanatical jihad – like the desert’s giant sandworms – rumble under the surface, waiting to swallow the galaxy one planet at a time. It is a compelling dissection of literature’s, and humanity’s, mania with the godlike ‘hero’. As Paul’s friends become worshippers and his family become idols, the thin line between god, liberator and oppressor is increasingly indistinct.

The meticulously constructed characters and ecology of Dune have become enshrined in science-fiction folklore, from the grotesque, bloated mass of the evil Baron Harkonnen to the towering sandworms, breaching the mountainous dunes. This much anticipated edition is illustrated by Sam Weber, whose work also appears in the acclaimed Folio editions of Fahrenheit 451 and Lord of the Flies. His acutely detailed illustrations perfectly capture the intricacies of Herbert’s vision, realising the faces and landscapes of Arrakis as never before. Also included is an illuminating afterword by Brian Herbert, son of the author, who has penned several best-selling novels that expand the Dune universe. The pictorial slipcase reproduces the undulating landscape of Arrakis, while the binding design depicts Paul Atreides, his body shrouded in a veil of stars, grain-like in their multitude. His eyes are blocked in the unforgettable ‘blue within blue’, consumed by both the spice and his ‘terrible purpose’.

Sam Weber was born in Alaska, and grew up in Deep River, Ontario, Canada. After attending the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, Sam moved to New York to pursue illustration and attend graduate school at The School of Visual Arts. His work for The Folio Society includes Lord of the Flies (2009) and Fahrenheit 451 (2011). His illustrations for Dune were painted in oil on board, with the black-and-white chapter headings in ink and charcoal on paper.

Michael Dirda is a Pulitzer Prize-winning literary journalist, a weekly books columnist for the Washington Post, and the author of five collections of essays: Readings (2000), Bound to Please (2005), Book by Book (2006), Classics for Pleasure (2007) and Browsings (2015). He has also written the memoir An Open Book (2003) and On Conan Doyle (2012), which received an Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America. His current project is a reconsideration of popular fiction during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He has written introductions to The Great Gatsby (2013), Dune (2016), East of Eden (2017) and Atlas Shrugged (2018) for The Folio Society.