Dune

I was 17 when I started reading Dune.  I had just received the book on my seventeenth birthday and as usual, when I get a book I delay reading it.  I delay because I resent anyone telling me that I should read any book.  I rennet it because how does anyone know whether a book represents anyone.  But I did eventually did pick it up and read it.  Frank Herbert sets the tale anywhere, at least initially.  It begins on Caladan, a water world somewhere in the galaxy the night before a fateful trip to a new land.  And the philosophy starts right away, Gom Job, a toxin that kills only animals and a box that determines if you are human or to die an animal.  The premise of the box is can you resist the pain the box creates to to live to kill the person who set the trap, one needs only remove their hand to stop the pain, but doing so proves you are not human and the poison pricks the skin killing you.  

The opening scene is the entire premise of the book.  The duke and his son, Paul, are sent to the desert planet Arrakis, also known as Dune, to take over the Spice mining operations, the most valuable substance in the universe, Spice.  Spice extends people's lives simply by taking it, it improves the taste food and it allows the space navigators to fold space allowing communication and space travel in the human empire to exist, otherwise such travel and communication would be reduced sub light methods.  

The back story: ten thousand years ago there was a great war between the free humans and the bio-mechanoids and a supreme artificial intelligence, humanity won but the home world Earth was turned into a molten, radio active, slag heap.  Humanity to survive and prosper did away with all machines that had a human like mind and instead focused on improving the human form.  Computers were replaced with Mentants, human computational masters, and a few other human marvels that rely on exact control of minute body changes.  Mutants created through long exposure of spice gas that allows them, and only them to fold space.  The only computers allowed are training robots, controversial thinking machines illegal on many worlds, used exclusively to improve combat skills with sword and shield.

Do to the Boltzmann-Holtz reaction, a sub nuclear reaction with lasze gun fire and shields, which consumes shielded and lasze gun operator, combatants are trained in sword and knife combat, with martial arts training with personal shields added to the mix, the shields deflect all fast attacks but let slower attacks to pass through.

The first book is about the betrayal and eventual revenge brought on by the adversarial feudal law of the empire.  Our hero, the young boy must mature and forge a belittled people into the most feared fighting force the universe has ever seen.  The hero is plagued by doubts about his true potential, whether he is the prophesied messiah of the of the people of Dune and the greater universe, whether he is controllable or force of destruction, that will bring the empire to its knees.

The themes of the book are justice, triumph over evil, the perfection of personal self, the perfection of humanity.

After reading that book, I picked up the next five and took them to work that summer.  I was going away at the insistence of my father to Junior Ranger camp.  A little of camp if you think of it as a work camp, and a little like summer camp.  We got a very little amount of pay, but had our meals and accommodation paid for.  I did not know what the purpose of it was, to seek out potential MNR recruits, (Ministry of Natural Resources), park rangers, etc., but I went and I brought the next five books in the series to read.

Dune Messiah, plot give away for first book, yes the hero wins, and becomes Emperor of the Galaxy, but things are not going smoothly for him.  There is much conflict in the Empire, rebellions and minor wars, all to be put down brutally if he wants to establish rule for his adopted people.

Children of Dune, or Dune: Next Generation, actually no, not at all.  The regency of Paul's children is fraught with peril, constant assassination attempts and family intrigue playing for the future of human rule, but with a unforeseen consequence as Paul's vision for humanity takes shape from beyond his grave.

God Emperor of Dune, five thousand years of stable rule under the tutelage of the Golden Path of Humanity.  Five thousand years of iron rule by one person with a very long term plan to ensure the survival of the species.  Five thousand years of peace and stagnation.  Dune is a desert no longer, it is green and verdant as only a utopia could be.  The sand worms that make the spice are dead and the supremely important spice is rationed in metered out doses, a prize to keep all the factions to heel.  The emperor is, of course, universally despised.

Heretics of Dune: five thousand years after the demise of the God Emperor, five thousand years after the great dispersal of humanity into the void, someone has come back to plunder the rich center of humanity.  Dune is once again a desert, spice is being produced but the worms are no longer the force of nature they once were; they have intelligence too.  The invading force uses weapons that no one can stand up to and their soldiers are all women that use sex as a weapon.  The heroes of the new age are trying to survive these impossible odds trying to acquire new weapons before all is lost.

Chapterhouse: Dune, the sixth book and last before his death. More a continuation of the last book, the central worlds have all but fallen to the enemy known as the Whores.  Before the end and total destruction, it is found that the Whores are running before something worse . . ..

The seventh book, apparently needed a lot more back story to be written properly, and the fleecing of my money began, three trilogies to get to the last scene.  I was okay with the ending of the Sixth book, however.