Herbert, Frank, 1920-1986

<p>Frank Herbert's science fiction exhibits extraordinary complexity and creativity, exploring religion, politics, evolution, and ecology. His novel Dune is one of the most famous of all science fiction novels, and one of the most convincingly-imagined literary worlds ever created.</p>

<p>Herbert began publishing science fiction with "Looking for Something?" for Startling Stories in 1952. His emergence as a writer of major stature commenced with the publication in Analog of "Dune World," the first part of his Dune series (1963-4). It was followed in 1965 by "The Prophet of Dune;" the two were amalgamated into Dune (1965), which won the first Nebula Award for Best Novel, and shared the Hugo Award.</p>

<p>Dune encompasses intergalactic politics of a decidedly feudal nature, the development of psi powers, religion, and war. Its primary impact, however, lay in its treatment of ecology. The desert planet Arrakis, with its giant sandworms and its Bedouin-like human inhabitants, the Fremen, clinging to the most precarious of ecological niches through fanatical scrupulousness in water conservation, is possibly the most convincing planetary-romance environment created. Dune Messiah (1969) elaborates the intrigue at the cost of other elements, but Children of Dune (1976) recaptures much of the strength of the original work and addresses another recurrent theme in Herbert's work—the evolution of Man, in this case into superman. God Emperor of Dune (1981), Heretics of Dune (1984), and Chapterhouse: Dune (1985) followed. God Emperor of Dune and Heretics of Dune, like the enormously extended development section in the first movement of a great symphony, work and rework the initial material into more and more elaborate presentations of the initial themes.</p>

<p>Herbert began in the mid-1960s to publish other novels and series with admirable regularity, including The Green Brain (1966), Destination: Void (1966), and the Pandora sequence, all written with Bill Ransom—The Jesus Incident (1979), The Lazarus Effect (1983) and The Ascension Factor (1988). Hellstrom's Hive (1973), arguably Herbert's most successful novel after Dune, presents in persuasive detail an underground colony of humans selectively bred, on insect-hive principles, into various specializations. The novel points up the contradictions of a society which in its own terms is a successful utopia, but which from an outside human viewpoint is horrific.</p>

<p>Herbert's best novels were the work of a speculative intellect with few rivals in modern science fiction.</p>

<p>Selected Bibliography:
Dune (1965)
The Green Brain (1966)
Destination: Void (1966)
Dune Messiah (1969)
Hellstrom's Hive (1973)
The Jesus Incident (with Bill Ransom) (1979)
Children of Dune (1976)
God Emperor of Dune (1981)
The White Plague (1982)
The Lazarus Effect (with Bill Ransom) (1983)
Heretics of Dune (1984)
Chapterhouse: Dune (1985)
Man of Two Worlds (with Brian Herbert) (1986)
The Ascension Factor (with Bill Ransom) (1988)</p>

<p>Franklin Patrick Herbert Jr. (October 8, 1920 – February 11, 1986) was an American science fiction author best known for the 1965 novel Dune and its five sequels. Though he became famous for his novels, he also wrote short stories and worked as a newspaper journalist, photographer, book reviewer, ecological consultant, and lecturer.</p>

<p>The Dune saga, set in the distant future, and taking place over millennia, explores complex themes, such as the long-term survival of the human species, human evolution, planetary science and ecology, and the intersection of religion, politics, economics and power in a future where humanity has long since developed interstellar travel and settled many thousands of worlds. Dune is the best-selling science fiction novel of all time, and the whole series is widely considered to be among the classics of the genre.</p>