Dune is a classic science fiction book written by Frank Herbert. It has been made into a film, but unlike most such film adaptations the film is a serious artistic work in it's own right and it's worth seeing the film after reading the book. The book is an epic (or the start of an epic if you count the series of books which it began) but still has some very interesting and novel concepts.
One very famous line from the book which is widely quoted is "It is by will alone that I set my mind in motion".

Here is another very famous section of the book.

The Bene Gesserit Littainy against Fear.
Pg 19 of Dune

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

Some people believe that the Fremen in Dune are Muslims, apparently because of the desert theme (of course Christianity and Judaism started in roughly the same part of the world and aren't associated with deserts). The book makes reference to the "Orange Catholic bible" and a unification of faiths, so it seems that the dominant religion is based on Christianity.

The book does seem to be inspired by oil and the middle-east. It was written when OPEC was at it's peak and it did seam that the OPEC countries could bring the rest of the world to it's knees economically. Now it seems that al Quaeda might achieve that goal by shutting off the world oil supplies.


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Copyright © 1998, 2007 Russell Coker, may be distributed freely.