20 Things You Didn’t Know About Dune

Anyone who’s read the book will know how deeply Herbert explains the ecology of the planet Arrakis. Almost to the point of tedium, we get very detailed explanations on the workings of the desert sand, the inhabitants of the dune sea and the lifecycle of sandworms themselves.

Whilst the subject of ecology seems like a peculiar springboard for high-minded ruminations on human nature, politics and religion, it's a pairing that works remarkably well as a philosophical allegory for the extreme situations the characters find themselves in.

This was all influenced by Herbert’s work as an ecological consultant back in the early 70s and Dune is considered to be one of the first ecologically-minded books of the sci-fi genre as a result. It is often theorized that the character of Liet Kynes - a Planetary Ecologist - is a partial cypher of Herbert himself.