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Frank Herbert's DUNE: A Novel Summarized By
SimoTheFinlandized / Paul Palazzolo (c. 2022 CE)
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The Dune saga is set tens of thousands of
years into humanity's future. Faster-
than-light space-travel has been developed,
as have numerous other interstellar
FTL-space-faring fusion-age technologies,
and humans have colonized a very vast
number of planets and star systems, but
a great socio-cultural and moral reaction
against computers and robots has resulted
in a ban on any kind of “thinking machine”,
with the creation or possession of such
punishable by immediate death. Despite
this prohibition, humanity continues to
develop and advance other branches of
technology, including ESP and instruments-
of-war. At the time of the first book's setting,
humanity has formed a feudal interstellar
space-empire known as the Imperium, run
by several Great Houses that oversee
various planets. Of key interest is the
planet Arrakis, known as "Dune". A desert
planet with nearly no precipitation, it is the
only planet where a special life-extending
drug, melange or "the spice", can be found.
In addition to life extension, melange
enhances the mental capacity of humans:
it enables humans known as Mentats to
perform complex calculations without the
aid of computers; allows for the mutated
Spacing Guild pilots to navigate folded
space and travel the distances between
planets and stars; and triggers some of the
powers of the Bene Gesserit, a matriarchal
religious group that secretly seeks to control
the direction humanity takes. Melange is
difficult to acquire, not only due to the harsh
environment of Arrakis, but also the presence of
giant sandworms that are drawn towards any
rhythmic sounds on the sands of the desert.
Control of Arrakis, its spice production,
and the impact on humanity's development
become the centerpoints of a millennia-long
conflict that develops through the series.
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