Dune

“Dune is a big sprawling space opera. It is explicitly a political book: it’s about a revolution to overthrow an oppressive emperor, but also about a conflict between two military families, and how they run extractive industries on planets. It’s also about religion. And it’s about trying to build better people through genetic or psychoactive means – all of which make a lot of sense when you think about who wrote it, and when he wrote it. It’s hugely influential for me, as a writer, in terms of conceptualising complexity, and the way you can write a book about the moral injury of trying to work in geopolitics – about what kinds of psychologically horrific things can happen to a person, if they are trying to be a God Emperor, or trying to be a person with their hands on the wheel of fate.” Read more...

The Best Political Sci-Fi Books

Arkady Martine, Novelist

“I’m guessing that most of your readers will know Dune – if only because it’s just been adapted into two enormously successful films. It’s the story of a young man, or boy really. When the story begins, he travels with his very powerful family to the planet Arrakis, known as Dune, which is entirely a desert world. He becomes involved not just in galactic politics, but in a struggle for freedom on behalf of the longest-inhabiting peoples of Arrakis, the Fremen, all centred around the production and ownership of a spice which allows space travel to be possible.” Read more...

The Best Science Fiction Worlds

Tom Huddleston, Novelist

“Dune is very interesting because it marks the transition between pulp fiction planetary romance and engagement with real-world politics. It’s a story about a young nobleman whose family are assassinated, and he is driven into exile on a desert planet.” Read more...

The Best Sci Fi Books for Beginners

Nicholas Whyte