Customer Reviews

The Science of Dune: An Unauthorized Exploration into the Real Science Behind Frank Herbert's Fictional Universe (Psychology of Popular Culture)

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This book is really a collection of essays by various authors about topics of the Dune setting. Obviously, with so many authors the books lacks a single unifying tone or mood as some essays use more humor than others, others are more narrow in focus, etc. The result can be "uneven" especially when read in a couple of sittings.

I think my favorite essay was on "Melange" and the way the author Dr. Carol Hart relates it to LSD and other mind altering drugs is interesting approach. Very much a "you get out of it what you put into it" sort of situation. I also liked the deconstruction of the Stillsuit by John C. Smith. As an engineer I had always wondered about the thermodynamics of the device and was interested in seeing if someone had a plausible method for allowing it to function.

You don't need much "Dune" experience to understand and enjoy this book. If you have read the first novel, seen the movie or Sci-Fi channel mini-series you will know enough to relate to the essays.

Who knew? The book is a mostly informative/entertaining compendium of essays on the science really found in Dune. Did Herbert really mean to have science in the canon? Who cares! It's there to be had. The don't miss essays are the Stars of Dune (with mileage charts) and My Tleilaxu Eyes (the most creative essay in the book). Pick it up, give it a read and enjoy the science!

Do you like Dune? I mean...do you REALLY LIKE Dune? No no...I mean do you like it so much that you've sat around and wondered about how a stillsuit would work, or whether or not a drug like the spice could actually exist? Or how a sandworm is even possible (if at all)? Better yet, have you ever posted on a message board about these things? If you answer yes to any of these last few then you're a huge nerd and this book is for YOU.

To understand this book, and what is wrong with many of its essays within it, you have to understand the original and its author, Frank Herbert.

Herbet was, if evidence will show, a fairly remarkable man who was gifted with a heavy dose, and a fine balance of, hard logic and broad creativity. Smart enough to apply certain fields of science in (based on the understanding of that time) plausible ways and creative enough to flex it when necessary to the needs of his story telling.

The Dune universe is nearly alien in its remoteness, some ten millennia in the future, and there is very little that has a real world connection beyond the intended human experience. Psychology, sociology, anthropology, biology, and civics are what pull the strings in Herbert's work and what makes it so very easy to relate to despite its far flung setting. Everything else, including technology, is presented merely as vague outlines that the human drama passes through and plucks at where needed to move the story along. Its remote setting cannot get away with delving into the details, even speculation really, like that of Star Trek without trapping itself. Herbert understood this and avoided it, as many good Sci-Fi writers do, by creating only those necessary outlines and leaving the rest to the fun of imagination.

"The Science of Dune" and the essays within are at their best were they address the related human sciences of the Dune universe; real world counterpoints to melange and its effects, the biology of Face Dancers, society, ecology, etc. Where is bogs down, or outright fails (and often does), is when the essays attempt to color in where there is nothing but those aforementioned outlines. Many of the topics have so little to work with that the bulk of the content rapidly wanders off into a primer about the authors background profession with only a crude effort (or not at all) to relate it to "Dune" and the opening topic. At times I had to stop and ask myself why the essay I was reading was even written.

"The Science of Dune" delivers when an essay helps you better appreciate the vision, that is still very relevant some forty years later, within Frank Herbert's "Dune". Where it does not is when after finishing reading you feel you've paid full price for half of a book.

You'll find the answers to these and other questions in The Science of Dune: An Unauthorized Exploration into the Real Science behind Frank Herbert's Fictional Universe (Science of Pop Culture series). The book is a fun romp for fans of the Dune series. Scientists combine knowledge of terrestrial science and the Dune saga to try to fill the gaps left by Frank Herbert. At the very least, the book will give Dune fans a greater appreciation of the saga and new insights into the story (I thought the speculation on sandworm biology adds a neat twist on how spice is made). I wouldn't say the essays work well. Some don't contribute much to understanding Dune at all, but rather seem to be a primer on certain scientific fields. At other times, I thought the discussion was less than complete. For example, the chapter on biology did't even discuss the possibility of lower gravity or increased oxygen in the atmosphere as possible solutions to the problem of sandworm size (indeed, the latter seems to have contributed to the rise of dinosaurs). I'd recommend reading only those chapters that really interest you - not necessarily the entire book cover to cover.

This book is expertly written and packed with the science that sci-fi often overlooks. While offering a real view of everything from Stillsuits to star systems it does take away from the fantasy aspect of living on a desert planet or traveling from one star to another in the blink of an eye. I found it a quick read and while most fans of dune won't be impressed it still offers a fun look at what may be possible 13000 years in the future.

Granted, ornithopters are not exclusive to the Dune universe, but they are such a prominent part of the technological background that it's hard to imagine a book on the science of Dune omitting them. Yet somehow this book manages to do it.