This Hugo and Nebula Award winner is widely to be considered the most prescient SF novel ever. It tells the sweeping tale of a desert planet called Arrakis, the focus of an intricate power struggle in a byzantine interstellar empire. Arrakis is the sole source of Melange, the "spice of spices." Melange is necessary for interstellar travel and grants psychic powers and longevity, so whoever controls it wields great influence. The troubles begin when stewardship of Arrakis is transferred by the Emperor from the Harkonnen Noble House to House Atreides. The Harkonnens don't want to give up their privileges, however, and through sabotage and treachery they cast young Duke Paul Atreides out into the planet's harsh environment to die. There he falls in with the Fremen, a tribe of desert dwellers who become the basis of the army with which he will reclaim what's rightfully his. Paul Atreides, though, is far more than just a usurped duke. He might be the end product of a very long-term genetic experiment designed to breed a super human; he might be a messiah. His struggle is at the center of a nexus of powerful people and events, and the repercussions will be felt throughout the Imperium.

弗蘭剋•赫伯特（Frank Herbert,1920-1986）

美國科幻小說傢，作傢。1920年10月08日生於華盛頓州。赫伯特是美國極具影響力的科幻巨匠，是與阿西莫夫並肩的大師。他在科幻文學中的地位如同托爾金在奇幻文學中的地位一樣，無人可以動搖。他更是首位普及“生態 學”和“係統思想”的科幻作傢，他教會瞭科幻作傢如何賦予科幻小說以思想。

赫伯特一生共創作瞭二十三部長篇小說和五部短篇小說集，其中尤為成功的便是沙丘係列小說。該係列的前三部長篇《沙丘》《沙丘救世主》和《沙丘之子》構成的“偉大沙丘三部麯”曾被翻拍成電影並引起巨大轟動。