Who Is Dune A Part Of Science Fiction?

Science fiction is a popular genre and has a wide range of stories. Dune, by Frank Herbert, is regarded as a science fiction masterpiece. It won the Hugo award and the Nebula award for best novel. Dune was published in 1965 and features main character Paul Atreides’ journeys after moving to the desert planet, Arrakis. Dune is a book filled with alien worlds, social issues and, political conflicts and espionage. But how do we know Dune is part of the science fiction genre? We can prove that Dune is part of the science fiction genre because is contains all the attributes of a science fiction story.

First of all, science fiction stories must follow a certain list of characteristics. First of these characteristics is that the story explores moral, social, intellectual,

Dune first introduces us to the main character Paul Atreides, the primary location Arrakis and the many conflicts between the groups in Dune’s society. Science fiction novels often start slow to provide the reader with background knowledge required to understand the story, this is exactly what Dune did to provide the reader with all the information to understand the story. Exterior action is almost always physical in nature and results in a speed up in pace. In Dune, the death of Duke Leto Atreides, the main character Paul Atreides’ father, triggers the pacing to speed up. The death of his father caused Paul to mature, he was put in a desperate situation and had to grow up in a matter of minutes or face death. This is shown when “He had read that his father was dead, known the truth of the words, but had felt them as no more than another datum to be entered in his mind and used” (p 306). Events that impact one of the main characters, causing them to grow, often speed up pacing. Dune’s pacing scheme also follows the rules of science fiction, further reinforcing the fact that is is a part of the science fiction