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MartinTimothy ago

I encountered Frank Herbert's Dune sometime in the 1970's SciFi had been in the doldrums since the demise of the 1960's SF pulpies, the loud cover and numerous favorable previews attracted my attention and I bought a copy from the local news stand .. from memory the story was set on a desert planet that resembled Mars, water was a commodity and when counsels were called canny operators filled their portable water flasks at community expense.

The inhabitants were made up of adventurers and entrepreneurs who had journeyed there in pursuit of "spice" produced by rail car sized "worms" that somehow glided across the surface of the planet, which navigators aboard interstellar spaceships used to enhance the insight they needed to perform their task. The other group who got there before the "Spice Boom" had constructed wind vanes which collected and condensed water from the atmosphere and stored it in vast underground cisterns.

Dune turned up at around the same time as Edward Elmer "Doc" Smith's Lensman Series, like Dune they were presented amid the full glare of publishing publicity with reviews and garish .. both authors efforts gave rise to the term "Space Opera" they were second class at best.

I got about half way thru thru Dune it had started of reasonably well however once the clear concept of giant sandworms, spice and wind vanes had been established the tome degenerated into something resembled political Americana, I skimmed thru a bit more then put it down .. if others saw Jewishism in it it went over my head, though I am not surprised