Dune

Frank Herbert's 1965 science fiction epic — set on the desert planet Arrakis — following Paul Atreides through a story of ecology, religion, politics, and the dangers of the messiah — the best-selling science fiction novel and the foundational ecological SF text.

Creates ecological science fiction — Dune is the first SF novel to build its entire world around ecology (the water cycle, the sandworm, the spice mélange, the Fremen water discipline); its political and religious themes (the manipulation of messianic expectation, the danger of absolute power) are more sophisticated than any preceding SF epic.