Hunters of Dune

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Dreaming of Things to Come: Paul has dreams about the future (including later events on Arrakis) before gaining his full prescient ability. So does Leto II. BH and KJAs Dune books seem to not get a lot of love, but I'm curious if anyone on this subreddit thought those Dune "sequel" books were worth reading. Artificial Human: Any Tleilaxu-creation, including the Face Dancers, Gholas, clones, some Mentats, and human-animal hybrids.

There are even separate words for poison in food ("Chaumas/Aumas") and poison in a drink ("Chaumurky/Musky.") Evil Chancellor: Subverted thoroughly with Dr Wellington Yueh and Thufir Hawat. Dr Yueh looks almost exactly the part of the evil chancellor — tall, blade-thin with a drooping moustache and cold, intellectual manner. He even betrays the Atreides, and the readers find out about it right from the start. He's only doing it because the Harkonnens have probably killed his wife, but he's not sure— and for the chance to get a bit of revenge. Hawat on the other hand looks like the grandfatherly mentor, but is the Duke's ''Master of Assassins'', and employs methods that horrify Jessica. Really Gets Around: Arguably subverted by the Bene Gesserit and Honored Matres, who really do have many sex partners, but only because the Bene Gesserit are engaged in a subtle breeding program (and also are forbidden from using artificial insemination, meaning all 'samples' and bloodlines have to be collected and gestated physically) and the Honored Matres use their sexuality as a form of conditioning. Both only do it professionally.

Hyper-Awareness: The Bene Gesserit use their hyper awareness as a tool for manipulation. Descriptions of Bene Gesserit thought processes in the novels are often comparable to chess masters watching the world around them like one big chessboard, and calmly noting their accruing advantage. At one point a Bene Gesserit correctly deduces that there is a hidden room on the other side of a large banquet room by noting the subtle geometry of the walls of the room and the objects in it as being specifically designed to produce a slight echo where those in the hidden room can listen in. Culture Chop Suey: A classic example. Millennia of galactic colonization have created completely new unrecognizable ethnicities and modified versions of current Earth religions.

Worldbuilding: One of the most developed examples, right here with Tolkien. Considered to be the very first science fiction novel of its kind to do this. Frank Herbert stated that he had done six years of research before writing the first novel, according to a radio interview he made before his death. Fantasy Gun Control: Firearms exist in large numbers but they have been rendered as secondary weapons due to the prevalence of personal force shields. Force shields can, however, be penetrated by close combat techniques, so those are the dominant means of warfare. Laser weapons are also highly limited since a laser beam hitting a force shield cause both the gun and the shield generator to explode with enormous power. Which means that some uses of shields are only practical because shooting them with lasers is physically equivalent to using nukes. Cielago, the Fremen term used for bats, is based off of the Spanish word for 'bat': 'mur cielago '.The noble houses of Dune are rigidly patriarchal, headed only by men. Female nobles and concubines do find ways to manipulate events, but it is always behind the scenes. The noble houses also practice arranged marriage, or in Irulan's case, forced marriage. Paolo did exhibit bits of prescience as he grew. The chief of these was a vision of an older version of himself looking up at him, as the one down on the ground slowly bled to death. When Paolo reached the age of 10, he and the reborn Baron were brought to Synchrony to have Paolo's martial arts training completed by Erasmus.