There are certain books, dear reader, that plant themselves in your imagination like a flag upon conquered territory, and Frank Herbert’s Dune is assuredly one of these. If you have wandered the deserts of Arrakis alongside Paul Atreides, tasted the spice upon your lips, and felt the rumble of sandworms beneath your feet, then you know the peculiar ache that comes when a beloved story ends.
Fear not! For there exist other tales—grand, sweeping, magnificently strange—that shall carry you once more into the stars.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Should you wish for a tale told in the manner of pilgrims sharing their deepest secrets whilst journeying toward an impossible destiny, then Hyperion shall enchant you utterly. Seven travelers make their way to the Time Tombs, where the fearsome Shrike awaits—a creature of blades and mystery not unlike the dangers lurking beneath Arrakeen sands.
Winner of the Hugo Award, this 1989 masterwork weaves its narrative in the fashion of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, each pilgrim revealing a story more wondrous than the last. Here you shall find religion entwined with technology, empires on the brink of war, and questions about time itself that shall haunt your dreams most pleasantly.
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
In Asimov’s magnificent creation, the mathematician Hari Seldon peers into the future using his invention of psychohistory—a science of prediction that would make even the Bene Gesserit raise an appreciative eyebrow. The Galactic Empire crumbles, dear reader, and only Seldon’s bold plan might shorten the coming dark age from thirty thousand years to a mere thousand.
This cornerstone of science fiction, winner of the special Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series, shares with Dune an understanding that civilizations rise and fall like breathing, and that the cleverest among us might just nudge history in kinder directions.
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
On the frozen world of Gethen, called Winter by those who shiver there, the envoy Genly Ai discovers a people unlike any he has known. The Gethenians shift between genders, and this single difference creates a society without war—a notion as revolutionary as the Fremen’s dream of turning Arrakis green.
Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, Le Guin’s 1969 masterpiece explores what happens when a stranger must learn to see beyond his own assumptions. The friendship that blooms between Genly and the exiled politician Estraven, forged during a desperate journey across endless ice, ranks among science fiction’s most moving relationships.
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
In a world called the Stillness—though stillness is what it lacks—certain souls possess the power to calm earthquakes and quell volcanoes. These orogenes are feared, enslaved, and murdered for their gifts, yet upon them rests the fate of all. The parallels to the oppressed yet powerful Fremen are unmistakable.
Jemisin made history when this novel and its sequels won three consecutive Hugo Awards, a feat never before accomplished. The prose arrives in second person, an unusual choice that draws you into Essun’s grief and rage as she searches for the husband who killed their son. Here is world-building to rival Herbert’s finest.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
What becomes of a world when the creatures meant to inherit it are not monkeys but spiders? This delightful question drives Tchaikovsky’s Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning novel, wherein a nanovirus intended for primates instead uplifts a species of jumping spiders to sentience. Across generations, we watch Portia and her descendants build civilization while the last humans drift through space seeking a new home.
The ecological themes—adaptation, evolution, the relationship between species and environment—echo Herbert’s careful attention to how the Fremen shaped themselves to Arrakis. Both tales ask: what do we become when our world demands transformation?
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
If the dream of terraforming Arrakis stirred something in your heart, then Robinson’s meticulous vision of transforming Mars shall satisfy that longing completely. The First Hundred colonists arrive on the red planet with competing visions: some wish to make Mars green and living, while others fight to preserve its ancient, silent beauty.
This Nebula Award winner spans centuries of Martian history, examining with scientific precision how one might actually give a dead world breath and water. The political struggles between factions will feel wonderfully familiar to anyone who followed the machinations of Dune’s Great Houses.
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
In humanity’s future, Earth and Mars glare at each other across the void whilst the Belters—those born in the asteroid belt—labor in the spaces between. When ice hauler Jim Holden stumbles upon a derelict ship hiding terrible secrets, he sets in motion a war that threatens millions.
The first of nine novels in The Expanse series, this tale combines noir detective mystery with space opera grandeur. The world-building is extraordinary, the politics Byzantine, and the alien threat unlike anything humanity has faced. Like Dune, it understands that ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances must sometimes become extraordinary themselves.
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Imagine, if you will, being a vast starship with thousands of bodies at your command—and then imagine losing all of that, reduced to a single human form with memories of multitudes. This is Breq’s tragedy and triumph, and her quest for vengeance against the fractured god-emperor who destroyed her drives this Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Award winner.
Leckie’s universe speaks entirely in feminine pronouns, a choice that gently upends how we perceive each character. The Radch Empire’s relentless expansion through “annexation” provides commentary on colonialism as sharp as Herbert’s examination of resource exploitation.
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Private William Mandella is drafted to fight an alien enemy across light-years of space, and here is the cruel twist: time dilation means that while he ages months, Earth ages centuries. Each time he returns home, he finds a world increasingly alien to him—a soldier’s estrangement rendered literal.
Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards, this 1974 novel draws from Haldeman’s own experiences in Vietnam. The question of what war costs those who fight it, even when they survive, resonates with Dune’s exploration of jihad and its terrible price.
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
On the dying world of Urth, where the sun grows dim and the stars show themselves by day, young Severian of the Torturer’s Guild begins a journey that will see him rise to become Autarch. But Severian claims perfect memory while contradicting himself at every turn, and therein lies the puzzle.
Wolfe’s tetralogy is dense, allusive, and magnificently strange—a book that reveals new secrets upon each reading. The far-future setting where medieval societies exist among forgotten technologies creates an atmosphere as unique as Arrakis itself. Those who love puzzles wrapped in beautiful prose shall find their reward.
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
In a monastery rising from the American desert, monks of the Albertian Order preserve the remnants of human knowledge after nuclear fire has cleansed the world. Across two thousand years, we watch humanity climb from barbarism toward the stars—only to repeat its gravest mistakes.
This Hugo Award winner meditates upon the cyclical nature of history, the tension between faith and knowledge, and whether humanity can ever learn from its past. The desert setting, the preservation of precious knowledge, the weight of religious tradition—readers of Dune shall feel quite at home.
Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
When enormous ships appear above Earth’s cities, humanity expects invasion. Instead, the Overlords bring peace, prosperity, and an end to suffering. But they refuse to show themselves for decades, and when at last they step into the light, their appearance stirs ancient terrors. The truth of their purpose proves stranger still.
Clarke’s 1953 novel asks what becomes of humanity when evolution takes its next step. The Overlords serve as midwives to something transcendent, and like the Kwisatz Haderach, the children of Earth become more than anyone could have imagined.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Ryland Grace awakens alone on a spacecraft with no memory of who he is or why he is hurtling toward a distant star. His crewmates are dead. Earth is dying, threatened by a microorganism devouring the sun’s light. And somehow, a schoolteacher must save both his homeworld and a new friend from an entirely different planet.
If Dune represents science fiction’s capacity for mythic grandeur, Project Hail Mary demonstrates its talent for rollicking adventure. The friendship between Grace and the alien Rocky—built across the impossible gap between species—provides the heart this tale needs.
Finding Your Next Journey
Each of these magnificent tales offers something Dune lovers will recognize: worlds built with exquisite care, civilizations spanning millennia, characters shaped by forces greater than themselves, and questions about power, ecology, religion, and what it means to be human. Some approach these themes with Herbert’s dense, oracular prose; others choose accessibility without sacrificing depth.
The desert awaits no one, but the stars are patient. Choose your next journey, dear reader, and venture forth. The spice must flow, and so too must the stories.
