Frank Herbert was born October 8, 1920 in Tacoma, Washington. His dad bounced between jobs not being able to have a steady job. Herbert’s grandparents moved to Washington State to join Burley Colony and there the Herberts ran a general store. Herbert would spend most of his childhood camping, hunting, fishing, and digging for clams. From a young age he took an interest in being an author. His parents were alcoholics and he had to raise his siblings essentially for them. He wasn’t very successful in high school but he did begin his writing career in high school. He would drop out his senior year. Due to his parents creating an unsafe home life for him and his sister they left on a bus to go live with their Aunt and Uncle. In 1942, after Pearl Harbor he enlisted into the military where he would be honorably discharged after he sustained a head injury. Unfortunately, him and his wife Flora got a divorce and she was given custody over their daughter Penny. He would later attended the University of Washington, and there he met Beverly Stuart Forbes and he fell in love and they would later get married. He would become friends with famous writer Jack Vance and they took a trip to Mexico. There he would go through Drug experiences which would give him inspiration for the spices in his book Dune. While he was doing all these things he was slowly crafting the world, characters, themes and religions. This book would be an amazing success for him. He would unfortunately die in January of 1986 due to a pulmonary embolism.

Dune is about a sand planet called Arrakis which was short on water, but it was the only planet with a highly valuable drug. It follows Paul Atreides born into the House of Arteides, he was born with the special ability to have prophetic dreams about life on the planet of Arrakis. On the planet there is a constant fight over the highly valuable spice in the desert planet. Paul has a vision of a community named Fremen which will commit a jihad on the galaxy in their name. So Paul with the help of Lady Jessica which is his mom join the community in which they discover they are hiding water under the planet and plan to turn the desert into a water planet. Paul meets a girl named Chani there and they have a son. Paul will fully embrace the Fremen culture and they consider him the messiah. Then they were attacked but Paul was caught off guard because he did not foresee the attack. In the end Paul restores the House of Atreides to its rightful place.

Paul Arteides says in Dune, “I must not fear” and also “I will face my fear”. I think these quotes are very important because it shows how Frank Herbert faced his fears throughout his whole life. Whether it was raising his siblings as a child, saving his sister from a dangerous household, and having marital issues.

Dune was wildly successful for Frank Dune. It provided him with lots of money but also is regarded as one of the best Sci-fi books of all time. The impact was so great that it has been created into a film three times in 1984, 2021, and 2024.

Personally, I really was inspired by his life and how he didn’t give up in the face of adversity. Also I think that Dune is a very interesting book and the world building is so amazing. I really love Sci-fi books because it sparks my imagination and I get lost in the world.

Paul Arteides demonstrates how event though there are so many people against him that he can make an impact in the world. He knew that he has a gift not many people had and he knew he could use it for good and that’s what he did. He help save his community and bring them back to their place helping many people.