‘Dune’: chronological order of the books to understand the movies

Knowing in which chronological order to read the ‘Dune’ books is not an easy task. Arthur C. Clarke, legendary science fiction writer and author of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’ He once said of Frank Herbert and his ‘Dune’: “I know of nothing comparable except ‘The Lord of the Rings’.” We don’t know how JRR Tolkien would have reacted to this comment or if he ever heard it, but the two works have certainly had comparable impacts on their respective genres, fantasy and science fiction novels and films. They are similarly epic in scope, both authors dying before completing the final expansions to their worlds, and both having sons who took over.

With the media reach of Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’ and ‘Dune: Part 2’, and new projects like the HBO series ‘Dune: The Sisterhood’, the ‘Dune’ franchise may finally achieve a comparable breakthrough in pop culture. thanks to its adaptations to the big screen (something that the first attempt, David Lynch’s 1984 film, did not achieve, nor did the failed project headed by Alejandro Jodorowski in the 70s). But new fans coming to the books through the movies may have a hard time finding the right starting point. There are far more Dune novels than there are for Middle-earth, and they stretch in two directions in time from the original 1965 Dune book. There are even more books than in George RR Martin’s ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ saga, which is also having a strong impact on popular culture thanks to its serial adaptations in ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘The House of the Dragon’. Laugh at the chronological order of all the Marvel movies and series: Herbert did know how to build a macro story.

Also, just like in these fantasy worlds created from scratch, there is a terminology of concepts, places and proper names as extensive as it is strange for the novice reader, and if you are not familiar with them it can be an almost impossible task catch up with the various stories of war, love, betrayal, power, romance and revenge included in its volumes. We can’t promise to help you memorize all those names, but what we can do is tell you where to start reading it and in what order to continue it if you want to live the experience in chronological order (as with ‘The Lord of the Rings’) and not by its release date. Given that the review for ‘Dune’ was more than enthusiastic, moviegoers should familiarize themselves with the full story as soon as possible.

Below is a complete list of the ‘Dune’ novels in chronological order. from the various prequel trilogies built by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson to the original Frank Herbert saga. Of course, we have had to leave out the four compendiums of short stories that exist (‘Road to Dune’, ‘Tales from Dune’, ‘Sands from Dune’ and ‘Dreams from Dune’) as well as the graphic novel adaptations. But still, we are left with more than 20 works to review almost 15,000 years of intergalactic stories They have nothing to envy to Star Wars. Did you know them all?