Dune by Frank Herbert

Dune truly is one of the best science fiction novels I've ever read. It's combination of a science fiction environment and a story about religion and how the future may seem certain but it is not. The Harsh environment of Arrakis(the planet where the book takes place) is an amazing metaphor for how the hunger for a valuable recourse, spice(which could me interpreted as a crude oil analogue) stops Arrakis from becoming the paradise that it could be. Those who hunger for the spice(the Emperor and the Barron) are so ignorant of how it is created and only the freemen natives that they scorn as uncivilized and just a inconvenience are truly a great fighting force and are knowledgeable far beyond that of the Barron and his men. Herbert is not afraid to bring light to the fact that though spice may give Paul, the Bene Gesserit Reverend mothers, and the guild navigators their power it is still a drug and an additive one at that. I could go on about the many layers of Frank Herbert's Dune. All around I would give this book 5 stars and I think that it deserves the awards that it has been given over the years since it's publication in the 60's and it still holds up today.