Why Dune Has Stood the Test of Time

And what to read next if you liked it

My friend John told me about Dune in college. He was a wealth of scientific knowledge. His dad was a professor of physics and had raised him with the door wide open to the vault of golden age classics.

Science fiction is a tool that allows us to talk about our world and society in new, different, and creative ways.

Sci-fi is a medium in which to explore ideas that we otherwise couldn’t explore by themselves. We can think about living on another planet where creatures breath hydrogen instead of oxygen. We can think about the creation of worlds, alien species, what’s “normal”, and a host of other topics. We can do this because its not real right?

This is why stories like Dune fascinate us and why they are still relevant today, 20 years later.

If you're looking for a story that takes place in a Dune-esque universe, then check out Sands today.

For nine months of the year, the sands of the Sharani Desert are safe. The genesauri—giant, flying, serpentine monsters who hunt across the desert in enormous packs—lie dormant. The smallest of their kind is able to take down a single man with ease, and the largest is able to swallow entire clans. The people of the desert have always been able to predict the creatures’ appearance, but this year, the genesauri have stopped following the rules.

With the fate of the clans hanging in the balance, seventeen-year-old Lhaurel discovers she possesses a rare and uncontrollable power—one that will be tested as the next deadly genesauri attack looms on the horizon and the clash between the clans grows more inevitable by the hour.

---

Recently on LinkedIn…

I posted on LinkedIn a project that I worked on back during my days at Digital Domain. It’s from a small movie called Tron: Legacy. Here’s a sneak peak of what I talked about.

I spent many a late night working on this shot from Tron: Legacy years ago at Digital Domain.

The director Joseph Kosinski (also the brilliant mind behind Top Gun: Maverik) had filmed the actor (Garrett Hedlund) running on greenscreen, then jumping onto a mat. 

We were supposed to do a transition from the real footage of Garrett to a CG version (all comped onto the CG world of the Grid). Using the real actor was supposed to save us time and make it easier.

But as you can all guess, transitions from practical to CG are hard.

You can check out the full post here on LinkedIn.

---

See you in the future,

Adam Sidwell

Creative Director

Future House Publishing & Future House Studios

---

And Another Thing…

Coming soon: Midnight Anthem by Tim Attewell. Available for pre-order now! The book will publish February 17th.