This is the chronological order of events starting from the earliest and ending just before the events of the original Dune. Everything that comes before the originals

Or you can (3) read about the interstitial moments, taking place during and in between all the books above. You can (2) continue chronologically after the events of Herbert’s original series. You can (1) go back to the very beginning, thousands of years before Dune (1965) and read up until that first novel. These are the six works by Frank Herbert and span some fifteen hundred years.įrom here you can choose how to fill in the gaps. While some may argue those sidequests give us valuable insight into characters Herbert swiftly introduces and then kills off, it seems ridiculous to recommend reading over a dozen novels and short stories before getting to what really started it all-the first and most famous (and probably the best) work in the entire series. This way you experience the author’s sustained vision before embarking on sidequests and downloadable content. That means we recommend reading the full collection of Herbert’s work first, and then going back to the very beginning to fill in the gaps, if you’re still interested. While the novel series moves backward and forward in time, we prefer sticking with a reading order based more on the chronology of publication rather than world building.

Like, really: you’ve got literally thousands of pages left to go. So if you’re impatient for Villeneuve’s sequel-and who knows when ( or if) that will come out-your journey into the world of Dune has only just begun. The recent Dune film adaptation, directed by Denis Villeneuve, covers just part (part!) of the very first (just the first!) novel. There are also short story collections and illustrated books. The ecological/fantasy epic/sci-fi (?) concept grew faster than unimpeded dunes and would go on to comprise six door-stopping novels, and then, after Herbert’s death in 1986, some 18 prequel novels authored by Herbert’s son, Brian Herbert, and Kevin J.

The dune books in order