Dune is one of the most revered works in science fiction, due to the scale and granular detail (no pun intended) of Frank Herbert’s world-building. The original novel comes with multiple appendices covering millennia of historical context. This means that the biggest hurdle any adaptation or spin-off must overcome is fidelity to the world Herbert envisioned.
Dune: Prophecy is not going to please everyone. To start with, the series is set shortly after the events of the Schools of Dune trilogy (Sisterhood of Dune (2012), Mentats of Dune (2014) and Navigators of Dune (2016)) by Herbert’s son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson. The pair’s continuation of the novel series has been met with criticism from certain quarters of the Dune fandom.
Barring occasional flashbacks, Dune: Prophecy is set 10,148 years before the birth of Paul Atreides. This is a pivotal moment in the empire’s history, when the institutions of the original novel are struggling to find their feet and are riven with internal squabbles. Unlike the over-determined universe of the future, Prophecy shows us a world where there is still room to breathe – to the best of my recollection, this is the first Dune property where people are seen hanging out in a nightclub.
