Frank Herbert (Frank Patrick Herbert) Biography

American science fiction writer, born and educated in the Pacific Northwest. From the publication of Dune (1965; later filmed), public perception of his career was dominated by this vast novel and its sequels, Dune Messiah (1969), Children of Dune (1976), God-Emperor of Dune (1981), Heretics of Dune (1984), and Chapter House Dune (1985). Over the course of the sequence, the desert planet Dune with its stern society becomes a venue for complex speculations about ecology, kingship, biology, godhood, and the nature of human societies. Some of his later work, such as Hellstrom's Hive (1973) and The White Plague (1982), expansively expressed biological and ecological concerns. Throughout his career Herbert succeeded in combining modern intellectual disciplines with the fertile plot-patterns of science fiction. See also space opera.