“Once . . . long ago, he’d thought of himself as an inventor of government. But the invention had fallen into old patterns. It was like some hideous contrivance with plastic memory. Shape it any way you wanted, but relax for a moment, and it snapped into the ancient forms. Forces at work beyond his reach in human breasts eluded and defied him.”

American science-fiction author

Frank Herbert was an American science-fiction author. He is best known for the 1965 novel Dune and its five sequels. He also wrote short stories and worked in several other roles, including newspaper journalist, photographer, book reviewer, ecological consultant, and lecturer. His reputation rests above all on Dune and the wider series that followed it.