Dune tied with Roger Zelazny's This Immortal for the Hugo Award in 1966[77] and won the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel.[78] Reviews of the novel have been largely positive, and Dune is considered by some critics to be the best science fiction book ever written.[79] The novel has been translated into dozens of languages, and has sold almost 20 million copies.[80] Dune has been regularly cited as one of the world's best-selling science fiction novels.[81][2]
Arthur C. Clarke described Dune as "unique" and wrote, "I know nothing comparable to it except The Lord of the Rings."[82] Robert A. Heinlein described the novel as "powerful, convincing, and most ingenious."[82][83] It was described as "one of the monuments of modern science fiction" by the Chicago Tribune,[82] and P. Schuyler Miller called Dune "one of the landmarks of modern science fiction ... an amazing feat of creation."[83] The Washington Post described it as "a portrayal of an alien society more complete and deeply detailed than any other author in the field has managed ... a story absorbing equally for its action and philosophical vistas ... An astonishing science fiction phenomenon."[82][83] Algis Budrys praised Dune for the vividness of its imagined setting, saying "The time lives. It breathes, it speaks, and Herbert has smelt it in his nostrils". He found that the novel, however, "turns flat and tails off at the end. ... [T]ruly effective villains simply simper and melt; fierce men and cunning statesmen and seeresses all bend before this new Messiah". Budrys faulted in particular Herbert's decision to kill Paul's infant son offstage, with no apparent emotional impact, saying "you cannot be so busy saving a world that you cannot hear an infant shriek".[84] After criticizing unrealistic science fiction, Carl Sagan in 1978 listed Dune as among stories "that are so tautly constructed, so rich in the accommodating details of an unfamiliar society that they sweep me along before I have even a chance to be critical".[85]
The Louisville Times wrote, "Herbert's creation of this universe, with its intricate development and analysis of ecology, religion, politics, and philosophy, remains one of the supreme and seminal achievements in science fiction."[83] Writing for The New Yorker, Jon Michaud praised Herbert's "clever authorial decision" to exclude robots and computers ("two staples of the genre") from his fictional universe, but suggested that this may be one explanation why Dune lacks "true fandom among science-fiction fans" to the extent that it "has not penetrated popular culture in the way that The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars have".[13] Tamara I. Hladik wrote that the story "crafts a universe where lesser novels promulgate excuses for sequels. All its rich elements are in balance and plausible—not the patchwork confederacy of made-up languages, contrived customs, and meaningless histories that are the hallmark of so many other, lesser novels."[86]
On November 5, 2019, the BBC News listed Dune on its list of the 100 most influential novels.[87]
J. R. R. Tolkien refused to review Dune, on the grounds that he disliked it "with some intensity" and thus felt it would be unfair to Herbert, another working author, if he gave an honest review of the book.[88]
