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"I am first of all not a science fiction writer … I write, I suppose, what the Latin Americans call magic realism."
- Harlan Ellison
 |
| Spice (Melange) | ||
| The spice must flow. |
The most important substance in the Dune universe.
| Anything the Guild will transport, the art forms of Ecaz, the machines of Richesse and Ix. But all fades before melange. A handful of spice will buy a home on Tupile. It cannot be manufactured, it must be mined on Arrakis. It is unique and has true geriatric properties. |
| Technovelgy from Dune,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Putnam in 1965 Additional resources -
|
The people of Arrakis, or others who use a lot of spice, develop the Eyes of the Ibad, in which the whites of the eyes turn a deep blue. Huge harvester factories are carried to spice blows in the desert to process the spice in situ.
Compare to young blood - new blood for old from Methuselah's Children (1941) by Robert Heinlein, the
Sprung-Samser treatment from This Immortal (1966) by Roger Zelazny, the
anti-Tri-D shot from The Morning of the Day They Did It (1950) by E.B. White and the
anti-agathic drugs from Cities in Flight (1957) by James Blish.
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'... making the point that their likenesses, every move they made, were being transmitted.'
'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'
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'The area affected was five hundred kilometres across, and perfectly circular.'
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'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
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