8 science fiction book series to read if you love Dune
By Daniel Roman
The Graven by Essa Hansen
If you like a healthy dose of imagination in your sci-fi, perhaps alongside some multiverse-threatening stakes and lovable found families, then The Graven by Essa Hansen might be up your alley. This trilogy begins with Nophek Gloss and wrapped up with the epic Ethera Grave last year. That means that, like Hyperion, you can read the entire saga at your convenience.
The Graven is the story of a young man named Caiden who is orphaned as a boy after a horrifying encounter with the Nophek (space lions). He then discovers an abandoned starship with mysterious secrets, and falls in with a crew of spacefaring adventurers who introduce him to the weird and wild multiverse beyond the cordoned off world where Caiden grew up. This isn't a multiverse like Marvel though, with infinite versions of the same reality. Instead, it's a collection of bubble universes which rest against one another, each with their own sets of physics and fascinating denizens.
What begins as a revenge tale with Caiden seeking to hurt those who fed his family to the Nophek eventually becomes something much more complex as the story goes on. Threats to the entire multiverse emerge. The Graven is a series with a keen emotional compass; yes, it's a story about a ragtag group of heroes trying to stop an intergalactic calamity, but how this impacts the psyche of Caiden and his friends is always kept in focus. That makes it an often heart wrenching-read that's hard to put down. It also explores the psychological toll exacted by having influence over others in a way that Paul Atriedes would probably find relatable.
There are all sorts of science fiction books out there, but few have the sheer sense of imagination and scale of The Graven. You never know what intriguing alien or technology is going to show up next, whether that's during a mission to an unknown planet or in the middle of a chaotic action scene. It's a great, recent sci-fi series that has a lot of elements Dune readers will probably find enjoyable, while retaining its place as an incredibly unique and moving series in its own right.