8 science fiction book series to read if you love Dune
By Daniel Roman
The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
Let's end with another classic: The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. If you're into sci-fi and fantasy, there's a pretty big chance you already know about this series. But if you don't, let us introduce you to another one of the all-time greats.
While Pern does feature dragons and other fantasy elements, once you dive into the series, its science fiction trappings become just as prevalent. The series takes place on the titular world of Pern, where human colonists came into contact with fire-breathing dragons and eventually forged bonds with them in order to fight off a natural disaster called Threads, which rain down from the sky and blight the land.
One of the cool side effects of this setup is that, unlike most sci-fi books, the natural phenomena of Pern itself becomes one of the primary challenges our characters have to face, not unlike the unforgiving environs of Arrakis. There are still politics and other adventures, except instead of great houses we have communities called weyrs. The interests of these weyrs clash at times. Combined with the natural dangers of Pern itself, this is a meaty series where you never quite know how what's coming next.
Like Dune, The Dragonriders of Pern has been around for a while. The first book, Dragonflight, was published in 1968. There are more than 20 books total in the series, many covering different time periods or characters, similar to how the subsequent Dune books by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson sprawled outward in that fictional world's mythos. In fact, McCaffrey's child Todd McCaffrey even continued the Pern books after his mother's passing. Pern and Dune are family businesses!
So concludes this list of book series to read if you love Dune. These are but a sampling of the many great sci-fi works out there beyond the bounds of Arrakis. I hope you've found something here which piques your reading interest!
dark. Next. dune books. All 6 Dune books by Frank Herbert, ranked worst to best
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