Dune (S.F. Masterworks)

At over 550 pages in this edition (the first hardback entry in the main SF Masterworks series, presumably for rights reasons), Dune is often lazily referred to as 'science fiction's Lord of the Rings'. There is little real merit to this analogy: yes, it is a study of good versus evil; yes, there are a number of rich and overlapping cultures portrayed in the book (the empire with its Houses and Guilds, the warped Buddhism of the Bene Gesserit 'witches', the near-eastern influences suffusing the culture of the Fremen desert tribes, the sandworms of Arrakis and the consciousness-altering spice melange drug that they make) but other than the fact that both works are engaging tales, expertly told, there is little more to say.