Best selling science fiction book. Dune

 

Best selling science fiction book. Dune

I have not read a science fiction book in a long time. And the last, best selling science fiction book that I had read was Dune. And here is the most interesting part. It also happened to be my first science fiction book that I had read, and it had got me hooked to the #scifi genre. It was during the Pandemic that I read it again, and a few months ago I happened to read it once again.

But today, almost very abruptly, I felt the need to ask myself a simple and a very straightforward question. Why did I read it so many times? Was there some #scifi secret of attraction that made me read it so many times?

And it occurred to me almost instantly that everytime I read the best selling scifi book, Dune, it reveals to me something new. And it also very subtly reveals to me a secret only a few of us realise, although all scifi readers know it. Yes, the secret that every scifi author and reader wants to know: what makes the best selling #scifibooks so successful?

This blog post is dedicated to not uncovering, but understanding this secret in detail. The secret that makes the best selling #sciencefiction books so popular and ageless. Because no matter when you read them, they appear as interesting as the day when you had read them for the first time.

So, let us get to the secret without dealing with any more anxiety. The best part about this secret being that it is a fact all of us know, but only few of us realise. At least when it comes to the community of #scifi readers, all of us know this secret, but I have not come across many of us who would categorically admit it in their scifi related conversations, discourses or debates. Most of the scifi readers who are aware of this secret only manage to hint at it, because the moment they talk about it, they let the essence of the word “secret” take over, and offer it that absolute impunity. Therefore, it happens to rest in the passive and unreachable corners of the scifi readers’ minds.

That is where this blog post seeks to reach and retrieve this secret. Then lay it bare before all of you.

In a scifi story and stories representing other genres there is an organic collaboration that takes place between the flow of the story and the sequencing of the events in the story. 

But in case of science fiction stories and scifi genre as whole, there is a third element as well. That of different sequences of scientifically plausible logics that have to be adjusted with the main scientific concept being proposed via the scifi story. That also has to maintain a flow with the main fiction based story. And that is what makes scifi story telling very difficult and a very gruesome literary challenge for almost all scifi writers. 

So, it can be said that science fiction story is based on a far reaching scientific imagination of a writer, which is punctuated by events that compliment the flow of the story, and within this grand flow of the story the scifi author also needs to accommodate the main scientific concept, and then breathe logical life into it by supporting it with many other, but relevant logical imaginations. So that the reader is riding on the highway of thought with two lanes: flow of the fiction based story with events and the flow of the logic with many sets of imaginations. And together they create a story that feeds the science seeking part of your brain along with the part of your brain seeking a new story.

And the best selling science fiction book, Dune, accomplishes this dual track of scientific and  literary flows with an unmatched perfection. It imagines a world and a future, where a scientific possibility is cast in the arena of imagination and then launched in all directions on the fountain of wild and uncontainable imagination. Now, all science fiction books do that, so what is special about Dune? 

It does this at the level of the reader’s imagination. The imagination where we feel we are a part of it. Because it makes the scifi reader feel it is already a part of his/her imagination.

This is what makes Dune the best selling #scifi book. Every imagination seeks fulfilment. A point where it feels it is getting closer to reality. And when it comes to #scifibooks, if the scientific imagination being expressed via the main scientific concept, and the story’s overall flow based imagination, make the reader feel that the author’s overall imagination is a part of his/her own imagination. Then the scifi book has achieved “The fulfilment of imagination!” And when this happens, a masterpiece scifi book, like Dune is born. Achieving this flow of imagination where the scifi book compliments so many sets of imaginations and also makes the reader feel it is a part of his/her own imagination is extraordinary. And the best selling scifi book, Dune, achieves this without leaving any distasteful aftershocks for the scifi reader.

Here, knowing this fact is important. A scientific logic used in situation X may have to be readjusted in situation Y. Where situation X and situation Y are complimenting the flow of the story, which is easy. But including scientific logic in situation X and then readjusting it to complement situation X and then through it render situation Y complete as well, needs a lot of thought. Dune fulfils this with an unmatched literary sophistication. And this is the main secret of best selling #scifibooks being so successful.

When it comes to this, the best selling scifi book, Dune, achieves  the culminating point in scifi genre. It achieves something that I call science fiction solvency. Where the science fiction story based flow is perfect. But at the same time it is in perfect balance with the flow of main scientific logic which is punctuated by many sets of scientific logics, that aim at offering scientific fulfilment to the core scientific logic of the scifi story. When it comes to this, Dune does not suffer from any sort of paucity, it deserves to be the best selling scifi book, because it emerges unscathed by the criticism of scifi experts and scifi readers alike.

In this #scifi book, neither the fiction based story is neglected when it comes to the sequencing of different events, nor is there any point where the reader feels the scientific logic has strayed into the waywardness. Had that been the case, Dune as a scifi book would never have achieved the fulfilment of imagination. Which is the only secret that makes a scifi book, the best selling scifi book.

And as scifi readers we all know this when we subconsciously agree that the scifi story is flowing on a track that you enjoy. But if you would pause for a moment and think about why you are enjoying it. You will realise the secret. You are enjoying it because it is actually fulfilling your own imagination by presenting to you a scientific idea wherein your imagination finds nothing objectionable. And, the authors of the best selling #scifibooks are the most experienced when it comes to proposing scientific concepts that we all find agreeable logically, and when something has a universal acceptance it is definitely going to generate global appeal. In this case it is bound to be a scifi best bestseller.

Or do you think otherwise?

At least when it comes to the scifi book Dune, thinking otherwise may be unreasonable. Because every event and every scientific thought expressed in the best selling scifi book is buoyant in the sea of imaginations, where a wave of imagination formed by the author is chased by the wave of imagination caused by the scifi reader after being influenced by the author’s wave of imagination. And when they merge into one wave on the shore of logic. The scifi book like Dune, achieves fulfilment of imagination like none other.

There is one more science fiction book that achieves similar fulfilment of imagination in a very pertinent style. It is the romance science fiction novel, titled: They Loved in 2075.

This science fiction novel is about a boy who falls in love with a beautiful girl who is unable to emote like humans. Which is an after effect of her exceeding level of day to day interactions with self aware and intelligent machines. And in 2075, the situation deteriorates to such an extent that it becomes the main cause of emotional apocalypse. 

But the boy does not give up on the girl and also on the world that is caught in a bitter battle between the self aware machines and humanity.

To know who wins in the end: The boy, the machines, both the boy and the girl, or after the war there are no humans left on the planet who could emote like humans and love like humans? Read the science fiction novel, They Loved in 2075. This scifi offers fulfilment of imagination at various levels. I am certain this #scifi novel will help you find your moment of fulfilment.