History Creator / FrankHerbert

* AdvancedAncientHumans: The punchline of the short story "Occupation Force" is that the aliens who just landed in Washington DC are just checking up on a colony they founded...roughly seven thousand years ago.

* BabyFactory: In ''Hellstrom's Hive'', the insect like humans of the Hive have a practice of slicing off most of the body above the waist and below the knees and using the remainder for breeding purposes. [[spoiler:He later revisits this theme with the Axlotl tanks of the Bene Tleilax, for whom the Hive novel could almost be read as a very old origin story.]]

* CantStopTheSignal: In "Committee Of The Whole", a man uses the broadcast of a U.S. Senate hearing to describe a cheap, easily-built laser that could cut the Earth in half like a ripe tomato. He then spends several pages trying to justify distributing information that could allow any madman to destroy the planet. He later admits he had distributed the information far and wide earlier.

* DecontaminationChamber: ''The Dragon In The Sea'' has a post-World War III Cold War where nuclear subtugs are sent to covertly steal oil from underwater wellcaps, sometimes in radioactive zones. The subtug's decontamination chamber uses high-pressure detergent sprays to wash the oil off an ABG suit.

** In ''The Santaroga Barrier'' the hive-mind is [[spoiler:composed of linked unconscious parts of participants' brains]], and does not show great intellectual capability. Though not actively hostile, it's ''very'' dangerous as it's prone to paranoid overreaction in self-protection. Even despite the fact that its own components don't like this at all.

* MissionControlIsOffItsMeds: Moon Base in ''Destination: Void''. The Earthling is the 7th Voidship and all six previous ones have been destroyed on orders from Moon Base. Every crew member has been brainwashed in such a way as to, should the proper orders be given, play their part in the destruction of the ship. And Moon Base gives those orders like crazy. There are multiple redundant switches to blow up the ship. The ship is designed to fail, and directives for recovering from that failure are deliberately suicidal, with almost everyone involved sure they will result in the destruction of the ship. [[spoiler:The intent is not to kill them, but to put them in a situation where they have to solve the ''real'' problem they were sent to solve -- [[DieOrFly or die]].]]

* NoBloodForPhlebotinum: ''The Dragon In The Sea'' has a future in which oil is so scarce that submarines are sent into foreign territory to secretly mine undersea sources of oil. Even though it's only a SpaceColdWar above the surface, HotSubOnSubAction ensues under the water.
* NWordPrivileges: In ''The Santaroga Barrier'', there's a black guy who's in a relationship with a white girl and is called a "damn nigger" by her father. He claims it was done in an affectionate way and wasn't worse for him than someone using the words "blondie" or "redhead", but adds that you may have to be black to understand this reasoning. (The story is set in a kinda utopian community, which is also a TownWithADarkSecret.)

* SubmarinePirates: Played with in ''The Dragon In The Sea'', which depicts a future in which oil is so scarce that submarines are sent into foreign territory to secretly mine undersea sources of oil. These are government submarines however, rather than pirates. This trope only applies because it's a SpaceColdWar and none of this is happening officially.

While he was a prolific writer, he's best known for his ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' series, which won the first ever UsefulNotes/NebulaAward for Best Novel in 1965. The [[Literature/{{Dune}} first novel]] became a seminal work for the science fiction genre, and the series was later reprised by Frank's eldest son Brian.

While he was a prolific writer, he's best known for his ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' series, which won the first ever UsefulNotes/NebulaAward for Best Novel in 1965. The first novel became a seminal work for the science fiction genre, and the series was later reprised by Frank's eldest son Brian.

While he was a prolific writer, he's best known for his ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' series, which won the first ever UsefulNotes/NebulaAward for Best Novel in 1965 and was later reprised by his eldest son Brian.

* BrainUploading: In ''Destination: Void'', the entire purpose of the apparently impossible, deliberately crippled interstellar colonization mission is determined by the crew to be to force them to create (because they are doomed to die if they don't), beyond the reach of the disaster that would likely ensue, an artificial intelligence beyond the capacity of a human brain. This is done by first building a physical analog of a human brain, but with several times the complexity, then once it has displayed the necessary capabilities, uploading the mind of one of the creators into it, and parts of the personalities of the others. [[spoiler: This results in the creation of a god, like in all Frank Herbert books.]]
* TheComputerIsYourFriend: ''Destination: Void'' and its sequels.

* HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs: In ''The Santaroga Barrier'' the drug Jaspers increases the comprehension and understanding of anyone who consumes it.
* HotSubOnSubAction: ''The Dragon in the Sea'' (AKA ''Under Pressure'') depicts tense underwater combat TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture between nuclear submarines. Despite being published in 1956 it has survived the ravages of ScienceMarchesOn and ZeeRust remarkable well.

** In ''The Santaroga Barrier'' the hive-mind is [[spoiler: composed of linked unconscious parts of participants' brains]], and does not show great intellectual capability. Though not actively hostile, it's ''very'' dangerous as it's prone to paranoid overreaction in self-protection. Even despite the fact that its own components don't like this at all.

* MissionControlIsOffItsMeds: Moon Base in ''Destination: Void''. The Earthling is the 7th Voidship and all six previous ones have been destroyed on orders from Moon Base. Every crew member has been brainwashed in such a way as to, should the proper orders be given, play their part in the destruction of the ship. And Moon Base gives those orders like crazy. There are multiple redundant switches to blow up the ship. The ship is designed to fail, and directives for recovering from that failure are deliberately suicidal, with almost everyone involved sure they will result in the destruction of the ship. [[spoiler:The intent is not to kill them, but to put them in a situation where they have to solve the ''real'' problem they were sent to solve--[[DieOrFly or die]].]]

* NoBloodForPhlebotinum: ''The Dragon In The Sea'' (AKA ''Under Pressure'') has a future in which oil is so scarce that submarines are sent into foreign territory to secretly mine undersea sources of oil. Even though it's only a SpaceColdWar above the surface, HotSubOnSubAction ensues under the water.

* {{Pheromones}}: ''Hellstrom's Hive''. Key workers in the Hive can release pheromones that affect the emotions of other members of the Hive, as well as human intruders.

* SubmarinePirates: Played with in the story ''The Dragon In The Sea'' (AKA ''Under Pressure'') has a future in which oil is so scarce that submarines are sent into foreign territory to secretly mine undersea sources of oil. These are government submarines however, rather than pirates. This trope only applies because it's a SpaceColdWar and none of this is happening officially.
* SubStory: ''The Dragon in the Sea'' (AKA ''Under Pressure'') depicts tense underwater combat TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture between nuclear submarines. Despite being published in 1956 it has survived the ravages of ScienceMarchesOn and {{Zeerust}} remarkable well.

** It's a reason why telepathic Slorin only rely on [[{{Metamorphosis}} polymorphing]] to infiltrate societies they are parasiting upon.
---> [[JediMindTrick A nudge from the Slorin mind-cloud]] helped, of course, but this carried its own perils. The nudged mind sometimes developed powers of its own -- with terrifying results.

---> Next time you find a blob of something jes' lyin' in a field, you leave it alone, hear? [...] It was you made him so dang strong, pokin' him that way. Slorin aren't all that strong 'less'n you ignite'em, hear?

* UnderTheSea: ''The Dragon in the Sea''

* WhatWeNowKnowToBeTrue: ''The Dragon in the Sea'' was set on a futuristic submarine where ''vacuum tubes'' were a plot element. A named but unspecified 'effect' was used to justify their not having been replace by transistors.

Frank Patrick Herbert, Jr. (October 8, 1920 – February 11, 1986) was an American ScienceFiction writer.

While he was a prolific writer, he's best known for his ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' series, which won the first ever UsefulNotes/NebulaAward for Best Novel in 1965.

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* BizarreSexualDimorphism: The insect-like society depicted in ''Hellstrom's Hive'' has females who are little more than breeding machine.

--> ...he was well within the [[UncannyValley seventy-five percent accuracy]] limit the Slorin set for themselves. It was a universal fact that the untrained sentience saw what it ''thought'' it saw. The mind tended to supply the missing elements.

* SubmarinePirates: Played with in the story ''The Dragon In The Sea'' (AKA ''Under Pressure'') has a future in which oil is so scarce that submarines are sent into foreign territory to secretly mine undersea sources of oil. These are government submarines however, rather than pirates. This trope only applies because it's a ColdWar and none of this is happening officially.