for the record, like almost all big classic sci-fi, these books (dune) are remarkably bigoted and reductive. i still like space stories and political intrigue tho.
alt text: Trade Offer from Sand Worm Leto Atreides. You receive: 4000 years of planet bound subjugation. Spice, eventually. Famine. Sex ninjas from outer space. Golden Path... I recieve: Like 70 something Duncan Idahos. Gentle Hwi.
Tangentially related, but reading some of the more progressive books that contemporary were seen as promoting freedoms sometimes leaves the opposite impression because of how big the difference is between old times and now. But I saw that with the books from the beginning of XX^th century, Asimov is a bit less different if I remember correctly