Dune: Prophecy review – a bracingly different sci-fi dominated by women at every level

The origins of the mysterious Bene Gesserit sisterhood are uncovered in this starry and intense prequel to the fantasy saga that would have been unthinkable even 10 years ago

Welcome to the Sisterhood – equal parts nunnery, finishing school, psychic gymnasium and political thinktank. Run by wise older ladies decked out in austere black, educating impulsive young women to become the sage leaders of the future, its project is to nurture a heroine who can run the Sisterhood’s home planet, as well as all the neighbouring ones. It might just save humanity.

In 10 millennia’s time, the Sisterhood will become the Bene Gesserit, a band of women with formidable mind-control abilities who feature in Frank Herbert’s 1965 book Dune and its film adaptations: Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Rampling and Léa Seydoux played BG members in the Denis Villeneuve movies. Dune: Prophecy – a six-part drama inspired, vaguely controversially, not by Herbert’s own canonical writing, but by a spin-off book co-written by his son Brian in 2012 – provides the Bene Gesserit’s foundation story.

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Dune: Prophecy review – a bracingly different sci-fi dominated by women at every level

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