Melange (alternately, "the spice") is the name of the fictional drug central to the Dune series of science fiction novels by Frank Herbert, and derivative works. Herbert's originating 1965 novel Dune is often cited as one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, was the first bestselling hardcover science fiction novel, and is frequently cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history. In the series, the most essential and valuable commodity in the universe is melange, a geriatric drug that gives the user a longer lifespan, greater vitality, and heightened awareness; it can also unlock prescience in some subjects, depending upon the dosage and the consumer's physiology.
This prescience-enhancing property makes safe and accurate interstellar travel possible. Melange comes with a steep price, however: it is addictive, and withdrawal is fatal. Carol Hart analyzes the concept in the essay "Melange" in The Science of Dune (2008).
Since its discovery several thousand years prior to the ascent of House Atreides it was produced exclusively on the planet Arrakis. This was because the conditions on Arrakis by which melange was... more
Since its discovery several thousand years prior to the ascent of House Atreides it was produced exclusively on the planet Arrakis. This was because the conditions on Arrakis by which melange was created were unique to that planet. However, some 1500 years after the death of the God-Emperor Leto II, the Bene Tleilax had managed to successfully replicate it.