Book excerpt: Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American science fiction author. Although a short story author, he is best known for his novels, most notably Dune and its five sequels. The Dune saga, set in the distant future and taking place over millennia, deals with themes such as human survival and evolution, ecology, and the intersection of religion, politics and power. Dune itself is the "best-selling science fiction novel of all time," and the series is widely considered to be among the classics in the genre. "Old Rambling House" is a short story by science fiction author Frank Herbert which first appeared in Galaxy magazine in 1958 and later in Herbert's 1985 short story collection The Worlds of Frank Herbert. It is notable for its atmosphere and the dystopian multiverse in which no hope of freedom is left, which is atypical for Herbert's works.