Dune

Galactic empire collapse, one man navigating civilizational crisis — but Asimov is optimistic about rational planning; Herbert is deeply skeptical of anyone who thinks they can guide history

The other great 1960s SF epic built on anthropological research — Le Guin's Gethen is Dune's Arrakis in rigor and cultural completeness, but Le Guin centers gender where Herbert centers ecology

Messianic transformation at civilizational scale — but Clarke embraces transcendence; Herbert is terrified of it

Another science fiction novel structured as a critique of its own apparent values — Le Guin's Anarres is as ambivalent as Herbert's Arrakis

The other great American novel about violence as destiny and the impossibility of heroic narrative — McCarthy strips away Herbert's mythology; the desert remains

Colonial history rendered through magical thinking and prophecy — García Márquez and Herbert are both writing about the weight of history on colonized peoples, one through Latin American magical realism, the other through science fiction