Written during the bleakest days of the Second World War, this volume argues for an acceptance of reality that encompasses revolt, passion and, above all, liberty. It also contains several other essays, including lyrical evocations of the sunlit cities of Algiers and Oran, and the settings of other novels, such as The Outsider and The Plague .

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends a black man charged with attacking a white girl. This book explores the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South. It creates one of the heroes of literature, whose lone struggle for justice pricks the conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy.

Melange, the spice of spices grants psychic powers. The troubles begin when stewardship of Arrakis, melange's source, is transferred from the Harkonnen House to House Atreides. The Harkonnens don't want to give up their privileges and so, they cast Duke Paul Atreides out into the planet's harsh environment to die. But, Paul might be a messiah.

This work abandons the conventional distinctions between history and science. Diamond focuses on what ancient people were endowed with in the way of land, animals and plants, and on the confrontations between less and more advanced people to see how this led to today's inequalities.