If you've read _Dune_ (and if you have sufficient perspective on its flaws to enjoy watching them skewered in a spot-on parody), then scare up a copy of this delightful little book.
Follow the young duke, Pall Agamemnides, as he travels the sugar-frosted wastes of Arruckus, the Dessert Planet -- where the giant pretzel roams and the Freedmenmen brew beer from its wastes, and where the never-ending search for a genuine _entree_ keeps everyone on the alert for the offworlder who is supposed to show up, someday, with recipes.
Is Pall the Kumquat Haagendasz? That's what the Boni Maroni want to know. But that's not all: the Boni Maroni's own Missionaria Phonibalonica has seeded Arruckus with tales of a savior, and so the Freedmenmen, too, have some sharp questions about this odd young fellow who has adopted the name Mauve'Bib (after the purple neckerchief worn by the beer-chugging natives).
Will their questions be answered? Perhaps, but will their answers be questioned? Perhaps, but will _those_ questions be answered? Perhaps, but . . . (See, it's like a plan within a plan within a plan. Or a feint within a feint within a feint. Or something.)
Meanwhile, the Baron Vladimir Hardchargin has a plan to control beer production on Arruckus through his nephew, Filp-Rotha (get it? Think _Portnoy's Complaint_). Will the Pahdedbrah Emperor, Shaddap IV, catch on in time? Or will his crack comedians, the Hardehaurhar, be made to serve the Baron's sinister plan?
All in all, a brilliant sendup of Frank Herbert's masterpiece, right down to the glossary -- and, perhaps not incidentally, a delightful translation of his tale from the original quasi-Arabic into Catskill Yiddish. Don't forget to put the kreplock on your chiksoop while you curl up with this one.
