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.

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