Dune

House Atreides takes control of Arrakis, a desert world that is the only source of spice, a drug that makes interstellar travel possible. The handover is a trap. The young heir, Paul, escapes into the deep desert and falls in with the Fremen, who have learned to live in conditions that would kill anyone else. What makes Dune strange among space epics is how little it cares about gadgets and how much it cares about ecology, religion, and politics. Herbert built a working desert and a working belief system, and he is openly suspicious of the messiah his own plot creates. There are giant worms. The worms are not the point.