Dune
Why this book?
My mother was a huge fan of the book – so, I had access to that universe very early on through the book, movies, game. It was my first exposure to science fiction, and much of it stuck. I found especially handy how simple the structuring of the story was, how the author lays out dialogue vs. description. The universe seems complex, yet it is made simply so by not adding too much hard science-fiction style nerd-stuff (or none at all, to my mind 2the lore" is very tastefully done) – yet, there is not enough romance to my taste, and belonging to a great royal lineage and being schooled by high-class sorcerers isn't exactly relatable – but the story is an epic, and it is not supposed to.