My current favourite game – plenty of replay value and plenty of different strategies players can take to get to victory. If you are going to play it as much as I have – I recommend getting card protectors as you do a lot of shuffling of cards and they definitely get some wear and tear. The game is pretty straight forward but on first look can be visually intimidating to new players/gamers. Especially if they haven't played another worker placement game or deck building game before. I try to ease in new players by playing something like stone age (worker placement) and dominion (deck building) first.
Knowing anything about the DUNE IP can help in explaining the game but it is not necessary for enjoyment of the game.