House Atreides (Dune: House Trilogy, Book 1)
by Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Brian Herbert, Kevin J. AndersonIllustrator: Stephen Youll
Edition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-08
ISBN: 0553580272
Number of pages: 681
Publisher: Spectra
Book Reviews of House Atreides (Dune: House Trilogy, Book 1)
Book Review: completely misses what dune is about
Summary: 2 Stars
"Dune: House Atreides" is the first in a trilogy of prequels to the "Dune" novels of Frank Herbert. Like sequels however, the only lesson you'll get from "Atreides" is to leave well enough alone. Frank Herbert was masterful because he could conjure up a vast universe without losing sight of his characters' humanity, and he knew how to both deftly craft his surroundings, and keep the historic details of the Dune universe tantalizingly vague (the appeal of Dune's hidden history stemmed largely from Herbert's refusal to dissect). The new trilogy ignores the qualities of the original's prose and the otherworldly seduction of its myriad plotting.For those new to the series, Dune is set in a far distant future, when man has spread across the stars. Once enslaved by machine minds, men rose up in a religious crusade whose legacy has been the absolute prohibition against artificial computers. Instead, vast schools enhance the human mind, turning men into living computers called Mentats. Huge starships are guided by "third-stage navigators" - artificially evolved human beings who see through walls of time/space. Though technologically advanced, humanity is ruled by an emperor through an aristocracy (the "Landsraad") perpetually at odds with itself. (Individual houses endlessly plot against each other ala Machiavelli). Outside of Landsraad, various other groups jockey for power - like the insidious Tleilaxu who are masters of forbidden technology, or the Bene Gesserit who conduct genetic engineering experiments designed to create a suber-being called the "kwisatz haderach". Each party wield great power, but is checked both by each other and by their dependence on a mystical spice called "mélange" - a drug which stretches human lifespans, widens consciousness and, in really huge doses, turns humans into navigators. In short, mélange underlies every aspect of this society. Unfortunately, technology hasn't supplied a substitute for mélange, and the inhospitable planet Dune is its only source.
In "Atreides" we meet younger versions of the noble Leto Atreides, the vile Vlad Harkonnen, the slyly murderous Fehnring and Shaddam - the future emperor. Aside from other characters also already established in Dune lore, we meet the royal family of Ix (soon to be exiled when Ix is overrun by Tleilaxu) and Leto's parents. Title aside, " Atreides" tells as much about the Atreides as everyone else. Actually, Shaddam, gets the lion's share of attention. With his father Elrood kept alive through mélange addiction, and showing no sign of releasing the throne, Shaddam conspires with Fenring to kill him. Leto, not yet a duke, travels to Ix, whose rulers develop technology at the limits of the law. Leto's strict mother (whose religious fundamentalism dates this book as none of the original novels had) distrusts the ruling Ixians. The reigning duke is too fun-loving a guy to accord with the duchess' stern dogmatism. Vladimir Harkonnen, already Baron when "Atreides" starts, has yet to become the physically repulsive ogre of the original epic. Shaddam, already considering himself emperor, conspires to "give" Ix to the Tleilaxu, confident can blame it on a feud his father nursed against the Ixian rulers. In return, the Tleilaxu will try to develop a synthetic mélange. None of the original books' intense plotting nor their focus on their characters' perspective are in evidence here. No character possesses any depth. Fenring is a master in the art of murder, even when just giving advice, but here he's just annoying, and his plotting is seldom Macchiavellian. Neither Anderson nor Herbert develop Fenring in a way that suggests his complete reversal in the original "Dune". Leto is the hero of the story, but he comes off as one of those angst-ridden characters of a Dawson's Creek spin-off. None of the myriad subplots reflect an understanding of the Dune-universe. The Bene gesserit never arouse suspicion, even though their plan to breed the messianic Kwisatz Haderach threatens everybody, especially the Navigators (since they possess the closest thing to absolute power in the Dune universe). Instead it's the illegal invasion of Ix that unites the characters in this book - but who cares? (the Tleilaxu turn the Ixians against their rulers for whom they do the most work and reap the least benefits.) The authors completely miss the underpinnings of the age old Atreides/Harkonnen vendetta (they take the feud as the logical product of Atreides nobility and Harkonnen villainy. The point of a prequel is to show how things came to be the way they are, after nearly turning out differently). Another error is Leto's father - described as a cruel blowhard in the original "Dune", he's now a benevolent ruler who lives for his loyal subjects whom he entertains with frequent bullfights. But above all is Shaddam's nonsensical collusion with the Tleilaxu. At Fenring's urging, Shaddam presses the Tleilaxu to develop a synthetic version of mélange in order to both free his throne from spice mining and elevate it over the spicing guild. What the authors fail to grasp is that success would only swap the monopoly of the navigators for that of the Tleilaxu (it would also nullify the industrial complex that mines the spice, one of the economic structures that both ensures the stability of the universe and, because the throne manages it, allows Shaddam to effectively rule. Besides, if the Tleilaxu reneged, how would Shaddam enforce his end?) The unblanced deal would make sense had Shaddam nursed a vendetta against the Ixians - but the grudge against Ix was Elrood's.
Being part of a series, "Atreides" doesn't have to be open-ended (with half-finished plotlines and characters left for the next book), but it is. Some subplots don't come together at all - like the expeditions of planetologist Liet Kynes or the story of C'tair, a loyal Ixian working against the Tleilaxu. But worst of all, the novel lacks a solid voice, a single perspective in its scenes to feel the pain, joy, fear and triumph that all the plotting must create. "Atreides" simply fails because, unlike the spice mélange that underlies much of the plotting, it is neither addictive nor consciousness expanding.
Summary of House Atreides (Dune: House Trilogy, Book 1)
The New York Times bestselling prequel to the classic award-winning saga by Frank Herbert.Frank Herbert's award-winning Dune chronicles captured the imagination of millions of readers worldwide. By his death in 1986, Herbert had completed six novels in the series, but much of his vision remained unwritten. Now, working from his father's recently discovered files, Brian Herbert and bestselling novelist Kevin J. Anderson collaborate on a new novel, the prelude to Dune?where we step onto the planet Arrakis...decades before Dune's hero, Paul Muad'Dib Atreides, walks its sands.
Here is the rich and complex world that Frank Herbert created, in the time leading up to the momentous events of Dune. As Emperor Elrood's son plots a subtle regicide, young Leto Atreides leaves for a year's education on the mechanized world of Ix; a planetologist named Pardot Kynes seeks the secrets of Arrakis; and the eight-year-old slave Duncan Idaho is hunted by his cruel masters in a terrifying game from which he vows escape and vengeance. But none can envision the fate in store for them: one that will make them renegades?and shapers of history.
Acclaimed SF novelist Brian Herbert is the son of Dune author Frank Herbert. With his father, Brian wrote Man of Two Worlds and later edited The Notebooks of Frank Herbert's Dune. Kevin J. Anderson has written many bestsellers, alternating original SF with novels set in the X-Files and Star Wars universes. Together they bring personal commitment and a lifelong knowledge of the Dune Chronicles to this ambitious expansion of a series that transformed SF itself. Dune: House Atreides chronicles the early life of Leto Atreides, prince of a minor House in the galactic Imperium. Leto comes to confront the realities of power when House Vernius is betrayed in an imperial plot involving a quest for an artificial substitute to melange, a substance vital to interstellar trade that is found only on the planet Dune. Meanwhile, House Harkonnen schemes to bring Leto into conflict with the Tleilax, and the Bene Gesserit manipulate Baron Harkonnen as part of a plan stretching back 100 generations. In the Imperial palace, treason is afoot, and on Dune itself, planetologist Pardot Kynes embarks on a secret project to transform the desert world into a paradise.
Dune remains the bestselling SF novel ever, such that three decades later no prequel can possibly have the same impact. Yet in House Atreides the authors have written a compelling, labyrinthine, skillfully imagined extension of the world Frank Herbert created, which ably commands attention for almost 600 pages. It is powerful SF that continues a great tradition, and in itself is a very considerable achievement. --Gary S. Dalkin, Amazon.co.uk
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