Complex, brilliant, and prophetic, Frank Herbert's award-winning Dune chronicles captured the imaginations of millions of readers worldwide - and transformed their perception of what the future could be. By his death in 1986, Frank Herbert had completed six novels in the Dune series. But much of his vision - vast, sprawling, and multilayered - remained unwritten. Now, working from recently discovered files left by his father, Brian Herbert and bestselling novelist Kevin J. Anderson collaborate on a new novel, the prelude to Dune - where we step onto planet Arrakis... decades before Dune's hero, Paul Muad'Dib Atreides, walks its sands.
DUNE: HOUSE ATREIDES
An aging tyrant sits on the Golden Lion Throne and rules all of the known universe, while his son grows dangerously impatient for the crown. A quasi-religious order of black-robed women move their secret breeding program one momentous step closer to creating a god-child they call the Kwisatz Haderach. And a minor family among the nobility, House Atreides, chooses a course of honor that will bring it to destruction at the hands of its mortal enemy, House Harkonnen - or take it to new heights of power.
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 years 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.
Covering the decade when Shaddam wins his throne, the teenager Leto Atreides becomes unexpectedly the ruler of House Atreides, and Pardot Kynes uncovers one of the planet Dune's greatest secrets, House Atreides captures the grandeur and drama of Frank Herbert's epic. And while this new novel solves some of Dune's most baffling mysteries, it presents new puzzles springing from the sands where one day Paul Muad'Dib Atreides will walk. But now, in these years before Paul's birth, an unforgettable new epic begins…
BRIAN HERBERT, the son of Frank Herbert, is the author of numerous acclaimed science fiction novels, including Sydney's Comet; Sudanna, Sudanna;Prisoners of Arion; The Race for God; and Man of Two Worlds (written with Frank Herbert). He has also written Dreamer of Dune, a comprehensive biography of his illustrious father.
KEVIN J. ANDERSON has written twenty-five national bestsellers and has been nominated for the Nebula Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the SFX Reader's Choice Award. He also holds the Guinness world record for "Largest Single-Author Book Signing."
Jacket illustration © Stephen Youll
Jacket design by Jamie S. Warren Youll
Frank Herbert's Dune chronicles became an enduring classic and the bestselling science fiction series of all time. Now, capturing all the complexity and grand themes of the original work, this prequel to Dune weaves a new tapestry of great passion and momentous destiny, in a saga that expands the tale written by Frank Herbert more than thirty years ago. Beginning nearly four decades before Dune, House Atreides introduces the pivotal characters, alliances, base treacheries, and bright hopes that form the foundation of Dune.
Fans of the Dune chronicles will relish the opportunity to return to the rich and exotic universe created by Frank Herbert, while new readers will be introduced to an incomparable imagination = and a future where the fate of the entire cosmos is at stake....
DUNE
HOUSE ATREIDES