Dune: House Atreides

It’s not part of the series that begins with the masterwork Dune by Frank Herbert; it’s the first in a prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. If you haven’t read Dune–and possibly the next two (but not the fourth) in the six-book original series–then don’t pick up Dune: House Atreides until you do.

This novel is set perhaps thirty years before the events of Dune, and it is pleasing to read the history of characters you love, like Leto Atreides and Duncan Idaho and Stilgar, and even the characters you love to hate, like Hasimir Fenring and Vladmir Harkonnen and his horrible nephew Rabban. The new characters as well–those from Ix and especially Pardot Kynes–decidedly belong in the Dune universe. It can never be said of Herbert and Anderson that they aren’t faithful to the original.

One thing about this prequel, or perhaps more about the style of the prequel, is that it is just generally easier to understand. My own appreciation of Dune certainly did not blossom until the second reading; but of Dune: House Atreides I can say I fully understood it the first time and feel no need to reread it. If you like to read very difficult texts, you will value the son’s work a little less than the father’s…but I can guarantee you will never despair of comprehension while reading it. Every short chapter is full of enough action and delicious backstory to satisfy many a fan.

Characters, A.
Action, A+.
Faithfulness to original, A.
Subtlety, B-.