Dune: House Atreides - Harkonnen - Corrino

Several years ago, I read Frank Herbert's Dune. And it remains today as probably the best book I've ever read. I can remember eagerly reading the following volumes up to Chapterhouse: Dune... All 6 volumes offer a coherent universe (interest slowly declining with the sequels, but that's not the subject...) But then, a couple of weeks ago, my sister offered me the 3 prequels to the Dune saga, written by Brian Herbert (son of Frank) and Kevin J. Anderson and, from the first line of "Dune - House Atreides", some 3 weeks ago, I've been hooked. So, this entry is going to cover the 3 books:

• Dune - House Atreides
• Dune - House Harkonnen
• Dune - House Corrino

since I've had no leisure to take my nose out of these books to write an entry after each one ;)
If you've liked Dune, you'll like the prequels, there's no doubt about it! They take you through the lives of the heroes you've learned to like (or disliked) before the Dune saga: How Leto became Duke, how Baron Vladimir Harkonnen reigned on Arrakis, etc... and honestly, I've loved the way they're written!

So to the story covered by the 3 books:

Here is the situation at the beginning of the first book:

• Atreides: Leto Atreides is 15, and his father, Paulus is a loved and respected Duke. He made a political marriage with Helena of House Richese, the mother of Leto, and has forced into Leto's head the idea that a marriage is to be political, not to be subdued by love. Great House Richese used to be a great technological house and to be ruling the fief of Arrakis: but House Harkonnen now exploits Arrakis (Houses takes century shifts, dictated by the Emperor) and Richese has lost a lot to Ix in an economical & technological war.


• Harkonnen: Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is a handsome, muscular man, ruling with cruelty. He replaces his half-brother Abulurd who proved too soft to squelch the invaluable Spice from Arrakis. He has no heir (his taste for young boys does not help that) and treat Rabban (Abulurd's son) as such.


• Corrino: Elrood IX is at the head of the Empire and is power is balancer with that of the Guild (allowing interplanetary transport, with the Spice), the economic forces of the CHOAM and the Landsraad (representing all the respectable houses of the Empire). Elrood is veeeeery old, thanks to the geriatric properties of the Spice, and crown prince Shaddam is growing impatient... With the help of his breast friend, the clever and deadly Hasimir Fenring, he has already disposed of his elder brother.

The books cover the following stories that are all very cleverly intertwined:

• The education of Leto on Ix, together with Prince Rhombur of House Vernius

The long term plan of Fenring & Shaddam to produce artificial Spice for a Spice monopoly by the Emperor, which would allow him later to overpower the Guild, the CHOAM and the Landsraad. To achieve artificial Spice production, they secretly work with the despicable Bene Tleilax, who could try to grow spice with their mysterious axotl tanks.

• Pardot Kynes is sent by Elrood as imperial planetologist on Arrakis, in order to get to understand the planet, and more important, the Spice. On desert Arrakis, named Dune by the local fremen, it doesn't take much time for him to fall in love with the planet; he starts to share plans of slowly reshaping the ecosystem in order to bring plants and water on Arrakis, and the desert people adopt him as their Umma, their prophet. Going native, he marries a fremen woman and has a boy, Liet Kynes.


• We learn the first years of Duncan Idaho, on Giedi Prime: at 9 years old, Rabban kills his parents in front of him and makes him the target of a forest hunt (hence his hatred for the Harkonnens...). Managing to escape, the boy will find his way to Caladan and serve the Atreides.


• The Bene Gesserit's long developed Kwisatz Haderach program comes to fruition: they need a girl from the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, who'll have a daughter by an Atreides and a boy from this daughter with a last Harkonnen heir have a great propability to produce their Kwisatz Haderach, the male who can see through space and time: only three generations left...


• The takeover of Ix by the Tleilaxu, helped by Sardaukars, the Emperor's powerful soldiers. House Vernius goes renegade, only Prince Rhombur and Princess Kailea are saved, exiled on Caladan.


• How the Bene Gesserit blackmails the Baron Harkonnen into impregnating Mother Helena Gaius Mohiam: the first time, the daughter is a failure; the second time, Mohiam gets raped by the Baron but has her daughter for the program. During the rape, she manages to give the Baron a debilitating disease that will slowly turn his perfect muscular body into the unsightly amount of flash we discover in Dune.


• How Helena, always disagreeing with the Duke, plans her husband's death, with mysterious Harkonnen help: Duke Paulus Atreides is killed in the Arena by an enraged Salusan Bull. Leto ends up being a Duke too early, and sends his mother in exile, not daring killing her for her deeds.


• How Fenring and Shaddam poison the emperor with a subtle, very slowly acting, substance to bring about his death as discreetly as possible. When the emperor finally dies, Shaddam marries Lady Anirul, a Bene Gesserit of Hidden Rank (who is in fact the Kwisatz Mother, supervising the Kwisatz Haderach program) and sends away Count Fenring, in order to prove that he can rule and take decision alone


• The evil scheme of the Harkonnens who, with the only no-ship available, frame young Duke Leto into a very risky business with the Tleilaxu: Leto is saved only by mysterious help from the Bene Gesserit, and unexpected (and forced) support from young Emperor Shaddam IV.


• We are taken through the fearful young life of Gurney Halleck on Giedi Prime, how he went from slave to prisoner, how his sister was taken and tortured in a Harkonnen brothel; we witness her being raped and tortured in front of Gurney by Rabban and his soldiers and how Rabban gave him his inkvine scar. Gurney finally escapes the Karkonnen hellhole to find shelter with smugglers.


• Since going renegade, Earl Dominic Vernius of Ix, an old brother in arms of Duke Paulus Atreides, becomes a smuggler, a thorn in the heel of the Emperor, but without being really dangerous. Gurney Halleck joins his band of smugglers and they have two bases: one on Arrakis, the other one on Salusa Secundus.


• How Leto, in love with Kailea Vernius since ages, finally take her as a mistress, and has a boy, Victor. He won't marry her though, since he has been educated to only marry for politics.


• Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, growing fat and needing suspensors to be able to move without help, finally turns to Suk doctor Yueh in order to diagnose his disease. He then learns the truth of the disease inflicted by the Reverend Mother Mohiam.


• On Arrakis, betrayed to the emperor, Earl Dominic Vernius is cornered by Sardaukars. He commits suicide using the family atomics. Gurney Halleck, then goes to Caladan to talks to Rhombur and Kailea about their father and joins the Atreides.


• Emperor Shaddam IV is doing quite poorly: first, the synthetic spice program is taking ages and there is still no idea as to when it may come to fruition; and then, there is unrest in the Empire, a war is raging between Houses Ecaz and Grumman that the Emperor cannot control. Not counseled by count Fenring anymore, he turns to his military strength as a solution and spreads his Sardaukars thin.


• On faraway Dune, Pardot Kynes dies in an accident, and Liet, his son, takes his imperial planetologist title and manages to unite the vastly spread fremen in a single goal, to reclaim Dune. Liet marries and has a daughter, Chani.


• Duncan Idaho is sent on planet Ginaz, on an 8 years course to become a Swordsmaster for House Atreides. We are taken through several steps of his very harsh and deadly training, which he'll eventually complete.


• The Bene Gesserit force Leto to take one of them, a young sister named Jessica, in his entourage. He reluctantly accepts, in exchange for the information that the Harkonnen are behind his framing against Tleilaxu.


• Since she was pregnant, Kailea Vernius has been assisted by a waitress, secretly provided by the Harkonnen devious mentat, Piter de Vries. Slowly, but surely, the matron turns Kailea against her Duke, having him live with Kailea the arguments he witnessed between his father and mother. When things go really bad, he turns to Jessica: but Jessica, against her orders to provide a girl for the Bene Gesserit, isn't getting pregnant and she's even developing feelings for her Duke.


• Shaddam starts a new military campaign, that he calls the Spice War: illegal Spice hoards are to be returned to the Empire or else... With his Sardaukar, and the support the support of the Guild and the CHOAM (who divide the hoards between them), he makes a couple of stunning examples, even using forbidden atomics on a satellite of House Richese, destroying it and rendering a quarter of the population blind. The Emperor is now out of control and regarded as a threat to political stability by the Landsraad.


• Her frustration at her status culminating, Kailea plans to murder her Duke (déjà-vu anyone?) but ultimately manages only to kill her son and almost kill her brother Rhombur. She'll suicide out of grief. Rhombur has almost nothing left and is in a coma. That's when the Bene Tleilax offer to Leto to bring Victor back (as a Ghola...) in exchange for the body of Rhombur their enemy. On the brink of sanity at this time, Leto finally refuses. Rhombur will get the help of Suk doctor Yueh who will provide synthetic replacement for his body and limbs: Prince Rhombur of Ix will live as a cyborg.


• After 20 years of doing nothing but being a guest to the Atreides, Rhombur is ready for a last hope attack on Ix; He and Loto, Thufir Hawat (the famous warrior mentat who accompanies both Paulus and Leto throughout the books), Duncan and Gurney plan the attack.


• On Xuttah (Ix renamed by the Tleilaxu), Master Ajidica approaches the end of the researches: he has managed to produce what he calls Amal from one of his Axotl tanks (butchered women reduced to inflated wombs reprogrammed by Tleilaxu). He has a plan for himself, and wants to take the Amal for his use alone in order to build a new order to replace the Bene Tleilax, which he judges too decadent. He starts to consume it himself and refuses further tests. Count Fenring however secretly introduces some synthetic Spice in navigator chambers in order to check if it is really working: the tests are utter failures and the Amal program in itself is a failure.


• As a step in his fight against the Harkonnen, Liet Kynes manages to get to the Emperor the word that the Harkonnen keep large (and illegal) Spice stockpiles. This is enough for Shaddam to order an all-out assault on the Harkonnen on Arrakis: his ships deploy over the planet and threaten Baron Vladimir Harkonnen while investigators are sent in search for the hoards.


• Not knowing that the Amal project is a failure, Shaddam believes he can now destroy Arrakis and, as he threatens to do so, the Guild takes all its ships back, leaving the Emperor alone and powerless: defeated, Shaddam IV will have to accept counsel and supervision from the Landsraad.


• On Ix, after the battle, the Atreides army conquer the planet and Prince Rhombur is reinstated as Earl of Ix.In the emperor's palace where she has been ordered by the Kwisatz Mother and Mother Mohiam, Jessica gives birth to Paul, son of Leto, but the infant is quickly abducted by Piter de Vries who then understands that the boy is Baron Vladimir Harkonnen's grandson. Learning that Jessica, against her orders, has given birth to a boy, Lady Anirul gets mad (she has been too deep in Other Memories for some time) but, trying to protect the baby, dies at the hand of Piter. Piter is ultimately killed by Mohiam and the infant given back to his parents. The Baron receives a package from the Bene Gesserit with Piter's body in pieces... He'll need a new twisted Mentat. Leto Atreides gets the glory his honor he deserves.

Quite a long story indeed, I've done as short as I could, and I've omitted tons of events, secondary characters, and so on... I cannot really do it justice in such a small article. When I'll be old, given I have enough time, I'm sure I'll read these books again!