D U N E

D U N E (& Brian Herbert & Frank Herbert)

Updated January 14, 2008

Frank Herbert's Dune series is one of the grandest epics in the annals of imaginative literature. Selling millions of copies worldwide, it is science fiction's answer to The Lord of the Rings, a brilliantly imaginative epic of high adventure, unforgettable characters, and immense scope (from Dune: The Official Website). There are currently 3 series of books written in the DUNE universe: the original series, referred to as Classic Dune, Dune Legends, which deals with early prehistory, and Prelude to Dune, which covers events just before DUNE.

Books I've Read in the DUNE saga

D U N E

Classic Dune

Dune (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition)
by Frank Herbert

Here is the novel that will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, DUNE is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family—and would bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream. A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, DUNE formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction. (book description)

(I haven't read this book, yet) The Road to Dune (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition)
by Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert, and Kevin J. Anderson

Frank Herbert's Dune is widely known as the science fiction equivalent of The Lord of the Rings. Now The Road to Dune is a companion work comparable to The Silmarillion, shedding light on and following the remarkable development of the bestselling science fiction novel of all time.

In this fascinating volume, the world's millions of Dune fans can read—at long last—the unpublished chapters and scenes from Dune and Dune Messiah. The Road to Dune also includes some of the original correspondence between Frank Herbert and famed editor John W. Campbell, Jr., along with other correspondence during Herbert's years-long struggle to get his innovative work published, and the article "They Stopped the Moving Sands," Herbert's original inspiration for Dune.

The Road to Dune also features newly discovered papers and manuscripts of Frank Herbert, and Spice Planet, an original novel by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, based on a detailed outline left by Frank Herbert.

The Road to Dune is a treasure trove of essays, articles, and fiction that every reader of Dune will want to add to their shelf. (book description)

Dune Messiah (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition)
by Frank Herbert

Set on the desert planet Arrakis—a world as fully real and rich as our own—Dune Messiah continues the story of the man Muad'Dib, heir to a power unimaginable, bringing to completion the centuries-old scheme to create a superbeing . . . (book description)

Children of Dune (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition)
by Frank Herbert

The desert planet has begun to grow green and lush. The life-giving spice is abundant. The 9 year-old royal twins, possessing their father's supernormal powers, are being groomed as messiahs. But there are those who think the Imperium does not need messiahs . . . (book description)

God Emperor of Dune (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition)
by Frank Herbert

Centuries have passed on Dune, and the planet is green with life. Leto, the son of Dune's savior, is still alive but far from human, and the fate of all humanity hangs on his awesome sacrifice . . . (book description)

Heretics of Dune (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition)
by Frank Herbert

The planet Arrakis—now called Rakis—is becoming desert again. The Lost Ones are returning home from the far reaches of space. The great sandworms are dying. And the children of Dune's children awaken from empire as from a dream, wielding the new power of a heresy called love . . . (book description)

Chapterhouse: Dune (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition)
by Frank Herbert

The desert planet Arrakis, called Dune, has been destroyed. Now the Bene Gesserit, heirs to Dune’s power, have colonized a green world—and are turning it into a desert, mile by scorched mile. Here is the last book Frank Herbert wrote before his death: A stunning climax to the epic DUNE legend that will live on forever. (book description)

(I haven't read this book, yet) Hunters of Dune (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition)
by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

Hunters of Dune and the concluding volume, Sandworms of Dune, bring together the great story lines and beloved characters in Frank Herbert's classic Dune universe, ranging from the time of the Butlerian Jihad to the original Dune series and beyond. Based directly on Frank Herbert's final outline, which lay hidden in a safe-deposit box for a decade, these two volumes will finally answer the urgent questions Dune fans have been debating for two decades.

HUNTERS OF DUNE

At the end of Chapterhouse: Dune, Frank Herbert's final novel, a ship carrying the ghola of Duncan Idaho, Sheeana (a young woman who can control sandworms), and a crew of various refugees escapes into the uncharted galaxy, fleeing from the monstrous Honored Matres, dark counterparts to the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood. The nearly invincible Honored Matres have swarmed into the known universe, driven from their home by a terrifying, mysterious Enemy. As designed by the creative genius of Frank Herbert, the primary story of Hunters and Sandworms is the exotic odyssey of Duncan's no-ship as it is forced to elude the diabolical traps set by the ferocious, unknown Enemy. To strengthen their forces, the fugitives have used genetic technology from Scytale, the last Tleilaxu Master, to revive key figures from Dune's past, including Paul Muad'Dib and his beloved Chani, Lady Jessica, Stilgar, Thufir Hawat, and even Dr. Wellington Yueh. Each of these characters will use their special talents to meet the challenges thrown at them.

Failure is unthinkable—not only is their survival at stake, but they hold the fate of the entire human race in their hands. This breathtaking new novel in Frank Herbert's Dune series has enough surprises, characters, and plot twists to please even the most demanding reader. (book description)

Sandworms of Dune (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition)
by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

Hunters of Dune and the concluding volume, Sandworms of Dune, bring together the great story lines and beloved characters in Frank Herbert’s classic Dune universe, ranging from the time of the Butlerian Jihad to the original Dune series and beyond. Based directly on Frank Herbert’s final outline, which lay hidden in two safe-deposit boxes for a decade, these two volumes will finally answer the urgent questions Dune fans have been debating for two decades.

SANDWORMS OF DUNE

At the end of Frank Herbert’s final novel, Chapterhouse: Dune, a ship carrying a crew of refugees escapes into the uncharted galaxy, fleeing from a terrifying, mysterious Enemy. The fugitives used genetic technology to revive key figures from Dune’s past—including Paul Muad’Dib and Lady Jessica—to strengthen their chances of survival by using their special talents to meet the incredible challenges of the journey.

Sandworms of Dune will reveal the tantalizing future of the planet Arrakis, the final revelation of the Kwisatz Haderach, and the resolution to the war between Man and Machine. This breathtaking new novel in Frank Herbert’s Dune series has surprises and plot twists to galore—enough to please even the most demanding reader. (book description)

Personal note: Reading this book made me want to go back and re-read the rest of the original Dune series. It was clear to me that I’ve forgotten a lot of the things that happened and I find myself curious to revisit the novels, despite remembering that I found most of the ones later in the series to be hard to get into. That’s a sign of how compelling I found this book to be.

Legends of Dune

The LEGENDS OF DUNE trilogy details the saga of the century-long conflict, as well as the original breach that formed the deadly feud between House Atreides and House Harkonnen. The story includes Tio Holtzman's development of foldspace and shield technology, the establishment of the Imperium by House Corrino, and the Zensunni Wanderers' escape from slavery and their flight to the desert world of Arrakis. Readers will also see the seeds of DUNE's famous Great Schools of the Mentats, the Bene Gesserit, the Suk Doctors, and the Swordmasters. (from Dune: The Official Website)

Dune: The Butlerian Jihad (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition)
by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

Throughout the Dune novels, Frank Herbert frequently referred to the war in which humans wrested their freedom from "thinking machines." Now, in Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson bring to life the story of that war, a tale previously seen only in tantalizing hints and clues. Finally, we see how Serena Butler’s passionate grief ignites the struggle that will liberate humans from their machine masters. We learn the circumstances of the betrayal that made mortal enemies of House Atreides and House Harkonnen; and we experience the Battle of Corrin that created a galactic empire lasting until the reign of Emperor Shaddam IV.

Herin are the foundations of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, the Suk Doctors, the Order of Mentats, and the mysteriously altered Navigators of the Spacing Guild. Here is the amazing tale of the Zensunni Wanderers, who escape bondage to flee to the desert world where they will declare themselves the Free Men of Dune. And here is the backward, nearly forgotten planet of Arrakis, where traders have discovered the remarkable properties of the spice melange....

Ten thousand years before the events of Dune, humans have managed to battle the remorseless Machines to a standstill...but victory may be short-lived. Yet amid shortsighted squabbling between nobles, new leaders have begun to emerge. Among them are Xavier Harkonnen, military leader of the Planet Salusa Segundus; Xavier's fiancée, Serena Butler, an activist who will become the unwilling leader of millions; and Tio Holtzman, the scientist struggling to devise a weapon that will help the human race. Against the brute efficiency of their adversaries, these leaders and the human race have only imagination, compassion, and the capacity for love. It will have to be enough. (book description)

Dune: The Machine Crusade (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition)
by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

The breathtaking vision and incomparable storytelling of Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson's Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, a prequel to Frank Herbert's classic Dune, propelled it to the ranks of speculative fiction's classics in its own right. Now, with all the color, scope, and fascination of the prior novel, comes Dune: The Machine Crusade.

More than two decades have passed since the events chronicled in The Butlerian Jihad. The crusade against thinking robots has ground on for years, but the forces led by Serena Butler and Irbis Ginjo have made only slight gains; the human worlds grow weary of war, of the bloody, inconclusive swing from victory to defeat.

The fearsome cymeks, led by Agamemnon, hatch new plots to regain their lost power from Omnius--as their numbers dwindle and time begins to run out. The fighters of Ginaz, led by Jool Noret, forge themselves into an elite warrior class, a weapon against the machine-dominated worlds. Aurelius Venport and Norma Cenva are on the verge of the most important discovery in human history-a way to "fold" space and travel instantaneously to any place in the galaxy.

And on the faraway, nearly worthless planet of Arrakis, Selim Wormrider and his band of outlaws take the first steps to making themselves the feared fighters who will change the course of history: the Fremen.

Here is the unrivaled imaginative power that has put Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson on bestseller lists everywhere and earned them the high regard of readers around the globe. The fantastic saga of Dune continues in Dune: The Machine Crusade. (book description)

Dune: The Battle of Corrin (Paperback edition) or (Hardcover edition)
by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

It has been fifty-six hard years since the events of The Machine Crusade. Following the death of Serena Butler, the bloodiest decades of the Jihad take place. Synchronized Worlds and Unallied Planets are liberated one by one, and at long last, after years of victory, the human worlds begin to hope that the end of the centuries-long conflict with the thinking machines is finally in sight.

Unfortunately, Omnius has one last, deadly card to play. In a last-ditch effort to destroy humankind, virulent plagues are let loose throughout the galaxy, decimating the populations of whole planets . . . and once again, the tide of the titanic struggle shifts against the warriors of the human race. At last, the war that has lasted many lifetimes will be decided in the apocalyptic Battle of Corrin.

In the greatest battle in science fiction history, human and machine face off one last time. . . . And on the desert planet of Arrakis, the legendary Fremen of Dune become the feared fighting force to be discovered by Paul Muad'Dib in Frank Herbert's classic, Dune. (book description)

Prelude to Dune

Here is the rich and complex world that Frank Herbert created in his classic series, in the time leading up to the momentous events of DUNE. As Emperor Elrood's son Shaddam plots a subtle regicide, young Leto Atreides leaves his lush, water-rich planet for a year's education on the mechanized world of Ix; a planetologist named Pardot Kynes is dispatched by the Emperor to the desert planet Arrakis, or Dune, to discover the secrets of the addictive spice known as melange; 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. (from Dune: The Official Website)

Dune: House Atreides (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition)
by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

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 the god-child they call the Kwisatz Haderach. And a minor family among 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.

Covering the decade when Shaddam wins his throne, the teenager Leto Atreides becomes the unexpected ruler of HOUSE ATREIDES, and Pardot Kynes uncovers one of the planet Dune's greatest secrets, Dune: 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, the hero of DUNE, will walk. But now, in these years before Paul's birth, an unforgettable new epic begins . . . (book description)

Dune: House Harkonnen (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition)
by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

At last Shaddam sits on the Golden Lion Throne, his precarious position as ruler of the Known Universe dependent on producing a male heir. But his leadership is further threatened by the ambitious Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, whose insatiable thirst for dominance leads him to plot against some of the most powerful forces in the Imperium, hoping to elevate his own ruthless House to unprecedented heights of power. His primary targets: House Atreides and the mysterious Bene Gesserit Sisterhood. The Sisterhood are unaware of this threat as they prepare to culminate the work of centuries in the creation of a god-child who will sweep away emperors, houses, and history itself in a terrifying new order of religious tyranny.

The desert world Dune, the machine world Ix, and countless other conquered planets groan under the numbing slavery of cruel new masters determined to exploit their resources -- most notably the addictive spice melange found only on Dune. But small bands of renegades begin to fight back, lighting the spark of freedom against overwhelming odds. New, unexpected heroes arise: young and resourceful Liet-Kynes on Dune, wily and patient C'tair on Ix, and unyielding Gurney Halleck on Giedi Prime, driven to vengeance against his Harkonnen overlords.

For Leto Atreides, grown complacent and comfortable as ruler of his House, it is a time of momentous choices: between love and honor, friendship and duty, safety and destiny. Leto has finally produced an heir to House Atreides, Victor, and will make whatever choices necessary to protect the young boy and ensure his legacy as Duke. Ultimately, however, for House Atreides there is just one choice -- strive for greatness or be crushed. (book description)

Dune: House Corrino (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition)
by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

Fearful of losing his precarious hold on the Golden Lion Throne, Shaddam IV, Emperor of a Million Worlds, has devised a radical scheme to develop an alternative to melange, the addictive spice that binds the Imperium together and that can be found only on the desert world of Dune. In subterranean labs on the machine planet, Ix, cruel Tleilaxu overlords use slaves and prisoners as part of a horrific plan to manufacture a synthetic form of melange known as amal. If amal can supplant the spice from Dune, it will give Shaddam what he seeks: absolute power.

But Duke Leto Atriedes, grief-stricken yet unbowed by the tragic death of his son Victor, determined to restore the honor and prestige of his House, has his own plans for Ix. He will free the Ixians from their oppressive conquerors and restore his friend Prince Rhombur, injured scion of the disgraced House Vernius, to his rightful place as Ixian ruler. It is a bold and risky venture, for House Atreides has limited military resources and many ruthless enemies, including the sadistic Baron Harkonnen, despotic master of Dune.

Meanwhile, Duke Leto's consort, the beautiful Lady Jessica, obeying the orders of her superiors in the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, has conceived a child that the Sisterhood intends to be the penultimate step in the creation of an all-powerful being. Yet what the Sisterhood doesn't know is that the child Jessica is carrying is not the girl they are expecting, but a boy. Jessica's act of disobedience is an act of love -- her attempt to provide her Duke with a male heir to House Atreides -- but an act that, when discovered, could kill both mother and baby.

Like the Bene Gesserit, Shaddam Corrino is also concerned with making a plan for the future -- securing his legacy. Blinded by his need for power, the Emperor will launch a plot against Dune, the only natural source of true spice. If he succeeds, his madness will result in a cataclysmic tragedy not even he foresees: the end of space travel, the Imperium, and civilization itself. With Duke Leto and other renegades and revolutionaries fighting to stem the tide of darkness that threatens to engulf their universe, the stage is set for a showdown unlike any seen before. (book description)