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![Dune: House Atreides (Prelude to Dune Book 1) by [Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson, Stephen Youll]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/517vC2nFHkL._SY346_.jpg)
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Dune: House Atreides (Prelude to Dune Book 1) Kindle Edition
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Step into the universe of Frank Herbert’s Dune, one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time.
Before Paul Atreides became Muad’Dib, the dynamic leader who unified the wild Fremen on the desert planet known as Dune . . .
Before the evil Baron Harkonnen overthrew House Atreides and sent Paul and his mother Jessica fleeing into the deadly wasteland of sand . . .
Before the secrets of the spice and the sandworms were discovered . . .
There was another story . . .
The tale of young Leto Atreides learning to become a ruler in the shadow of his great father.
The tale of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, ruthless tyrant who becomes a pawn of Bene Gesserit breeding schemes.
The tale of Pardot Kynes, ambitious planetologist dispatched to the sands of Arrakis to understand the origins of the spice melange, the most valuable substance in the known universe.
And the tale of Crown Prince Shaddam Corrino, whose lust for power leads him to plot the assassination of his own father and to create a plan that will replace the spice and disrupt the Imperium forever . . .
Dune: House Atreides begins the epic worldwide bestselling trilogy that tells of the generation before Dune and sows the seeds for great heroes, vile enemies, and terrible tyrants.
Look for the entire prequel series
DUNE: HOUSE ATREIDES • DUNE: HOUSE HARKONNEN • DUNE: HOUSE CORRINO
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSpectra
- Publication dateMarch 18, 2003
- File size5676 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Amazon.com Review
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
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.About the Author
Scott Brick has won many dozens of AudioFile Earphones Awards and several prestigious Audie Awards and was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine and the Voice of Choice for 2016 by Booklist magazine.
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.From the Back Cover
From AudioFile
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
--CHOAM Economic Analysis of Materiel Flow Patterns
Lean and muscular, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen hunched forward next to the ornithopter pilot. He peered with spider-black eyes through the pitted windowplaz, smelling the ever-present grit and sand.
As the armored 'thopter flew high overhead, the white sun of Arrakis dazzled against unrelenting sands. The sweeping vista of dunes sizzling in the day's heat made his retinas burn. The landscape and sky were bleached of color. Nothing soothed the human eye.
Hellish place.
The Baron wished he could be back in the industrialized warmth and civilized complexity of Giedi Prime, the central world of House Harkonnen. Even stuck here, he had better things to do back at the local family headquarters in the city of Carthag, other diversions to suit his demanding tastes.
But the spice harvesting must take precedence. Always. Especially a huge strike such as the one his spotters had reported.
In the cramped cockpit, the Baron lounged with well-postured confidence, ignoring the buffet and sway of air currents. The 'thopter's mechanical wings beat rhythmically like a wasp's. The dark leather of his chestpiece fit tightly over well-toned pectorals. In his mid-forties, he had rakish good looks; his reddish gold hair had been cut and styled to exacting specifications, enhancing his distinctive widow's peak. The Baron's skin was smooth, his cheekbones high and well sculpted. Sinewy muscles stood out along his neck and jaw, ready to contort his face into a scowl or a hard smile, depending on circumstances.
"How much farther?" He looked sideways at the pilot, who had been showing signs of nervousness.
"The site is in the deep desert, m'Lord Baron. All indications are that this is one of the richest concentrations of spice ever excavated."
The flying craft shuddered on thermals as they passed over an outcropping of black lava rock. The pilot swallowed hard, focusing on the ornithopter's controls.
The Baron relaxed into his seat and quelled his impatience. He was glad the new hoard was far from prying eyes, away from Imperial or CHOAM corporate officials who might keep troublesome records. Doddering old Emperor Elrood IX didn't need to know every damned thing about Harkonnen spice production on Arrakis. Through carefully edited reports and doctored accounting journals, not to mention bribes, the Baron told the off-planet overseers only what he wanted them to know.
He swiped a strong hand across the sheen of sweat on his upper lip, then adjusted the 'thopter's environment controls to make the cockpit cooler, the air more moist.
The pilot, uncomfortable at having such an important and volatile passenger in his care, nudged the engines to increase speed. He checked the console's map projection again, studied outlines of the desert terrain that spread as far as they could see.
Having examined the cartographic projections himself, the Baron had been displeased by their lack of detail. How could anyone expect to find his way across this desert scab of a world? How could a planet so vital to the economic stability of the Imperium remain basically uncharted? Yet another failing of his weak younger demibrother, Abulurd.
But Abulurd was gone, and the Baron was in charge. Now that Arrakis is mine, I'll put everything in order. Upon returning to Carthag, he would set people to work drawing up new surveys and maps, if the damned Fremen didn't kill the explorers again or ruin the cartography points.
For forty years, this desert world had been the quasi-fief of House Harkonnen, a political appointment granted by the Emperor, with the blessing of the commercial powerhouse CHOAM--the Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles. Though grim and unpleasant, Arrakis was one of the most important jewels in the Imperial crown because of the precious substance it provided.
However, upon the death of the Baron's father, Dmitri Harkonnen, the old Emperor had, through some mental deficiency, granted the seat of power to the softhearted Abulurd, who had managed to decimate spice production in a mere seven years. Profits plunged, and he lost control to smugglers and sabotage. In disgrace, the fool had been yanked from his position and sent off without official title to Lankiveil, where even he could do little damage to the self-sustaining whale-fur activities there.
Immediately upon being granted the governorship, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen had set out to turn Arrakis around. He would make his own mark, erase the legacy of mistakes and bad judgment.
In all the Imperium, Arrakis--a hellhole that some might consider a punishment rather than a reward--was the only known source of the spice melange, a substance worth far more than any precious metal. Here on this parched world, it was worth even more than its weight in water.
Without spice, efficient space travel would be impossible ... and without space travel, the Imperium itself would fall. Spice prolonged life, protected health, and added a vigor to existence. The Baron, a moderate user himself, greatly appreciated the way it made him feel. Of course, the spice melange was also ferociously addictive, which kept the price high....
The armored 'thopter flew over a seared mountain range that looked like a broken jawbone filled with rotted teeth. Up ahead the Baron could see a dust cloud extending like an anvil into the sky.
"Those are the harvesting operations, m'Lord Baron."
Hawklike attack 'thopters grew from black dots in the monochrome sky and swooped toward them. The communicator pinged, and the pilot sent back an identification signal. The paid defenders--mercenaries with orders to keep out unwelcome observers--circled away and took up protective positions in the sky.
So long as House Harkonnen maintained the illusion of progress and profits, the Spacing Guild didn't need to know about every particular spice find. Nor did the Emperor, nor CHOAM. The Baron would keep the melange for himself and add it to his huge stockpiles.
After Abulurd's years of bumbling, if the Baron accomplished even half of what he was capable of, CHOAM and the Imperium would see a vast improvement. If he kept them happy, they wouldn't notice his substantial skim, would never suspect his secret spice stashes. A dangerous stratagem if discovered ... but the Baron had ways of dealing with prying eyes.
As they approached the plume of dust, he took out a pair of binoculars and focused the oil lenses. The magnification permitted him to see the spice factory at work. With its giant treads and enormous cargo capacity, the mechanical monstrosity was incredibly expensive--and worth every solari expended to maintain it. Its excavators kicked up cinnamon-red dust, gray sand, and flint chips as they dug down, scooping up the surface of the desert, sifting for aromatic spice.
Mobile ground units ranged across the open sand in the vicinity of the factory, dipping probes beneath the surface, scraping samples, mapping the extent of the buried spice vein. Overhead, heavier machinery borne by jumbo ornithopters circled, waiting. Peripherally, spotter craft cruised up and down the sands with alert watchers searching for the telltale ripples of wormsign. One of the great sandworms of Arrakis could swallow their entire operation whole.
"M'Lord Baron," the pilot said and handed the communicator wand over to him, "the captain of the work crew wishes to speak with you."
"This is your Baron." He touched his ear to listen to the pickup. "Give me an update. How much have you found?"
Below on the sands, the crew captain answered, his voice gruff, his manner annoyingly unimpressed with the importance of the man to whom he was speaking. "Ten years working spice crews, and this deposit's beyond anything I've ever seen. Trouble is, it's buried deep. Normally, you know, we find the spice exposed by the elements. This time it's densely concentrated, but ..."
The Baron waited for only a moment. "Yes, what is it?"
"Something strange going on here, sir. Chemically, I mean. We've got carbon dioxide leaking from below, some sort of a bubble beneath us. The harvester's digging through outer layers of sand to get at the spice, but there's also water vapor."
"Water vapor!" Such a thing was unheard-of on Arrakis, where the moisture content of the air was nearly unmeasurable, even on the best of days.
"Could have stumbled on an ancient aquifer, sir. Maybe buried under a cap of rock."
The Baron had never imagined finding running water beneath the surface of Arrakis. Quickly he considered the possibilities of exploiting a free-flowing water resource by selling it to the populace. That was sure to upset the existing water merchants, who had grown too swollen with self-importance anyway.
His basso voice rumbled. "Do you think it's contaminating the spice somehow?"
"Not able to say, sir," said the crew captain. "Spice is strange stuff, but I've never seen a pocket like this before. It doesn't seem ... right somehow."
The Baron looked over at the 'thopter pilot. "Contact the spotters. See if they've picked up any wormsign yet."
"No wormsign, m'Lord," the pilot said, scanning the reply. The Baron noticed sparkles of sweat on the man's forehead.
"How long has the harvester been down there?"
"Nearly two standard hours, sir."
Now the Baron scowled. One of the worms should definitely have come before now.
Inadvertently, t... --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
From Booklist
From Library Journal
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
From the Inside Flap
Six Cassettes, 9 hours
Frank Herbert's award-winning Dune chronicles captured the imaginations of millions of readers worldwide. By his death in 1986, Frank Herbert had completed six novels in the Dune series. But much of his vision 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 Maud'Dib Atreides, walks it's sands.
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 t --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
From Kirkus Reviews
Product details
- ASIN : B000FBFN42
- Publisher : Spectra (March 18, 2003)
- Publication date : March 18, 2003
- Language : English
- File size : 5676 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 681 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : 0593159608
- Lending : Not Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank: #53,201 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #753 in Space Opera Science Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #1,128 in Science Fiction Adventure
- #1,340 in Space Operas
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Brian Herbert is the author of multiple New York Times bestsellers. He has won several literary honors including the New York Times Notable Book Award, and has been nominated for the highest awards in science fiction. In 2003, he published DREAMER OF DUNE, a moving biography of his father Frank Herbert that was a Hugo Award finalist. His acclaimed novels include SIDNEY'S COMET; SUDANNA, SUDANNA; THE RACE FOR GOD; TIMEWEB; THE STOLEN GOSPELS; and MAN OF TWO WORLDS (written with Frank Herbert), in addition to the HELLHOLE Trilogy and DUNE-series novels co-authored with Kevin J. Anderson. Brian published OCEAN, an epic fantasy novel about environmental issues (co-authored with his wife, Jan). Brian's highly original SF novel, THE LITTLE GREEN BOOK OF CHAIRMAN RAHMA released in 2014. See his website: brianherbertnovels.com for book touring information.
SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY NOVELS
Ocean (with Jan Herbert)
The Little Green Book of Chairman Rahma
Sidney's Comet
The Garbage Chronicles
Sudanna, Sudanna
Man of Two Worlds (with Frank Herbert)
Prisoners of Arionn
The Race For God
Memorymakers (with Marie Landis)
Blood on the Sun (with Marie Landis)
Stormworld (novella, with Bruce Taylor)
The Unborn
The Assassination of Billy Jeeling
THE TIMEWEB SERIES
Timeweb
The Web and the Stars
Webdancers
THE STOLEN GOSPELS SERIES
The Stolen Gospels
The Lost Apostles
THE DUNE SERIES (with Kevin J. Anderson)
Dune: House Atreides
Dune: House Harkonnen
Dune: House Corrino
Dune: The Butlerian Jihad
Dune: The Machine Crusade
Dune: The Battle of Corrin
The Road To Dune
Hunters of Dune
Sandworms of Dune
Paul of Dune
The Winds of Dune
Sisterhood of Dune
Mentats of Dune
Navigators of Dune
Dune: The Duke of Caladan
Dune: The Lady of Caladan
Dune: The Heir of Caladan (forthcoming)
Tales of Dune
Sands of Dune
THE HELLHOLE SERIES (with Kevin J. Anderson)
Hellhole
Hellhole Awakening
Hellhole Inferno
NON-FICTION BOOKS
Dreamer of Dune (biography of Frank Herbert)
The Forgotten Heroes (story of the U.S. Merchant Marine)
HUMOR BOOKS
Classic Comebacks
Incredible Insurance Claims
Yes, I have a lot of books, and if this is your first visit to my amazon author page, it can be a little overwhelming. If you are new to my work, let me recommend a few titles as good places to start. My major new fantasy trilogy starts with SPINE OF THE DRAGON, followed by VENGEWAR and GODS AND DRAGONS (editing now). My newest Dune novel with Brian Herbert is THE DUKE OF CALADAN. I also love my Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series, humorous horror/mysteries, which begin with DEATH WARMED OVER. My steampunk fantasy adventures, CLOCKWORK ANGELS and CLOCKWORK LIVES, written with Neil Peart, legendary drummer from Rush, are two of my very favorite novels ever. And my magnum opus, the science fiction epic The Saga of Seven Suns, begins with HIDDEN EMPIRE. After you've tried those, I hope you'll check out some of my other series.
I have written more than 165 books, including 56 national or international bestsellers. I have over 23 million books in print worldwide in thirty languages. I've been nominated for the Nebula Award, Hugo Award, Bram Stoker Award, Shamus Award, and Silver Falchion Award, and I've won the SFX Readers' Choice Award, Golden Duck Award, Scribe Award, and New York Times Notable Book; in 2012 at San Diego Comic Con I received the Faust Grand Master Award for Lifetime Achievement.
I have written numerous bestselling and critically acclaimed novels in the Dune universe with Brian Herbert, as well as Star Wars and X-Files novels. In my original work, I am best known for my Saga of Seven Suns series, the Terra Incognita trilogy, the Dan Shamble, Zombie PI series, and Clockwork Angels and Clockwork Lives with Neil Peart. Along with my wife Rebecca Moesta, I am also the publisher of WordFire Press. Find out more about me at wordfire.com, where you can sign up for my newsletter and get some free fiction.
FOR RIGHTS INQUIRIES (Film/TV/Gaming/Foreign/Literary) please contact me directly at info (at) wordfire (dot) com, and I will put you in touch with my appropriate representative.
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Top reviews from the United States
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While the writers were playing in Frank Herbert’s sandbox, they are playing almost entirely with his toys without bringing many new toys of their own, so this lacks the outflow of rich invention that is part of what makes Dune such a mind blowing experience. This is not the case with the story, though. There aren’t many new inventions, but the story is intriguing and compelling.
I guess you could say Frank Herbert invented the car and drove it well. Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson don’t put anything new under the hood, but they do drive it really well.
Finally, I liked the way that the writers put little summaries of the story inside the story. For some people this may be repetitive or seem like dumbing it down, but for me it was welcome. I didn’t have too much trouble following the Dune books when I read them as a younger man, but I am now a lot busier, and appreciate these little moments where something like, “Leto considered the events that had brought him here. He wondered why X had happened, and when that had led to Y, he regretted having to do Z which had led him inexorably to this point.” Sure, it feels a little contrived, but these guideposts let me get right back into the story after a hard week and I appreciate it.
We get to meet Duke Leto as a young man, before he becomes Duke Leto, Count Fenring and Emperor Shaddam before he becomes Emperor Shaddam, and Barron Harkonnen as a young, strong, but still very twisted specimen. We also see Duncan Idaho as a boy, who becomes perhaps the only character in science fiction to travel to another planet looking for someone and not arrive on their doorstep as if the planet's surface area covers only a couple of square miles. He actually has to travel to the other side of Caladan to meet the Old Duke, and isn't just dropped into his lap once he gets off the ship. That by itself is mildly notable.
In short, the entire book is filled with rich descriptions of the Dune universe, as well as storylines that compliment and help complete the original.
If you are a fan of the original Dune series by Frank Herbert, you should also like this first book in the series of sequels by his son Brian in collaboration with Kevin J. Anderson. Dune: House Atreides is actually more of a prequel, going into some of the histories of the characters in the original Dune series.
This is an excellent story, full of action and intrigue. The authors keep the practice of including little philosophical quotes from various people in the Dune universe at the beginning of most chapters, but somehow these quotes, or at least their relevance to the rest of the story, are somewhat easier to understand than those associated with the original series. And, despite the complicated plots and counter-plots, the action in this book is somewhat easier to understand as well.
Will answer a lot of questions. I was only able to find the time to read sometimes just a chapter at times. I always looked forward to when I could get time to read more of this sweeping saga! I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone looking to swept away into a space opera. I can close my eyes and picture the story in my head! Vividly told! Thanks again to the Herbert family for carrying the torch forward!! I look forward to the next story. Please forgive the atrocities in my spelling and proper grammar.
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