Dune: House Atreides
Encyclopedia
Dune: House Atreides is a 1999 science fiction
novel by Brian Herbert
and Kevin J. Anderson
, set in the fictional Dune universe
created by Frank Herbert
. It is the first book in the Prelude to Dune
prequel
trilogy
, which takes place before the events of Frank Herbert's celebrated 1965 novel Dune
. According to the authors, the Prelude to Dune novels draw from notes left behind by Frank Herbert after his death.
, 35 years before the events of the original novel Dune. The Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
has just taken over the governorship of Arrakis (also called Dune) from his younger brother Abulurd, who has allowed spice production to decrease heavily. The Baron sees an opportunity for large profits and begins to store up illegal spice hoards.
On the Imperial Capital planet Kaitain
, the young planetologist Pardot Kynes
has just arrived from his homeworld of Salusa Secundus
for an audience with the Padishah Emperor
Elrood Corrino IX. The old Emperor is giving Kynes the mission of going to the only known source of melange, Arrakis, in order to find out how the precious substance is produced. Meanwhile, the Crown Prince Shaddam
and his minion Hasimir Fenring
are plotting against Elrood. Shaddam is not getting any younger, and it seems that the already 157-year-old Emperor could rule for another 50 years. Shaddam decides to poison his father in order to speed up his succession to the throne.
Duke Paulus Atreides of the planet Caladan
is planning on sending his young son and heir Leto
to the court of Earl Dominic Vernius on Ix
in order to study politics with the Earl's son Rhombur. Leto's mother, the Lady Helena, does not like the idea. Not only is she a very religious woman, but her father is also the Count Richese, who is the main rival of the Earl Vernius.
The Bene Gesserit
are getting closer to their quest to breed the Kwisatz Haderach
; only three generations remain. The next step is to send the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
to Giedi Prime
, the Harkonnen
home world, in order to conceive a child with the Baron Vladimir. This child would in turn be married to Leto Atreides to produce the eventual mother of the Kwisatz Haderach. The Baron is initially not interested, but after being blackmailed with the secret of his spice hoards, he has sex with Mohiam and a daughter is conceived.
Meanwhile, the young Harkonnen slave boy no. 11368, Duncan Idaho
, is trying to escape the forests of Giedi Prime, where the na-baron Glossu Rabban
is trying to kill him as a part of a game he and his friends are playing. Duncan finally manages to escape the planet, boarding a heighliner en route to Caladan.
Pardot Kynes arrives on Arrakis and begins his duties there. He starts to dislike the Harkonnen rule there, and is getting more and more interested in the native Fremen
of the desert and the possibility of terraforming the planet. Pardot is discovering more and more proof that some time, long ago, Arrakis was covered with giant oceans, and gets curious about what changed the climate to what it is today.
Leto finds himself at home at the Earl's home at the Grand Palais of Ix. Not only has he found an equal in Prince Rhombur, but he has also fallen in love with the Earl's daughter, Kailea. But all is not perfect on the planet Ix. The suboids building the heighliners in the depths of the cave cities of Ix are becoming more unsatisfied with their living conditions and the blasphemy of their work.
Emperor Elrood himself is beginning to show signs of senility from the slow-acting poison Fenring had administered. A Tleilaxu
delegation arrives and they begin discussing the possibility of producing melange in laboratories; Elrood becomes very interested in this "Project Amal". The Tleilaxu have one demand in exchange for allowing the Emperor to invest in the project: he must give them military support in their takeover of the planet Ix, which they claim has the technological and industrial resources necessary for their experiments. The Emperor, who is already feuding with the Earl of Ix, is willing to give them a hand.
After saving three Fremen youths in the desert from Harkonnen troops, Pardot is taken to a Fremen sietch. The leaders (naibs) decide after a long debate to execute him. But as the chosen assassin encounters Pardot and hears about his plans for a possible terraformation of the planet and the hope this vision gives, the would-be assassin kills himself instead. Seen as a sign, the Fremen name Pardot a prophet. Pardot stays with the Fremen, marries a Fremen woman and together they have a son named Liet
.
The Harkonnen offspring born on Wallach IX is not at all what the Bene Gesserit were expecting, and is too weak to produce the mother of the Kwisatz Haderach. They have no other choice but to go back to Giedi Prime to blackmail the Baron for another Harkonnen daughter. The Baron is ready for them and impregnates Mohiam through a violent rape. Mohiam avenges the assault by giving the Baron an incurable disease which over time will make the Baron obese, destroying his beautiful body.
Ix is suddenly attacked by a joint Tleilaxu/Sardaukar
army. Leto, Rhombur and Kailea manage to escape in the nick of time and make it back to the Atreides
homeworld of Caladan. To divert attention away from the children, Earl and Lady Vernius disappear into obscurity, becoming renegades from the Imperium. The Tleilaxu establish a new government on Ix, renaming the planet Xuttuh.
Leto and the Vernius heirs are welcomed on Caladan by Duke Paulus. Lady Helena, however, is bitterly opposed to giving the Ixian children sanctuary due to her hatred of House Vernius and her belief that Ixian technology is blasphemous for having violated the most sacred commandment that arose from the Butlerian Jihad
: Thou shall not build a machine in the likeness of the human mind. She begins plotting against her husband, the Old Duke. Meanwhile, the young Idaho has reached the grand Ducal Capital of Cala City on the West Continent. After an audience with the Duke Paulus, the boy is welcomed in his Court to work in the stable.
Back at Wallach IX, another Harkonnen daughter is born. She is given the name Jessica, meaning wealth in an ancient language. She is to be the grandmother of the Kwisatz Haderach if the breeding program goes as planned.
One evening at a bullfight, the Duke's favorite game, the Old Duke is killed by a drugged Salusan bull. Duncan is accused as a Harkonnen spy of having drugged the bull. Leto knows of course that it is his own mother, Helena, who was behind the assassination, and sends her to the monastery of The Sisters In Isolation on the Eastern Continent to avoid gossip. Leto becomes the new Duke Atreides.
On the other side of the galaxy, the Padishah Emperor Elrood IX has died. Shaddam has finally reached the Golden Lion Throne and is soon to be crowned Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV of the Known Universe. He plans a grand coronation ceremony on Kaitain and invites nobles from across the Imperium, among them the new Duke Leto and his guests the Vernius heirs, but also Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.
The Baron, however, has a plan. A Richese scientist in his service has just discovered a new function of the Holtzman effect
that can make a ship totally invisible, and undetectable by sensors. With this new technology, the Baron sends his nephew Glossu Rabban
to attack a Tleilaxu delegation and make it look like an attack from the Atreides. To avoid a disastrous armed confrontation that could spark an interstellar war, Duke Leto opts for a trial by his peers before the Landsdraad council of nobles. This appears, initially, to be a suicidal course as only one noble has ever been acquitted through this procedure in the history of the Imperium.
The Bene Gesserit, however, determine to save Leto as they need him for their breeding program. They provide him with evidence they discovered that suggests some connection between the soon-to-be-crowned Emperor and the Tleilaxu. Leto uses this to blackmail Shaddam. While Shaddam has no interest in the outcome of Leto's trial, he can't risk exposure of his involvement in the takeover of Ix and the artificial spice-production experiments being carried out there. Therefore, he uses his influence to convince the court to summarily find Leto innocent before any testimony is heard. After Shaddam is crowned Emperor, Leto, again uses threat of revealing his knowledge to blackmail Shaddam into granting amnesty for Rhombur and Kailea. Shaddam grudgingly agrees. But, the repeated blackmail attempts begin to breed enmity between him and Leto.
Meanwhile, on Dune, the Fremen are uniting in ways never seen before behind their "Umma" (prophet), Pardot Kynes and his dream of making their home into a lush, green paradise.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel by Brian Herbert
Brian Herbert
Brian Patrick Herbert is an American author who lives in Washington state. He is the elder son of science fiction author Frank Herbert....
and Kevin J. Anderson
Kevin J. Anderson
Kevin J. Anderson is an American science fiction author with over forty bestsellers. He has written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and with Brian Herbert is the co-author of the Dune prequels...
, set in the fictional Dune universe
Dune universe
Dune is a science fiction franchise which originated with the 1965 novel Dune by Frank Herbert. Considered by many to be the greatest science fiction novel of all time, Dune is frequently cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history...
created by Frank Herbert
Frank Herbert
Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American science fiction author. Although a short story author, he is best known for his novels, most notably Dune and its five sequels...
. It is the first book in the Prelude to Dune
Prelude to Dune
Prelude to Dune is a prequel trilogy of novels written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, set in Frank Herbert's Dune universe....
prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
trilogy
Trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, or video games...
, which takes place before the events of Frank Herbert's celebrated 1965 novel Dune
Dune (novel)
Dune is a science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert, published in 1965. It won the Hugo Award in 1966, and the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel...
. According to the authors, the Prelude to Dune novels draw from notes left behind by Frank Herbert after his death.
Plot summary
The novel begins on the planet of ArrakisArrakis
Arrakis — informally known as Dune and later called Rakis — is a fictional desert planet featured in the Dune series of novels by Frank Herbert. Herbert's first novel in the series, 1965's Dune, is popularly considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, and it is...
, 35 years before the events of the original novel Dune. The Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
Vladimir Harkonnen
The Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is a fictional character from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He is primarily featured in the 1965 novel Dune, in which he is the secondary antagonist, and is also a major character in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson...
has just taken over the governorship of Arrakis (also called Dune) from his younger brother Abulurd, who has allowed spice production to decrease heavily. The Baron sees an opportunity for large profits and begins to store up illegal spice hoards.
On the Imperial Capital planet Kaitain
Kaitain (Dune)
Kaitain is a fictional planet in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert.In Herbert's 1965 novel Dune, it is mentioned briefly as the seat of power of Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, the Royal Court being previously located on the planet Salusa Secundus.The Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy ...
, the young planetologist Pardot Kynes
Pardot Kynes
Pardot Kynes is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He was the Imperial Planetologist of Arrakis prior to the start of the novel Dune, and was featured in the Prelude to Dune series by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.Pardot Kynes was first introduced in the...
has just arrived from his homeworld of Salusa Secundus
Salusa Secundus
Salusa Secundus is a fictional planet appearing in Frank Herbert's Dune universe. With harsh conditions rivaling those of the desert planet Arrakis, Salusa is used as the Imperial Prison Planet, and is one of two planets on which shigawire is grown .-Dune:In "Terminology of the Imperium," the...
for an audience with the Padishah Emperor
Padishah Emperor
Padishah Emperor is the title given to the hereditary rulers of the Old Empire in the science fiction Dune universe created by Frank Herbert.-Original series:...
Elrood Corrino IX. The old Emperor is giving Kynes the mission of going to the only known source of melange, Arrakis, in order to find out how the precious substance is produced. Meanwhile, the Crown Prince Shaddam
Shaddam Corrino IV
Shaddam Corrino IV is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He is Padishah Emperor of the known universe in Herbert's 1965 novel Dune. Shaddam's accession to the throne is chronicled in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.Born...
and his minion Hasimir Fenring
Hasimir Fenring
Count Hasimir Fenring is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He is featured in the science fiction novel Dune by Frank Herbert, and is also a key character in the Prelude to Dune trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J...
are plotting against Elrood. Shaddam is not getting any younger, and it seems that the already 157-year-old Emperor could rule for another 50 years. Shaddam decides to poison his father in order to speed up his succession to the throne.
Duke Paulus Atreides of the planet Caladan
Caladan
Caladan is a fictional planet in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert, first mentioned in the 1965 novel Dune.-Overview:Caladan, the third planet of Delta Pavonis, is the ancestral fiefdom of House Atreides, who have ruled it for twenty-six generations, from the ancient Castle Caladan...
is planning on sending his young son and heir Leto
Leto Atreides I
Duke Leto Atreides I is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He features in the novel Dune by Frank Herbert and in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson....
to the court of Earl Dominic Vernius on Ix
Ix (Dune)
Ix is a fictional planet featured in the Dune series of science fiction novels written by Frank Herbert, and derivative works. In Dune it is noted that Ix is classed with the planet Richese as "supreme in machine culture," and that Ixian solido projectors "are commonly considered the best." In...
in order to study politics with the Earl's son Rhombur. Leto's mother, the Lady Helena, does not like the idea. Not only is she a very religious woman, but her father is also the Count Richese, who is the main rival of the Earl Vernius.
The Bene Gesserit
Bene Gesserit
The Bene Gesserit are a key social, religious, and political force in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. The group is described as an exclusive sisterhood whose members train their bodies and minds through years of physical and mental conditioning to obtain superhuman powers and...
are getting closer to their quest to breed the Kwisatz Haderach
Kwisatz Haderach
In Frank Herbert's fictional Dune universe, Kwisatz Haderach is a term which refers to a prophesied messiah and superbeing. In the series, the Bene Gesserit, a matriarchal secret society, hope to create a male who can survive the deadly ritual spice agony that changes a capable female acolyte into...
; only three generations remain. The next step is to send the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
Gaius Helen Mohiam
Gaius Helen Mohiam is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. She is a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother, and initially appears in the 1965 novel Dune and its 1969 sequel, Dune Messiah. Mohiam also has a major role in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert...
to Giedi Prime
Giedi Prime
Giedi Prime is a fictional planet in Frank Herbert's 1965 science fiction novel Dune. A planet of Ophiuchi B , it is the homeworld of the vicious House Harkonnen, the sworn enemies of House Atreides.-Description:...
, the Harkonnen
House Harkonnen
House Harkonnen is a powerful noble family in Frank Herbert's fictional Dune universe. The Harkonnens are featured prominently in the original 1965 novel Dune, and are also a major presence in both the Prelude to Dune and Legends of Dune prequel trilogies by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson...
home world, in order to conceive a child with the Baron Vladimir. This child would in turn be married to Leto Atreides to produce the eventual mother of the Kwisatz Haderach. The Baron is initially not interested, but after being blackmailed with the secret of his spice hoards, he has sex with Mohiam and a daughter is conceived.
Meanwhile, the young Harkonnen slave boy no. 11368, Duncan Idaho
Duncan Idaho
Duncan Idaho is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Introduced in the first novel of the series, 1965's Dune, the character became a breakout character as the readers liked him and was revived by Herbert in 1969's Dune Messiah...
, is trying to escape the forests of Giedi Prime, where the na-baron Glossu Rabban
Glossu Rabban
Glossu Rabban is a fictional character in the science fiction novel Dune by Frank Herbert.The Appendix IV: The Almanak of en-Ashraf Glossu Rabban is a fictional character in the science fiction novel Dune by Frank Herbert.The Appendix IV: The Almanak of en-Ashraf Glossu Rabban is a fictional...
is trying to kill him as a part of a game he and his friends are playing. Duncan finally manages to escape the planet, boarding a heighliner en route to Caladan.
Pardot Kynes arrives on Arrakis and begins his duties there. He starts to dislike the Harkonnen rule there, and is getting more and more interested in the native Fremen
Fremen
The Fremen are a group of people in the fictional Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. First appearing in the 1965 novel Dune, the Fremen inhabit the desert planet Arrakis and are based on the desert-dwelling Bedouin and Kalahari Bushmen. In Herbert's novels, Arrakis is the sole known source...
of the desert and the possibility of terraforming the planet. Pardot is discovering more and more proof that some time, long ago, Arrakis was covered with giant oceans, and gets curious about what changed the climate to what it is today.
Leto finds himself at home at the Earl's home at the Grand Palais of Ix. Not only has he found an equal in Prince Rhombur, but he has also fallen in love with the Earl's daughter, Kailea. But all is not perfect on the planet Ix. The suboids building the heighliners in the depths of the cave cities of Ix are becoming more unsatisfied with their living conditions and the blasphemy of their work.
Emperor Elrood himself is beginning to show signs of senility from the slow-acting poison Fenring had administered. A Tleilaxu
Bene Tleilax
The Bene Tleilax or Tleilaxu are an extremely xenophobic and isolationist society in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. Genetic manipulators who traffic in biological products such as artificial eyes, gholas, and "twisted" Mentats, the Tleilaxu are a major power in the Imperium...
delegation arrives and they begin discussing the possibility of producing melange in laboratories; Elrood becomes very interested in this "Project Amal". The Tleilaxu have one demand in exchange for allowing the Emperor to invest in the project: he must give them military support in their takeover of the planet Ix, which they claim has the technological and industrial resources necessary for their experiments. The Emperor, who is already feuding with the Earl of Ix, is willing to give them a hand.
After saving three Fremen youths in the desert from Harkonnen troops, Pardot is taken to a Fremen sietch. The leaders (naibs) decide after a long debate to execute him. But as the chosen assassin encounters Pardot and hears about his plans for a possible terraformation of the planet and the hope this vision gives, the would-be assassin kills himself instead. Seen as a sign, the Fremen name Pardot a prophet. Pardot stays with the Fremen, marries a Fremen woman and together they have a son named Liet
Liet-Kynes
Liet-Kynes is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He is primarily featured in the 1965 novel Dune, but also appears in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson...
.
The Harkonnen offspring born on Wallach IX is not at all what the Bene Gesserit were expecting, and is too weak to produce the mother of the Kwisatz Haderach. They have no other choice but to go back to Giedi Prime to blackmail the Baron for another Harkonnen daughter. The Baron is ready for them and impregnates Mohiam through a violent rape. Mohiam avenges the assault by giving the Baron an incurable disease which over time will make the Baron obese, destroying his beautiful body.
Ix is suddenly attacked by a joint Tleilaxu/Sardaukar
Sardaukar
The Sardaukar are a fictional fanatical army from Frank Herbert's Dune universe, primarily featured in the 1965 science fiction novel Dune, as well as Brian Herbert and Kevin J...
army. Leto, Rhombur and Kailea manage to escape in the nick of time and make it back to the Atreides
House Atreides
House Atreides is a fictional noble family from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. One of the Great Houses of the feudal interstellar empire known as the Imperium, its members play a role in every novel in the series. It is suggested within the series that the root of the Atreides line...
homeworld of Caladan. To divert attention away from the children, Earl and Lady Vernius disappear into obscurity, becoming renegades from the Imperium. The Tleilaxu establish a new government on Ix, renaming the planet Xuttuh.
Leto and the Vernius heirs are welcomed on Caladan by Duke Paulus. Lady Helena, however, is bitterly opposed to giving the Ixian children sanctuary due to her hatred of House Vernius and her belief that Ixian technology is blasphemous for having violated the most sacred commandment that arose from the Butlerian Jihad
Butlerian Jihad
The Butlerian Jihad is an event in the back-story of Frank Herbert's fictional Dune universe. Occurring over 10,000 years before the events chronicled in his 1965 novel Dune, this jihad leads to the outlawing of certain technologies, primarily "thinking machines", a collective term for computers...
: Thou shall not build a machine in the likeness of the human mind. She begins plotting against her husband, the Old Duke. Meanwhile, the young Idaho has reached the grand Ducal Capital of Cala City on the West Continent. After an audience with the Duke Paulus, the boy is welcomed in his Court to work in the stable.
Back at Wallach IX, another Harkonnen daughter is born. She is given the name Jessica, meaning wealth in an ancient language. She is to be the grandmother of the Kwisatz Haderach if the breeding program goes as planned.
One evening at a bullfight, the Duke's favorite game, the Old Duke is killed by a drugged Salusan bull. Duncan is accused as a Harkonnen spy of having drugged the bull. Leto knows of course that it is his own mother, Helena, who was behind the assassination, and sends her to the monastery of The Sisters In Isolation on the Eastern Continent to avoid gossip. Leto becomes the new Duke Atreides.
On the other side of the galaxy, the Padishah Emperor Elrood IX has died. Shaddam has finally reached the Golden Lion Throne and is soon to be crowned Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV of the Known Universe. He plans a grand coronation ceremony on Kaitain and invites nobles from across the Imperium, among them the new Duke Leto and his guests the Vernius heirs, but also Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.
The Baron, however, has a plan. A Richese scientist in his service has just discovered a new function of the Holtzman effect
Holtzman effect
The Holtzman effect is a fictional scientific phenomenon in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert, beginning with the 1965 novel Dune...
that can make a ship totally invisible, and undetectable by sensors. With this new technology, the Baron sends his nephew Glossu Rabban
Glossu Rabban
Glossu Rabban is a fictional character in the science fiction novel Dune by Frank Herbert.The Appendix IV: The Almanak of en-Ashraf Glossu Rabban is a fictional character in the science fiction novel Dune by Frank Herbert.The Appendix IV: The Almanak of en-Ashraf Glossu Rabban is a fictional...
to attack a Tleilaxu delegation and make it look like an attack from the Atreides. To avoid a disastrous armed confrontation that could spark an interstellar war, Duke Leto opts for a trial by his peers before the Landsdraad council of nobles. This appears, initially, to be a suicidal course as only one noble has ever been acquitted through this procedure in the history of the Imperium.
The Bene Gesserit, however, determine to save Leto as they need him for their breeding program. They provide him with evidence they discovered that suggests some connection between the soon-to-be-crowned Emperor and the Tleilaxu. Leto uses this to blackmail Shaddam. While Shaddam has no interest in the outcome of Leto's trial, he can't risk exposure of his involvement in the takeover of Ix and the artificial spice-production experiments being carried out there. Therefore, he uses his influence to convince the court to summarily find Leto innocent before any testimony is heard. After Shaddam is crowned Emperor, Leto, again uses threat of revealing his knowledge to blackmail Shaddam into granting amnesty for Rhombur and Kailea. Shaddam grudgingly agrees. But, the repeated blackmail attempts begin to breed enmity between him and Leto.
Meanwhile, on Dune, the Fremen are uniting in ways never seen before behind their "Umma" (prophet), Pardot Kynes and his dream of making their home into a lush, green paradise.