Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Bantam Books (2000), Edition: 1st, Hardcover, 603 pages
Description
Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson return to the vivid universe of Frank Herbert's Dune, bringing a vast array of rich and complex characters into conflict to shape the destiny of worlds.As Shaddam sits at last on the Golden Lion Throne, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen plots against the new Emperor and House Atreides-and against the mysterious Sisterhood of the Bene Gesserit. For Leto Atreides, grown complacent and comfortable as ruler of his House, it is a time of momentous choice: between friendship and duty, safety and destiny. But for the survival of House Atreides, there is just one choice: strive for greatness or be crushed.
User reviews
LibraryThing member conformer
I got a hundred pages in before saying to myself, "What was I thinking?" Brian Herbert's half (what there was of it that was detectable; I severely suspect that the only reason his name is on the dust jacket was for marketing purposes) barely covers up the stink of Kevin Anderson's goopy, vapid,
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deliberate "prose."Contrary to the reviewer's blurbs, this cash cow in the shape of a book is painfully contrived, insultingly predictable, and completely not in the spirit of Dune.Dropped it like it was hot and didn't finish it. Why bother? Show Less
LibraryThing member andersoj
The writing in this book sounds like it is the outcome of repeated Babelfish translations from a poorly written Swahili sci-fi movie script. It made me sad for the Dune enterprise, embarrassed for the art of science fiction, and generally pessimistic about the future of humankind.
LibraryThing member Xuenay
(Note - I have not read other Dune prequels than this one.)
I'd had this book sitting in my bookshelf for a couple of years now, but hadn't previously gotten past the first page. I originally picked it up despite some misgivings - one of the two authors was Kevin J. Anderson, widely reviled for
Unlike you'd assume from the title, it doesn't really concentrate on the Harkonnens. While they certainly do get a respectable amount of attention, the Atreides get as much if not more, and the same goes for a couple of unaffiliated characters. I found the structure of the book to be interesting: the chapters were all pretty short, averaging maybe 5-10 pages each, giving a tensely packed share of one character's doings and then switching to another in the next chapter. While this helped keep the pace fast and the book easy to read, I found that the atmosphere suffered somewhat. I simply didn't have the time to get emotionally involved in each scene before it already switched to the next.
From a book named "House Harkonnen", I'd have expected it to deepen the personalities of the Harkonnen characters, tell us more about their house and the society of the planets they ruled, and so on. Not so. Over on tvtropes.org, there's a trope called Kick the Dog. It's that moment where an author wants to make it obvious to even the most dim-witted reader that his villain is really evil, and has the character do something blatantly cold and cruel, like kicking an innocent dog for no reason. With the exception of one character - who's viewed as an incompetent black sheep by the others, and who eventually ends up annoying even the reader for his repeated inability to look enough ahead - Kick the Dog moments are the only kind of scenes that the Harkonnen characters seem to get in the book. They get absolutely no character development of any kind, and seem more like caricatures than real people. By the time you get to the last pages, Vladimir Harkonnen's habit of executing anybody who fails him - whether by their own fault or not - has reached such exaggareted proportions that you feel more like you were watching a children's comic with a cardboard villain than reading a serious book.
The book also has the general problem that prequels easily have - you know how things will be by the time of the original series, and thus you know what world-changing plans are doomed to fail. Throughout the book, there are plans that can't succeed, characters that have to die, events that must come to nothing. At one point, a character has a ploy for assassinating both the Emperor and his whole family, an event that would be so cataclysmic and wide-reaching that you're rooting him to succeed just so you'd get to see the consequences - but then you also know that he simply cannot succeed, no matter what. It's all quite frustrating: a good prequel could give entirely new twists to what you thought you knew, giving an entire new dimension to the events in the original books. House Harkonnen does none of that - it takes tidbits mentioned in the original books and expands on them, but not enough to make them really interesting, not adding anything on them that we couldn't have easily imagined from their original description. To top it off, some of the events by which such loose threads are terminated feel all too convenient and contrived.
Despite all of this, there's something odd in the book that kept me turning the pages and wouldn't easily allow me to put it down after having started reading it. It feels a bit like the Harry Potter books - you know their literary merits aren't all that special, but you still have to keep reading. (Though I'd note that the HP books are better than this book.) Regardless of all the flaws, I'd still give it four stars out of five - simply because any 700+ page book that's good enough for me to finish in about five days deserves that amount.
I'd had this book sitting in my bookshelf for a couple of years now, but hadn't previously gotten past the first page. I originally picked it up despite some misgivings - one of the two authors was Kevin J. Anderson, widely reviled for
Show More
having written some of the most mediocre and uninteresting additions to the Star Wars universe. Still, it was a cheap paperback and I've always loved reading about the bad guys (who hasn't?), so I ended up buying the thing. But then I never got around reading it, partly because of my distrust towards the author, partly because the first couple of pages started off with such an uninteresting scene. But I finally got around reading it last weekend.Unlike you'd assume from the title, it doesn't really concentrate on the Harkonnens. While they certainly do get a respectable amount of attention, the Atreides get as much if not more, and the same goes for a couple of unaffiliated characters. I found the structure of the book to be interesting: the chapters were all pretty short, averaging maybe 5-10 pages each, giving a tensely packed share of one character's doings and then switching to another in the next chapter. While this helped keep the pace fast and the book easy to read, I found that the atmosphere suffered somewhat. I simply didn't have the time to get emotionally involved in each scene before it already switched to the next.
From a book named "House Harkonnen", I'd have expected it to deepen the personalities of the Harkonnen characters, tell us more about their house and the society of the planets they ruled, and so on. Not so. Over on tvtropes.org, there's a trope called Kick the Dog. It's that moment where an author wants to make it obvious to even the most dim-witted reader that his villain is really evil, and has the character do something blatantly cold and cruel, like kicking an innocent dog for no reason. With the exception of one character - who's viewed as an incompetent black sheep by the others, and who eventually ends up annoying even the reader for his repeated inability to look enough ahead - Kick the Dog moments are the only kind of scenes that the Harkonnen characters seem to get in the book. They get absolutely no character development of any kind, and seem more like caricatures than real people. By the time you get to the last pages, Vladimir Harkonnen's habit of executing anybody who fails him - whether by their own fault or not - has reached such exaggareted proportions that you feel more like you were watching a children's comic with a cardboard villain than reading a serious book.
The book also has the general problem that prequels easily have - you know how things will be by the time of the original series, and thus you know what world-changing plans are doomed to fail. Throughout the book, there are plans that can't succeed, characters that have to die, events that must come to nothing. At one point, a character has a ploy for assassinating both the Emperor and his whole family, an event that would be so cataclysmic and wide-reaching that you're rooting him to succeed just so you'd get to see the consequences - but then you also know that he simply cannot succeed, no matter what. It's all quite frustrating: a good prequel could give entirely new twists to what you thought you knew, giving an entire new dimension to the events in the original books. House Harkonnen does none of that - it takes tidbits mentioned in the original books and expands on them, but not enough to make them really interesting, not adding anything on them that we couldn't have easily imagined from their original description. To top it off, some of the events by which such loose threads are terminated feel all too convenient and contrived.
Despite all of this, there's something odd in the book that kept me turning the pages and wouldn't easily allow me to put it down after having started reading it. It feels a bit like the Harry Potter books - you know their literary merits aren't all that special, but you still have to keep reading. (Though I'd note that the HP books are better than this book.) Regardless of all the flaws, I'd still give it four stars out of five - simply because any 700+ page book that's good enough for me to finish in about five days deserves that amount.
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LibraryThing member bjh13
I was very disappointed with this one. After how good the previous book was, I found it disconcerting we had so many extra plot lines for no reason, along with every scene involving the Harkonnen's being terrible, bordering on ridiculous. The only bright side to this book was further development
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for Duncan Idaho and Leto Atreides, who continued to be interesting. I hope the characters are handled better in the final book of the trilogy. Show Less
LibraryThing member Ailinel
The second novel in the Prelude to Dune trilogy, House Harkonnen directly follows House Atreides, continuing the intertwining stories of Liet-Kynes and the Fremen, Duke Leto, Rhombur, Tessia, Jessica, the Emperor, the Bene Gesserit, the Guild, the Ixians, Tleilaxu, Harkonnens, and others throughout
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the Landsraad and humanity in general. As the Tleilaxu come closer to creating synthetic spice, Abulard renounces the Harkonnen name in an attempt to preserve Lankieveil and his newborn son Feyd Rautha, Leto faces the greatest joy and tragedy of his young life in his son Victor, and the time of the Kwisatz Haderach draws ever nearer. Show Less
LibraryThing member drmaf
Interesting book, with one big issue - a nice Harkonnen. This needs to be written in words of fire - HARKONNENS ARE BAD, THEY HAVE ALWAYS BEEN BAD, THEY WILL ALWAYS BE BAD! So Abulard, the thoroughly nice but totally ineffectual half-brother of the Baron, ruined the book for me.
LibraryThing member aethercowboy
It's often said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, yet expecting different results.
When I read Dune: House Atreides by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, I was disappointed by a book that could in no way, shape, or form, even begin to slake the thirst
So, I must have been insane, at least, temporarily, when I thought that House Harkonnen would be different. Were I the authors of this book, I would have followed that statement with a "It wasn't," because that's just what you can come to expect from the son of a great writer and a professional fan fiction author.
The only redeeming quality of this book is that you don't actually have to pay attention to what you're reading when you're reading. Any guns of Chekhov's that are seeded on page 10 don't need to be noticed by the reader, because before it's fired, you'll get reminded of its presence and told its significance, and why you should care.
In a few more years, I may give another non-Frank Dune book a shot, but in my sampling of the crap that these two jokers produced and are still producing (and surprisingly, people are still buying) there is no point in reading these books. The synopses of these books are better written, and cut out most of the fluffy fat that you can come to expect from these two "authors."
Highly unrecommended.
When I read Dune: House Atreides by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, I was disappointed by a book that could in no way, shape, or form, even begin to slake the thirst
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that Frank Herbert's Dune books created. Brian and KJA gave us what you would expect from them: expository text that is at times insulting to the reader, stuffed to the gills with flowery prose (so you don't notice the smell), and an acute case of thesaurusitis.So, I must have been insane, at least, temporarily, when I thought that House Harkonnen would be different. Were I the authors of this book, I would have followed that statement with a "It wasn't," because that's just what you can come to expect from the son of a great writer and a professional fan fiction author.
The only redeeming quality of this book is that you don't actually have to pay attention to what you're reading when you're reading. Any guns of Chekhov's that are seeded on page 10 don't need to be noticed by the reader, because before it's fired, you'll get reminded of its presence and told its significance, and why you should care.
In a few more years, I may give another non-Frank Dune book a shot, but in my sampling of the crap that these two jokers produced and are still producing (and surprisingly, people are still buying) there is no point in reading these books. The synopses of these books are better written, and cut out most of the fluffy fat that you can come to expect from these two "authors."
Highly unrecommended.
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LibraryThing member Spurts
Not really exactly a review. Just my impressions immediately after reading. A better indication of what I thought of the book is that I'm now immediately starting the final book of the trilogy, House Corrino.
Yes, the booklikes terminator emoticon really does apply. ("How" would be a spoiler.)
I'm
Suffers a tiny bit from all the POVs but by now they were familiar POVs of characters most Dune fans would want to hear about in the prequels. Doesn't really suffer from middle-book-itis (meaning stuff happens and some plots get resolved versus purely filler material).
The ending I dd remember plus a couple of chapters were familiar, so pretty sure I did read at least this book of the trilogy.
Yes, the booklikes terminator emoticon really does apply. ("How" would be a spoiler.)
I'm
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wolfing through this trilogy. It does nicely at filling in the stuff leading up to original Dune books. This was a good read (okay not as engrossing as the originals). Suffers a tiny bit from all the POVs but by now they were familiar POVs of characters most Dune fans would want to hear about in the prequels. Doesn't really suffer from middle-book-itis (meaning stuff happens and some plots get resolved versus purely filler material).
The ending I dd remember plus a couple of chapters were familiar, so pretty sure I did read at least this book of the trilogy.
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LibraryThing member dbsovereign
I have to say this series is something of a disappointment as it fails to achieve the same kind of chemistry Frank had. However, it does succeed in blending together several story lines and keeps one wondering til the end.
LibraryThing member prof_brazen_guff
As mentioned by another reviewer, Anderson and Brian Herbert are certainly not authors of the calibre of Frank Herbert. They shouldn't be criticised for this however, because few are. Also, as a huge fan of Dune, there was much in these prequels for me to enjoy.
LibraryThing member VincentDarlage
I really enjoyed this book and felt it added a lot to the original classic.
LibraryThing member Tyrshundr
Copy of my Launchpad review from 2001 of Atriedes and Harkonnen:
A second instance of ‘add-a-chapter-to-an-existing-series’ syndrome. The first two books in the Prelude Trilogy (as far as I know one - and only one - more is to be printed sometime in 2001). This time written by the son of the
Again, as a lover of both the book and the film I really liked these books; they capture the way in which the universe-spanning politics of CHOAM, the Landsraat, and the Imperium (shame on anyone who does not know what these are!) are really just a school-yard brawl with bigger catapults. They also introduce the young Duncan Idaho and Gurney Halleck and give insight into the motivations of Duke Leto and his generation.
However, and this is a small thing, I re-read Dune recently and these do not have the seminal epic vision. If you liked the film, these are great; if you love Dune then they fill in gaps but are not the fix you seek.
Obscure Fact: Kyle McLachlan, star of the cult series Twin Peaks, regards Frank Herbert’s Dune as his Bible, and reads it at least once a year.
A second instance of ‘add-a-chapter-to-an-existing-series’ syndrome. The first two books in the Prelude Trilogy (as far as I know one - and only one - more is to be printed sometime in 2001). This time written by the son of the
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creator, and a man with many credits for books in long running sci-fi universes.Again, as a lover of both the book and the film I really liked these books; they capture the way in which the universe-spanning politics of CHOAM, the Landsraat, and the Imperium (shame on anyone who does not know what these are!) are really just a school-yard brawl with bigger catapults. They also introduce the young Duncan Idaho and Gurney Halleck and give insight into the motivations of Duke Leto and his generation.
However, and this is a small thing, I re-read Dune recently and these do not have the seminal epic vision. If you liked the film, these are great; if you love Dune then they fill in gaps but are not the fix you seek.
Obscure Fact: Kyle McLachlan, star of the cult series Twin Peaks, regards Frank Herbert’s Dune as his Bible, and reads it at least once a year.
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LibraryThing member szarka
Not on the same level as most of the original series, but still worth reading.
LibraryThing member clark.hallman
This is another excellent prequel to Frank Herbert’s Dune series. It was co-written by Herbert’s son and Kevin Anderson, who have collaborated on several other Dune prequels including Dune House Atreides. I really liked this one. It develops the total evilness of Baron Harkonnen and his nephew,
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Rabban. The Benne Gesserit enhance their involvement (and influence) in both House Attreides and House Harkonnon. Leto, who eventually will be Paul’s father, has a son with his concubine, but tradgety ensues due to her jealousy over Leto’s growing relationship with the Bene Gesserit, Jessica. Liet Kynes grows into a Freman freedom fighter on Arrakis and takes over his father’s role as Planetologist. Duncan Idaho endures rigorous and life-threatening training on Ginaz to survive as a Swordmaster and Gurney Halleck fights as a smuggler to cause as many problems for the Emperor on Giedi Prime. There is much political intrigue and brutal action in this book. Show Less
LibraryThing member AnotherPartOfMeLost
The three books are okay to read, definately a must for Dune fans. I read them before rereading the original Dune novel, and while reading the books, I couldn't wait to start reading Dune. Great as an appetizer!
LibraryThing member Waianuhea
Good and not. I'd rather read the original books but this was fun to read.
LibraryThing member Neil_Luvs_Books
Interesting from the point of view of getting background on characters in Dune but the writing in places is somewhat stilted. I enjoyed reading it but would not recommend reading it to the casual reader.
Awards
Italia Award (Finalist — 2004)
Original publication date
2000-10-03
Physical description
603 p.; 9.3 inches
ISBN
0553110721 / 9780553110722