Dune: House Corrino

Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson, Frank Herbert

Bantam Books, 2001 - Fiction - 496 pages

The triumphant conclusion to the blockbuster trilogy that made science fiction history!
In Dune: House Corrino Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson bring us the magnificent final chapter in the unforgettable saga begun in Dune: House Atreides and continued in Dune: House Harkonnen.
Here nobles and commoners, soldiers and slaves, wives and courtesans shape the amazing destiny of a tumultuous universe. An epic saga of love and war, crime and politics, religion and revolution, this magnificent novel is a fitting conclusion to a great science fiction trilogy ... and an invaluable addition to the thrilling world of Frank Herbert's immortal Dune.
Dune: House Corrino
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 Atreides, 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 ruthlessenemies, 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.

Contents

• I: 1
• II: 6
• III: 11

About the author

Kevin J. Anderson was born on March 27, 1962. Before becoming a full-time author, he worked in California for twelve years as a technical writer and editor at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. His science fiction books include Resurrection, Inc., the Star Wars Jedi Academy Trilogy, the Young Jedi Knights series, Ground Zero, Ruins, Climbing Olympus, Blindfold, and The Dark Between the Stars. He has also written several books with Doug Beason including Ignition, Virtual Destruction, Fallout, and Ill Wind. Frank Herbert was born Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. in Tacoma, Washington on October 8, 1920. He worked originally as a journalist, but then turned to science fiction. His Dune series has had a major impact on that genre. Some critics assert that Herbert is responsible for bringing in a new branch of ecological science fiction. He had a personal interest in world ecology, and consulted with the governments of Vietnam and Pakistan about ecological issues. The length of some of Herbert's novels also helped make it acceptable for science fiction authors to write longer books. It is clear that, if the reader is engaged by the story---and Herbert certainly has the ability to engage his readers---length is not important. As is usually the case with popular fiction, it comes down to whether or not the reader is entertained, and Herbert is, above all, an entertaining and often compelling writer. His greatest talent is his ability to create new worlds that are plausible to readers, in spite of their alien nature, such as the planet Arrakis in the Dune series. Frank Herbert died of complications from pancreatic cancer on February, 11, 1986, in Madison, Wisconsin. He was 65.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Dune: House Corrino; Book 1 of Dune Series, Frank Herbert; Dune novels. Prelude to Dune bk. 3; Prelude to Dune trilogy # 2, Brian Herbert
• Authors: Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson, Frank Herbert
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Bantam Books, 2001
• Original from: the University of Michigan
• Digitized: Mar 10, 2008
• ISBN: 0553110845, 9780553110845
• Length: 496 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Science Fiction / General