Dune Preludes

 

Dune Prequels by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson

Dune is a science fiction media franchise that originated with the 1965 novel Dune by Frank Herbert and has continued to add new publications. Dune is frequently cited as the best selling science fiction novel in history. It won the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1965 and the 1966 Hugo Award, and was later adapted into a 1984 film (oh, what a dreadful movie that was) and a 2000 television miniseries (alas, not much better than the movie). 

Book 1 - Dune (1965)
Book 2 - Dune Messiah (1969)
Book 3 - Children Of Dune (1976)
Book 4 - God Emperor of Dune (1981)
Book 5 - Heretics of Dune (1984)
Book 6 - Chapterhouse Dune (1985)

Frank Herbert died in 1986. Beginning in 1999, his son Brian Herbert and science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson published a number of prequel novels, as well as two which complete the original Dune series (Hunters of Dune in 2006 and Sandworms of Dune in 2007), partially based on Frank Herbert's notes discovered a decade after his death.

Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson

01 - House Atreides (1999)
02 - House Harkonnen (2000)
03 - House Corrino (2001)

Hunters of Dune (2006)

Heroes of Dune
01 - Paul of Dune (2008)
02 - The Winds of Dune (2009)

I read the First Dune novel years ago and reread it a couple of years back. It was an excellent book and well deserving of the hype. But when I tried to go onto Dune Messiah and the subsequent books, I found them pretentious and ponderous and progressively silly, so I soon gave up. The first was the best the the subsequent ones were just not up to the same standard. Overwhelming hype that it not lived up to!

So I was surprised by how good the 3 House books (Atreides, Harkonnen and Corrino) were, when I read them early in 2021, during our covid lockdown here in Melbourne. 

The books are very large (Atreides is 700 pages) and it seems that the authors have taken just about everything mentioned in Dune and added extra meat to each idea. They also skilfully complete the task of expanding upon the stories, characters and locations of the original novels.

Now you will no doubt ask - which should I read first, the Dune books or the Dune Prequel books.I have read a few comments on Goodreads that say read the Dune books first, but I disagree and would recommend reading the prequels before embarking on the Dune novel itself. 

In summary, very enjoyable reads and highly recommended.