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Dune: House Atreides by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
01/01/2007 . Source: Neale Monks 
Pub: Random House. 388 page paperback. Price £7.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-3407-5176-2. Buy Dune: House Atreides in the USA - or Buy Dune: House Atreides in the UK  check out website: www.randomhouse.co.uk
Frank Herbert's 'Dune' novels are often considered among the best Science Fiction ever written and are certainly among the most loved. For that reason, it was perhaps inevitable that the prequel books written by his son, Brian Herbert, in collaboration with prolific Science Fiction writer Kevin J. Anderson were going to be controversial.
The first of the prequel novels was 'Dune: House Atreides, published in 1999. To avoid tarnishing the glow of the original series, I'd studiously avoided reading any of the prequels until now. The question is simple: is it really as bad as the more disgruntled fans of the originals would have you believe? The short answer is, perhaps surprisingly, no.
The long answer is that if you accept this book as low brow fiction that happens to be set in the Dune universe, you'll enjoy it just as much as you would a 'Star Trek' or 'Star Wars' tie-in novel. But in no way does it compare with the 'Dune' in its depth or subtlety. Frank Herbert used the Dune universe primarily as a place to tell a story of the balance of politics with religion. In short, to make it clear how dangerous a messiah can be. The basic story is timeless and although the Dune universe was filled with wonders, its trappings and curiosities were very much a backdrop against which the story was set. Many of the most powerful scenes in 'Dune' could equally effectively have been set as easily in Pharaonic Egypt or 16th Century England as on Arrakis - the pivotal banquet scene shortly before the Atreides are betrayed being a classic example.
By contrast, Herbert and Anderson's work is low end, easy reading stuff that doesn't really challenge the reader or raise any important philosophical, political or religious questions. Frank Herbert apparently left behind sketches and notes outlining the history of the Dune universe both before and after the times described by the books he published and these were used by Herbert and Anderson to create the new 'Dune' novels. Even so, where Frank Herbert got only six 'Dune' books finished in twenty years, Brian Herbert and Anderson have cranked out nine novels and over half a dozen short stories between 1999 and 2006 alone and have promised to produce even more. The feeling is often that instead of being inspired by Frank Herbert's work, the authors are simply plundering it, picking up trinkets along the way as tomb-robbers would steal from an Egyptian sarcophagus, selling them on with little thought for their significance or symbolism.
The problem is that while a huge amount happens in 'Dune: House Atreides', not much of it is inspiring or moving. Where Frank Herbert would use acute observations to reveal the incredible complexity of his world, Herbert and Anderson clumsily use excessive detail to try and re-create the same thing. So instead of allusions to the meaning of water rings when given by a male Fremen to a woman, the Emperor of the Known Universe discusses spaceship payloads and shipping fees.
Another issue with the book is that the characters tend to be pretty generic, usually lacking the depth of their counterparts or descendants in the original books. Leto Atreides, ostensibly the chief protagonist of the novel, lacks the pathos he had in 'Dune'. Instead of a man driven by fate and good intentions, we end up with a standard issue teenage nobleman of the type who acts with honour and courage simply because its his nature to do so. In short, a hero firmly out of the Luke Skywalker mould rather than the Paul Muad'Dib one. Similarly, ecologist Pardot Kynes is barely distinguishable from his son, Liet-Kynes, and Vladimir Harkonnen is just a bit too monstrous to be believable. A more trivial criticism is the frequent name-checking that is often rather hackneyed in its use: 'Dominic's expression and bright eyes implied knowledge of many more embarrassing personal secrets about the old man than Shando had actually confessed to him - but the suspicion galled Elrood, like an Elaccan bitterthorn in his side.'
On the other hand, 'Dune: House Atreides' is not without merit as entertainment. In waltzing through the Dune universe back story, the reader is taken down any number of interesting avenues. We learn more about the technology-laden planets of Ix and Richese, find out how Shaddam came to the throne and where characters like Duncan Idaho and Pieter de Vries come from. While nothing much here is terribly shocking given that we already know a great deal about these things from the original series, there are a few twists and turns along the way to keep the reader interested. Moreover, the extra detail is sure to amuse readers who want to enjoy the Dune universe more fully. Indeed, where some of the novels in the original series were heavy-going and often filled with laboured expositions about politics and sex, the writing in 'Dune: House Atreides' is taut and exciting.
Here and there the 'new' back story jars with the old. Where Vladimir Harkonnen was described in 'Dune' as obese thanks to decades of overindulgence, 'Dune: House Atreides' turns this into the result of disease given him by a woman he raped. A rather surprising event given the pedarastic preferences the Baron is shown to enjoy in the original 'Dune' novels. Where Frank Herbert preferred to use internal motivations and desires to set up the weaknesses that others would exploit, the present authors do tend to use technology and other types of Science Fiction trickery to get the job done. Other things simply come out of thin air and while they make sense within this novel, the lack of even the merest hints of them in the original series does feel odd. House Vernius of Ix plays an important role in this book as an ally of House Atreides, but there's nothing to suggest this remains by the time the events in 'Dune' take place. This may be explained in later novels, of course, but in the meantime...
Truly, the only real problem with the book is that it isn't as good as the original 'Dune'. Taken as a free-standing work of its own, it isn't a bad book at all. Far from it. In fact, I found it surprisingly entertaining. 'Dune: House Atreides' may not be great literature, but like much of the Kevin J. Anderson oeuvre, it is well-written and eminently enjoyable pulp-quality Science Fiction.
Neale Monks
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