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HOUSE
ATREIDES (1999) |
Sub-category: Hard core
SF/Space opera
The plot: It is 40 years
before the huge shakeup is to occur which sees the House
Atreides take over spice production on the planet, Arrakis.
This story focuses on the Duke-to-be, Leto Atreides and
his rise from young son to the popular Paulus Atreides,
to the ruler of House Atreides. And while young Leto comes
to grips with the political maneuvering within the Empire,
others conspire to bring about massive changes of their
own, including the downfall of House Atreides.
Comment: Well, I don't
know about you, but I felt Frank Herbert did a marvelous
job with Dune - although his 6 books can be basically summed
up as: first book - brilliant, second book - marvelous,
third book - exciting, fourth book - becoming a trial, fifth
book - absolutely tortuously neverending, the sixth book
- better than the first, and then he died! Dreadfully inconvenient
as the sixth book was rather in need of a sequel! So, I
was excited to learn that his son was taking over the reigns,
and then nonplused to learn he was writing a prequel. If
the Star Wars prequel films have taught us nothing else
- it is VERY hard to produce a prequel that doesn't grate
on you a bit as you know the ultimate outcome... To make
it more vexing reading the prelude, I couldn't remember
the exact details surrounding the Spice cycle on Arrakis
- but it was most frustrating being thrust back to a time
before they knew the Spice cycle.
Grumbles aside, Herbert's son has written a nice little
space opera, although I felt for the most part, it was rather
shallow with none of the deep plot complexities witnessed
in more recent space opera's I have read (e.g. Peter
F. Hamilton). Because of its light content, I found
this book a little hard to stick to and read about 6 other
books while trying to finish this one - if that gives one
an idea of the sticking power of the plot. Probably the
most exciting thing I read was the Afterword which hinted
that once the prelude has been written, Herbert may go on
to write a sequel to the final Dune book as he has now found
notes from his deceased father outlining where to go from
the conclusion of ChapterHouse Dune...
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