House Harkonnen (Dune: House Trilogy, Book 2)
by Brian Herbert, Kevin Anderson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Brian Herbert, Kevin AndersonIllustrator: Stephen Youll
Edition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-08-28
ISBN: 0553580302
Number of pages: 752
Publisher: Bantam Books
Book Reviews of House Harkonnen (Dune: House Trilogy, Book 2)
Book Review: Get deeper into an interesting universe.
Summary: 5 Stars
In a review of a nonfiction book, a commenter praised the book and disparaged fiction as a whole, saying something like this: "To hell with fiction! With books like this, who needs it?"
I read nonfiction as well as fiction because I understand nonfiction has something to offer. What human author can compete with the logic of God? But if you stubbornly deny yourself the goodness of good fiction, you are masochistically ignorant. Fiction opens up portals to spectacular alternate realities that remain forever hidden without fiction.
I have read five Dune novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, and so far they have done a good job of opening up one of those portals.
"House Harkonnen" is the second of the House Trilogy by Herbert and Anderson. The books describe events in the generation before the events of Frank Herbert's "Dune," and we get the origins of prominent characters from that Hugo Award winning classic. "House Harkonnen's" plotlines involve you with intrigues of noble houses in a galactic empire and with adventures of colorful characters like Duncan Idaho and Gurley Halleck. The authors hit you with violence and touch you with pathos. You ride giant sandworms across the desert of Dune, and you discover treasure in the ice floes of arctic Lankiveil.
The characters of the House books are not exotic like some characters in the chronologically preceding Legends of Dune trilogy. But the House Trilogy characters stand out and are quite likeable. It's easy to identify with the good guys and to hate the bad guys. Take Baron Harkonnen and his nephew Rabban. They are so doggone bad they are laughable. But they are serious characters--not comical--and they are convincing.
Be sure to read "House Atreides" before reading "House Harkonnen." Regarding the relationship between Baron Harkonnen and the Bene Gesserit sisterhood, one scene in "House Harkonnen" would not be nearly as pleasing as it was without my having read "House Atreides." Also, "House Harkonnen" has many strings left dangling. For closure you'll need to read "House Corrino."
The prose is contemporary and easy to read, nothing like Thomas Hardy. (Do we still have high school English teachers sadistically assigning "Return of the Native"?) It seemed to me that the House Trilogy has more paragraphs of descriptive detail than I found in Legends of Dune. The detail is not excessive, however, and I welcomed it.
If you can, read the hardback editions of these books. The maps are hard to read in the paperbacks.
Summary of House Harkonnen (Dune: House Trilogy, Book 2)
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.
Don't even think about reading House Harkonnen without reading its predecessor Dune: House Atreides; anyone who does so risks sinking in the sands between Frank Herbert's original Dune and this prequel trilogy by Herbert's son, Brian, and Kevin J. Anderson. The purist argument that had Frank Herbert wanted to go backwards he would have done so is, at least in part, negated by the sheer narrative verve, and by the fact that Anderson and Brian Herbert manage to pull some genuine surprises out of this long-running space-opera. House Harkonnen is a massive book, and there are places where it becomes plot heavy, but in following the story of Duke Leto Atreides and the conflicts with House Harkonnen, the authors succeed in spinning a gripping adventure while going off in some unexpected directions. Anderson, who has written many successful Star Wars novels, has noted his particular admiration for The Empire Strikes Back, and his desire to emulate that film's dark take on the genre. In House Harkonnen, the conflict encompasses the tragedy of nuclear war, marked by grief and horror, vengeance and torment, and all while the complex intrigues continue to unfold. As one character puts it:
Everything has its cost. We pay to create our future, we pay for the mistakes of the past. We pay for every change we make--and we pay just as dearly if we refuse to change.
Ultimately this is the theme of a compelling game of consequences, choices, and responsibility, a study of Leto's growth into power and the price of politics and love. --Gary S. Dalkin, Amazon.co.uk
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