Brian Herbert

House Atreides: Prelude to Dune: Book 01

by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson.

10,154 of the Imperial Calendar, and for four decades the planet Arrakis - called Dune by its inhabitants - has been ruled by the Harkonnen family. But the seeds of change have been sown.

On Arrakis, an idealistic young planetologist, Pardot Kynes, goes out into the desert to learn the secrets of its giant sandworms and the priceless Spice they create. And on another planet, Caledon, young Leto Atreides is nearly ready to become Duke.

The blood feud between House Atreides and House Harkonnen is about to begin. Drawing on notes, outlines and correspondence Frank Herbert left behind at his death, House Atreides is a breathtaking story of war, treachery, decadence and steadfastness in the face of overwhelming odds

House Harkonnen: Prelude to Dune: Book 02

by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson.

At last, Shaddam sits on the Golden Lion Throne, his precarious position as ruler of the Known Universe dependent on producing a male heir. But his leadership is further threatened by the ambitious Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, whose insatiable thirst for dominance leads him to plot against some of the most powerful forces in the Imperium, hoping to elevate his own ruthless House to unprecedented heights of power. His primary targets: House Atreides and the mysterious Bene Gesserit Sisterhood. The Sisterhood are unaware of this threat as they prepare to culminate the work of centuries in the creation of a god-child who will sweep away emperors, houses, and history itself in a terrifying new order of religious tyranny.

The desert world Dune, the machine world IX, and countless other conquered planets groan under the numbing slavery of cruel new masters determined to exploit their resources - most notably the addictive spice melange found only on Dune. But small bands of renegades begin to fight back, lighting the spark of freedom against overwhelming odds. New, unexpected heroes arise, young and resourceful Liet-Kynes on Dune, wily and patient C'tair on IX, and the unyielding Gurney Halleck in Giedi Prime, driven to vengeance against his Harkonnen overlords.

For Leto Atreides, grown complacent and comfortable as ruler of his House, it is a time of momentous choice: between love and honour, friendship and duty, safety and destiny. Leto has finally produced an heir to House Atreides, Victor, and will make whatever choices necessary to protect the young boy and ensure his legacy as Duke. Ultimately, however, for House Atreides there is just one choice - strive for greatness or crushed.

House Corrino: Prelude to Dune: Book 03

by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson.

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 honour 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 ruthless enemies, 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.

The Butlerian Jihad: Legends of Dune: Book 01

by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson.

One hundred and ten centuries from now, humanity has spread across space. And all-powerful machines rule the humans who were once their masters.

It began in the Time of Tyrants when ambitious men and women used high-powered computers to seize control of the heart of the Old Empire including Earth itself. The tyrants translated their brains into mobile mechanical bodies and created a new race, the immortal man-machine hybrids called Cymeks. Then the Cymeks' world-controlling planetary computers - each known as Omnius - seized control from their overlords and a thousand years of brutal rule by the thinking machines began.

But their world faces disaster. Impatient with human beings' endless disobedience and the Cymeks' continual plotting to regain their power, Omnius has decided that it no longer needs them. Only victory can save the human race from extermination.

The Machine Crusade: Legends of Dune: Book 02

by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson.

The fearsome Cymeks, led by Agamemnon, hatch new plots to regain their lost power from Omnius... as their numbers dwindle and time begins to run out.

The fighters of Ginaz, led by Jool Noret, forge themselves into an elite warrior class, a weapon against the machine-dominated worlds.

Aurelius Venport and Norma Cenva are on the verge of the most important discovery in human history - a way to "fold" space and travel instantaneously to any place in the galaxy.

And on the faraway, nearly worthless planet of Arrakis, Selim Wormrider and his band of outlaws take the first steps to making themselves the feared fighters who will change the course of history: the Fremen.

The Battle of Corrin: Legends of Dune: Book 03

by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson.

The universal computer mind Omnius has retreated to its last stronghold, where it plots a devastating new strategy that could undo the victories of the Butlerian Jihad.

The surviving Titans are creating new lieutenants to do their will when at last they return to attack the human beings they once ruled.

In the years of peace, too many of mankind have forgotten that their machine enemies never sleep. But some have forgotten nothing - and learned from their triumphs. The brilliant military commander Vorian Atreides, son of a Titan, has the gift of long life from his terrifying father and knows the machines' minds better than any man alive. Norma Cenva, the genius inventor of humanity's best defences, dreams of new discoveries that will make man invincible. And on the windswept desert planet Arrakis, the power that can give them victory waits.

Hunters Of Dune: Dune Chronicles: Book 07

by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson.

At the end of Chapterhouse: Dune--Frank Herbert's final novel--a ship carrying the ghola of Duncan Idaho, Sheeana (a young woman who can control sandworms), and a crew of various refugees escapes into the uncharted galaxy, fleeing from the monstrous Honored Matres, dark counterparts to the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood. The nearly invincible Honored Matres have swarmed into the known universe, driven from their home by a terrifying, mysterious Enemy. As designed by the creative genius of Frank Herbert, the primary story of Hunters and Sandworms is the exotic odyssey of Duncan's no-ship as it is forced to elude the diabolical traps set by the ferocious, unknown Enemy. To strengthen their forces, the fugitives have used genetic technology from Scytale, the last Tleilaxu Master, to revive key figures from Dune's past--including Paul Muad'Dib and his beloved Chani, Lady Jessica, Stilgar, Thufir Hawat, and even Dr. Wellington Yueh. Each of these characters will use their special talents to meet the challenges thrown at them.

Failure is unthinkable--not only is their survival at stake, but they hold the fate of the entire human race in their hands.

Sandworms of Dune: Dune Chronicles: Book 08

by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson.

As the no-ship Ithaca flees through space, the heroes of HUNTERS OF DUNE finally meet the Enemy who followed the violent fanatics, the Honored Matres, back to their universe.

The thinking machines vanquished by Serena Butler's jihad were not destroyed, only driven into exile - and now, tens of thousands of years later, they are back. Can the resurrected heroes on board the Ithaca save our race from annihilation?

Paul Of Dune: Heroes of Dune: Book 01

by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson.

The Muad'Dib's jihad is in full swing.

His warrior legions march from victory to victory. But beneath the joy of victory, there are dangerous undercurrents. Paul, like nearly every great conqueror, has enemies--those who would betray him to steal the awesome power he commands. . . .

And Paul himself begins to have doubts: Is the jihad getting out of his control? Has he created anarchy? Has he been betrayed by those he loves and trusts the most? And most of all, he wonders: Am I going mad?

The Winds of Dune: Heroes of Dune: Book 02

by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson.

Paul has walked off into the sand, blind, and is presumed dead.

Jessica and Gurney are on Caladan; Alia is trying to hold the Imperial government together with Duncan; Mohiam is dead at the hands of Stilgar and Irulan is imprisoned.

Paul's former friend, Bronso of Ix, now seems to be leading opposition to the House of Atreides.

Sisterhood of Dune: The Great Schools of Dune: Book 01

by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson.

It is 83 years after the last of the thinking machines were destroyed in the Battle of Corrin, after Faykan Butler established himself as the first Emperor of a new imperium. War hero Vorian Atreides has turned his back on Salusa Secundus, flying off to parts unknown. Abulurd Harkonnen, convicted of cowardice, was sent away to live on gloomy Lankiveil, and his descendants continue to blame Vor for the downfall of their fortunes.

Raquella Berto-Anirul has formed the Bene Gesserit School as the first Reverend Mother. Descendants of Aurelius Venport and Norma Cenva have built a powerful transportation company using mutated Navigators who fly "spacefolder ships".

Gilbertus Albans has established a school on bucolic Lampadas teaching humans to become Mentats. Even so, decades after the defeat of the thinking machines, anti-technology fervor continues to sweep across the human-settled planets, with powerful fanatical groups imposing violent purges…

Mentats of Dune: The Great Schools of Dune: Book 02

by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson.

Gilbertus Albans has founded the Mentat School, a place where humans can learn the efficient techniques of thinking machines. But Gilbertus walks an uneasy line between his own convictions and compromises in order to survive the Butlerian fanatics, led by the madman Manford Torondo and his Swordmaster Anari Idaho.

Mother Superior Raquella attempts to rebuild her Sisterhood School on Wallach IX, with her most talented and ambitious student, Valya Harkonnen . . . who also has another goal-to exact revenge on Vorian Atreides, the legendary hero of the Jihad, whom she blames for her family's downfall.

Meanwhile, Josef Venport conducts his own war against the Butlerians. VenHold Spacing Fleet controls nearly all commerce thanks to the superior mutated Navigators that Venport has created, and he places a ruthless embargo on any planet that accepts Manford Torondo's anti-technology pledge, hoping to starve them into submission. But fanatics rarely surrender easily. . .

The Mentats, the Navigators, and the Sisterhood all strive to improve the human race but know that as Butlerian fanaticism grows stronger, the battle will be to choose the path of humanity's future-whether to embrace civilization or to plunge into an endless dark age.

Navigators of Dune: The Great Schools of Dune: Book 03

by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson.

Navigators, mutated by spice into beings far superior to normal humans, make space travel possible across the burgeoning Imperium. Their prescient awareness allows them to foresee safe paths through the universe as starship engines “fold” space. Only industrial magnate Josef Venport knows the secret of creating Navigators, and he intends to build a commercial empire to span the galaxy.

But at every turn, Josef is embattled by the forces of anti-technology fanaticism, “Butlerian” zealots led by the charismatic and dangerous Manford Torondo, who wishes to countermand humanity’s new renaissance and drive the Imperium back into a dark age. And between those titanic forces stands the uncertain new Emperor Roderick Corrino, forced to take the throne after the assassination of his brother. The Navigators are the key to charting a glorious future for humanity . . . or the end of civilization.