Author | Frank Herbert |
---|---|
Audio read by | Simon Vance |
Cover artist | Abe Echevarria |
Language | English |
Series | Dune series |
Genre | Science fiction |
Published | 1984 |
Publisher | Putnam |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (hardcover & paperback) |
Pages | 480 |
ISBN | 0-399-12898-0 |
OCLC | 77462821 |
813/.54 19 | |
LC Class | PS3558.E63 H4 1984 |
Preceded by | God Emperor of Dune |
Followed by | Chapterhouse: Dune |
Heretics of Dune is a 1984 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert, the fifth in his Dune series of six novels.
Set 1,500 years after the events of God Emperor of Dune (1981), the novel finds humanity on the path set for them by the tyrant Leto II Atreides to guarantee their survival. But a new threat arrives in the form of the Honored Matres, a brutal matriarchy from beyond the known universe whose only goals are conquest and destruction.
Heretics of Dune was ranked as the No. 13 hardcover fiction best seller of 1984 by The New York Times .
Fifteen hundred years after the 3,500-year reign of the God Emperor Leto II Atreides ended with his assassination, humanity is firmly on the Golden Path, Leto's plan to save humanity from destruction. By crushing the aspirations of humans for over three thousand years and dismantling the complex economic system dependent on the spice melange, Leto caused the Scattering, an explosion of humanity into the rest of the universe upon his death.
Sandworms have reappeared on Arrakis (now called Rakis), and have renewed the flow of the all-important spice to the galaxy. A new civilization has risen, with three dominant powers: the Ixians, whose no-ships are capable of piloting between the stars and are invisible to outside detection; the Bene Tleilax, who have learned to manufacture spice in their axlotl tanks and have created a new breed of Face Dancers; and the Bene Gesserit, a matriarchal order of subtle political manipulators who possess superhuman abilities. However, people from the Scattering are returning with their own peculiar powers. The most powerful of these forces are the Honored Matres, a violent society of women bred and trained for combat and the sexual control of men.
The Bene Gesserit leader, Mother Superior Taraza, brings Mentat and former Supreme Bashar Miles Teg out of retirement to oversee the protection of their latest Tleilaxu-provided Duncan Idaho ghola on the planet Gammu. She also sends Bene Gesserit Imprinter Lucilla to instruct Duncan, and eventually bind his loyalty to the Sisterhood with her sexual talents. At the same time, Teg's biological daughter, Reverend Mother Darwi Odrade, is put in command of the Bene Gesserit keep on Rakis. The Bene Gesserit discover Sheeana, a girl who can control the giant sandworms, and hope to gain control of her and the religion that will inevitably form around her. Soon the Bene Gesserit thwart an attack on Sheeana, and Odrade begins training her in the ways of the Sisterhood.
When an assassination attempt is made on Duncan, Lucilla and Teg flee with him into the countryside. Teg awakens Duncan's original memories, but does so before Lucilla can imprint Duncan and thus tie him to the Sisterhood. Teg is captured by the Honored Matres while Lucilla and Duncan escape. Teg is tortured by a T-Probe, but under pressure discovers new abilities: drastically increased physical capabilities and an uncertain type of prescience, which he uses to easily escape. Duncan is subdued by a young Honored Matre named Murbella, who attempts to enslave him sexually. However, hidden Tleilaxu conditioning kicks in, and Duncan responds with an equal technique that overwhelms Murbella. The experience restores in him the entire memories of all of the hundreds of previous Duncan gholas.
Taraza meets with the Tleilaxu Master Waff and compels him to tell her what he knows about the Honored Matres. He also reveals that the Bene Tleilax have conditioned their own agenda into Duncan. Taraza gleans the Tleilaxu's secret religious beliefs from their conversation, and uses them to manipulate an alliance with the Bene Tleilax that better serves the Bene Gesserit. Odrade realizes that Taraza's plan is to destroy Rakis just as the Honored Matres invade, killing Taraza. Odrade becomes temporary leader of the Bene Gesserit and escapes with Sheeana into the desert on a worm.
Teg finds that his prescient powers allow him to "see" shielded no-ships, enabling him to locate Duncan and Lucilla. They flee to Rakis with a captive Murbella, intercepting Odrade and Sheeana and their giant worm. Teg leads his troops in a suicidal defense of Rakis designed to enrage the Honored Matres and goad them into using their planet-destroying Obliterators. They do so, incinerating Rakis and killing all sandworms, save the one with which Odrade and Sheeana have escaped. They intend to use it to create a new sandworm ecosystem on the secret Bene Gesserit planet Chapterhouse.
Frank Herbert wrote much of the initial draft of Heretics of Dune in Hawaii, using a Compaq word processor. According to his son Brian, Herbert's time spent writing the draft would be "exceedingly arduous and much slower for him [Herbert] than usual, because of all the time he had to spend out of his study tending to the medical crises of my mother, Beverly Herbert." [1]
Kirkus Reviews described this fifth installment of the Dune series as "another uneven entry, slow to start and hastily, rather abruptly concluded—but more exciting and adventurous than any since the original Dune, with a gratifying influx of new ideas." [2]
Heretics of Dune was ranked as the No. 13 hardcover fiction best seller of 1984 by The New York Times . [3]
Chapterhouse: Dune is a 1985 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert, the last in his Dune series of six novels. It rose to No. 2 on The New York Times Best Seller list.
Dune Messiah is a 1969 science fiction novel by American writer Frank Herbert, the second in his Dune series of six novels. A sequel to Dune (1965), it was originally serialized in Galaxy magazine in 1969, and then published by Putnam the same year. Dune Messiah and its own sequel Children of Dune (1976) were collectively adapted by the Sci-Fi Channel in 2003 into a miniseries entitled Frank Herbert's Children of Dune.
Paul Atreides is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He is a main character in the first two novels in the series, Dune (1965) and Dune Messiah (1969), and returns in Children of Dune (1976). The character is brought back as two different gholas in the Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson novels which conclude the original series, Hunters of Dune (2006) and Sandworms of Dune (2007), and appears in the prequels Paul of Dune (2008) and The Winds of Dune (2009). According to Brian Herbert, Frank Herbert's son and biographer, House Atreides was based on the heroic but ill-fated Greek mythological house of Atreus.
The Bene Gesserit are a group in Frank Herbert's fictional Dune universe. A powerful social, religious, and political force, the Bene Gesserit is described as an exclusive sisterhood whose members train their bodies and minds through years of physical and mental conditioning to obtain superhuman powers and abilities that seem magical to outsiders. The group seeks to acquire power and influence to direct humanity on an enlightened path, a concerted effort planned and executed over millennia.
Duncan Idaho is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He was introduced in the first novel of the series, 1965's Dune, and became a breakout character. He was revived in 1969's Dune Messiah. He is the only character to feature in all six of Herbert's original Dune novels.
Melange, often referred to as "the spice", is the fictional psychedelic drug central to the Dune series of science fiction novels by Frank Herbert and derivative works.
The Fremen are a group of people in the fictional Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. First appearing in the 1965 novel Dune, the Fremen inhabit the desert planet Arrakis, which is the sole known source in the universe of the all-important spice melange. Long overlooked by the rest of the Imperium and considered backward savages, they are an extremely hardy people and exist in large numbers. The Fremen had come to the planet thousands of years before the events of the novel as the Zensunni Wanderers, a religious sect in retreat. As humans in extremis, over time they adapted their culture and way of life to survive and thrive in the incredibly harsh conditions of Arrakis. The Fremen are distinguished by their fierce fighting abilities and adeptness at survival in these conditions. With water being a rare commodity on the planet, their culture revolves around its preservation and conservation. Herbert based Fremen culture, in part, on the desert-dwelling Bedouin and San People.
The Spacing Guild is an organization in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe that possesses a monopoly on interstellar travel and banking. Guild Navigators use the drug melange to achieve limited prescience, a form of precognition that allows them to successfully navigate "folded space" and safely guide enormous starships called heighliners across interstellar space instantaneously.
Arrakis —informally known as Dune and later called Rakis—is a fictional desert planet featured in the Dune series of novels by Frank Herbert. Herbert's first novel in the series, 1965's Dune, is considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, and it is sometimes cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history.
Leto II Atreides is a fictional character from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Born at the end of Dune Messiah (1969), Leto is a central character in Children of Dune (1976) and is the title character of God Emperor of Dune (1981). The character is brought back as a ghola in the Brian Herbert/Kevin J. Anderson sequels which conclude the original series, Hunters of Dune (2006) and Sandworms of Dune (2007). Leto also appears as a child in the prequel The Winds of Dune (2009).
Alia Atreides is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. She was introduced in the first novel of the series, 1965's Dune, and was originally killed in Herbert's first version of the manuscript. At the suggestion of Analog magazine editor John Campbell, Herbert kept her alive in the final draft. Alia would next appear as a main character in both Dune Messiah (1969) and Children of Dune (1976). The character is brought back as a ghola in the Brian Herbert/Kevin J. Anderson conclusion to the original series, Sandworms of Dune (2007).
Chani is a fictional character featured in Frank Herbert's novels Dune (1965) and Dune Messiah (1969). Known mainly as the Fremen wife and legal concubine of protagonist Paul Atreides, Chani is the daughter of Imperial Planetologist Liet-Kynes and his Fremen wife Faroula, and later the mother of the twins Ghanima and Leto II Atreides. The character is later resurrected as a ghola, appearing in Hunters of Dune (2006) and Sandworms of Dune (2007), Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's novels which complete the original series.
Dune: House Harkonnen is a 2000 science fiction novel by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, set in the fictional Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. It is the second book in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy, which takes place before the events of Frank Herbert's celebrated 1965 novel Dune. The Prelude to Dune novels draw from notes left behind by Frank Herbert after his death.
Hunters of Dune is the first of two books written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson to conclude Frank Herbert's original Dune series of science fiction novels.
Sandworms of Dune is a science fiction novel by American writers Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, the second of two books they wrote to conclude Frank Herbert's original Dune series. It is based on notes left behind by Frank Herbert for Dune 7, his own planned seventh novel in the Dune series. The novel was released on August 7, 2007.
This is a list of terminology used in the fictional Dune universe created by Frank Herbert, the primary source being "Terminology of the Imperium", the glossary contained in the novel Dune (1965).
Multiple organizations of the Dune universe dominate the political, religious, and social arena of the setting of Frank Herbert's Dune series of science fiction novels, and derivative works. Set tens of thousands of years in the future, the saga chronicles a civilization which has banned computers but has also developed advanced technology and mental and physical abilities through physical training, eugenics and the use of the drug melange. Specialized groups of individuals have aligned themselves in organizations focusing on specific abilities, technology and goals. Herbert's concepts of human evolution and technology have been analyzed and deconstructed in at least one book, The Science of Dune (2008). His originating 1965 novel Dune is popularly considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, and is frequently cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history. Dune and its five sequels by Herbert explore the complex and multilayered interactions of politics, religion, ecology and technology, among other themes.
We've a three-point civilization: the Imperial Household balanced against the Federated Great Houses of the Landsraad, and between them, the Guild with its damnable monopoly on interstellar transport.
The Dune prequel series is a sequence of novel trilogies written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Set in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert, the novels take place in various time periods before and in between Herbert's original six novels, which began with 1965's Dune. In 1997, Bantam Books made a $3 million deal with the authors for three Dune prequel novels, partially based upon notes left behind by Frank Herbert, that would come to be known as the Prelude to Dune trilogy. Starting with 1999's Dune: House Atreides, the duo have published 15 Dune prequel novels to date.