Hunters of Dune

Last updated
Hunters of Dune
HuntersofDune.jpg
First edition cover
Authors Brian Herbert
Kevin J. Anderson
Audio read by Scott Brick
Cover artist Stephen Youll
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Series Dune series
Genre Science fiction
Published2006
Publisher Tor Books
Media typePrint (hardcover & paperback)
Pages528
ISBN 0-7653-1292-1
OCLC 65538555
813.54 [1]
LC Class PS3558.E617 H86 2006
Preceded by Chapterhouse: Dune  
Followed by Sandworms of Dune  

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.

Contents

The cliffhanger ending of Frank Herbert's Chapterhouse: Dune (1985) and his subsequent death in 1986 left some overarching plotlines unresolved. [2] [3] Released on August 22, 2006, Hunters continues the story of the danger posed to humanity by a remote, unnamed, but ever-present "great enemy". The novel is based on notes left behind by Frank Herbert, [4] [5] [6] but Hunters and its 2007 sequel Sandworms of Dune represent the authors' version of what Frank Herbert referred to as Dune 7, his own planned seventh novel in the Dune series.

The first five chapters of the novel were available prior to the novel's publication via free download from the official Dune website, released monthly from March until July in 2006.

Plot

For three years, the no-ship Ithaca has been in an alternate universe, hiding from the "great enemy". It carries the clones, or gholas, of Duncan Idaho, famous military commander Miles Teg, the Bene Gesserit Sheeana, the last Bene Tleilax Master Scytale, and seven small melange-producing sandworms, as well as a number of other humans. Scytale has shared the secret of producing melange, also called spice, in tanks, because the sandworms do not produce enough to allow the ship to continue travelling. The mysterious Oracle of Time speaks to Duncan and brings the no-ship back into the 'regular' universe. The ship is discovered by the mysterious Daniel and Marty, first mentioned at the end of Chapterhouse: Dune. They attempt to capture the ship, but it escapes.

On Chapterhouse, the only remaining source of spice, Murbella, now the leader of the Honored Matres and Bene Gesserit, is attempting to merge the groups into the New Sisterhood and prevent civil war. Desperate for more spice so that their Navigators can travel through space, the Spacing Guild approaches her, but Murbella refuses, threatening to cut them off completely. Unbeknownst to everyone but the Bene Gesserit, the sandworms on Chapterhouse are not producing much melange; the Bene Gesserit are making up the shortfall with their own stockpiles.

Though the Honored Matres had destroyed all Bene Tleilax worlds, their descendants (the Lost Tleilaxu) have returned from the Scattering. They use the shape-stealing Face Dancers for espionage, until the Face Dancers kill the Tleilaxu Elder Burah and replace him with a duplicate. It is revealed that they have replaced all the Lost Tleilaxu Elders, as well as countless humans on various planets in the Old Empire. Their leader Khrone sends the scribe Uxtal to serve the rebel Honored Matre leader Hellica, who has proclaimed herself Matre Superior and now rules the conquered Bene Tleilax homeworld, Tleilax.

The desperate Spacing Guild goes to Ix seeking an alternative means of space travel. Khrone and his Face Dancers have secretly infiltrated Ix, plotting to dominate the universe. Working with Daniel and Marty, Khrone offers their advanced navigation technology to the Guild as if it were of Ixian design. The Guild agrees to the development of this technology if they have a monopoly on it.

Uxtal has been forced to use Tleilaxu axlotl tank technology to produce the adrenaline-enhancing drug used by Honored Matres. Khrone tasks Uxtal to make a ghola of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, which is as sociopathic as the original. Khrone obtains the blood of Paul Atreides and has Uxtal make a ghola of Paul; he intends to use the ghola of the Baron to twist Paul's ghola into a weapon for Daniel and Marty's conquest of the universe. Later, Guild Navigator Edrik comes to Tleilax seeking Uxtal's knowledge of axlotl tanks; the Navigator fears his kind's obsolescence when the Ixian navigation technology becomes available. He seeks a tank-based source of spice to break the Bene Gesserit monopoly, but everyone believes that technology died with the Tleilaxu Masters. Eventually he accesses the genetic material of deceased Master Waff, and creates several Waff gholas, hoping to recover the lost technology.

The Tleilaxu sustain their lives indefinitely using gholas; Scytale's current body is dying, and he does not have a replacement. He has only one secret to use as a bargaining tool: a hidden nullentropy capsule containing cells of numerous important historical and legendary figures secretly collected by the Tleilaxu for millennia, as far back as the Butlerian Jihad. The Bene Gesserit have a vicious debate over whether to create gholas of any of these historical figures. A few at a time, the historical gholas are created, and Scytale is given a new body.

On Chapterhouse, Murbella creates the Valkyries, an elite New Sisterhood strike force. They successfully attack rebel Honored Matre strongholds on other planets, discovering that some of the Honored Matres are disguised Face Dancers. Murbella accesses the Other Memory from her Honored Matre ancestors and learns their true origins: they were vengeful Tleilaxu females, freed and assimilated by Fish Speakers and Bene Gesserit fleeing in the Scattering. Tleilaxu females had been enslaved for use as axlotl tanks by Tleilaxu males for millennia. These origins have been forgotten; Murbella now understands why the Honored Matres annihilated the Tleilaxu worlds in the Old Empire. Murbella also accesses a memory showing the origins of the mysterious force the Honored Matres call the Enemy.

On the no-ship, rebel Bene Gesserit attempt to murder the Leto II ghola, but are foiled when he transforms into a sandworm. The Paul ghola steals and consumes an overdose of spice in an attempt to remember his past, but instead has a vision of being stabbed by an evil version of himself. After being discovered by the Bene Gesserit, he concludes that he has regained prescience. Sheeana has visions that suggest the use of the gholas is dangerous, and halts the program until she knows more.

Daniel and Marty tell Khrone to discard the Baron Harkonnen and Paul Atreides gholas, as they have lured the Ithaca into a trap, and will soon capture the ghola of Paul Atreides on board. Working to his own ends, Khrone continues to prepare the gholas, restoring the Baron's memories and instructing him to train the Paul ghola, which he renames Paolo. Paolo does not yet have his memories.

Murbella contracts Ix's competitor Richese to provide armaments for a confrontation with the great enemy, but the rebel Honored Matres destroy the planet to cripple the Sisterhood. Murbella and her Valkyries successfully assault Tleilax, the most powerful of the rebel Honored Matre strongholds, and discover that many, including Matre Superior Hellica, were Face Dancers. Uxtal dies trying to escape, but the remaining Waff ghola finds refuge with the Spacing Guild, offering Edrik the genetic knowledge for the Guild to create their own sandworms.

The Ithaca stumbles upon the homeworld of the Handlers. An exploratory party from the no-ship discovers that the Handlers are actually Face Dancers, and barely escape back to the ship. Some Face Dancer ships crash into the Ithaca, and the chaos makes it impossible to know if any passengers have been replaced by Face Dancers. The emergency forces Miles Teg to reveal his hidden power of superhuman speed.

Murbella, now in complete control of the Honored Matres and Bene Gesserit, prepares a defense against the forces of the great enemy, now identified by Other Memory to be thinking machines of Omnius, the machine overlord destroyed in the ancient Butlerian Jihad. The Oracle of Time is revealed to be the living consciousness of Norma Cenva, somehow also still in existence millennia after the Jihad.

Daniel and Marty are revealed to be Omnius and the independent robot, Erasmus. Before its destruction, the Omnius incarnation on Giedi Prime had launched 5,000 probes capable of constructing new machine colonies on any planets encountered. One of these probes eventually intercepted a signal transmitted by the last remaining Omnius on Corrin before it too was destroyed. Its forces and Synchronized Empire finally reassembled, the new version of the Evermind is on the way back to the Old Empire to destroy all humanity.

Reception

The New York Times said of Hunters of Dune that "Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson go through the motions, but they don't often seem to be having much fun with their material ... by the end of Hunters, they have done little more than set the table for Sandworms of Dune ." [2]

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References

  1. ↑ "Classify: An experimental classification web service". OCLC Classify. OCLC. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
  2. 1 2 Itzkoff, Dave (September 24, 2006). "Across the Universe: Dune Babies". The New York Times . Archived from the original on October 24, 2015. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
  3. ↑ Snider, John C. (August 2007). "Audiobook Review: Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert & Kevin J Anderson". SciFiDimensions.com (Internet Archive). Archived from the original on May 13, 2008. Retrieved July 20, 2011.
  4. ↑ Liptak, Andrew (September 13, 2016). "The authors of Navigators of Dune on building an epic, lasting world". The Verge . Retrieved July 24, 2019.
    Quinn, Judy (November 17, 1997). "Bantam Pays $3M for Dune Prequels by Herbert's Son". Publishers Weekly . Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2014. The new prequels ... will be based on notes and outlines Frank Herbert left at his death in 1986.
    Anderson, Kevin J. (December 16, 2005). "Dune 7 blog: Conspiracy Theories". Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved October 12, 2008– via DuneNovels.com. Frank Herbert wrote a detailed outline for Dune 7 and he left extensive Dune 7 notes, as well as stored boxes of his descriptions, epigraphs, chapters, character backgrounds, historical notes—over a thousand pages worth.
  5. ↑ Neuman, Clayton (August 17, 2009). "Winds of Dune Author Brian Herbert on Flipping the Myth of Jihad". AMC. Archived from the original on September 21, 2009. Retrieved June 16, 2020. I got a call from an estate attorney who asked me what I wanted to do with two safety deposit boxes of my dad's ... in them were the notes to Dune 7—it was a 30-page outline. So I went up in my attic and found another 1,000 pages of working notes.
    "Before Dune, After Frank Herbert". Amazon.com. 2004. Archived from the original on April 9, 2009. Retrieved November 12, 2008. Brian was cleaning out his garage to make an office space and he found all these boxes that had 'Dune Notes' on the side. And we used a lot of them for our House books.
    "Interview with Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson". Arrakis.ru. 2004. Archived from the original on September 8, 2012. Retrieved November 12, 2008. We had already started work on House Atreides ... After we already had our general outline written and the proposal sent to publishers, then we found the outlines and notes. (This necessitated some changes, of course.)
  6. ↑ Ascher, Ian (2004). "Kevin J. Anderson Interview". DigitalWebbing.com. Archived from the original on July 3, 2007. Retrieved July 3, 2007. ... we are ready to tackle the next major challenge—writing the grand climax of the saga that Frank Herbert left in his original notes sealed in a safe deposit box ... after we'd already decided what we wanted to write ... They opened up the safe deposit box and found inside the full and complete outline for Dune 7 ... Later, when Brian was cleaning out his garage, in the back he found ... over three thousand pages of Frank Herbert's other notes, background material, and character sketches.
    Adams, John Joseph (August 9, 2006). "New Dune Books Resume Story". SciFi.com. Archived from the original on December 19, 2007. Retrieved December 19, 2007. Anderson said that Frank Herbert's notes included a description of the story and a great deal of character background information. 'But having a roadmap of the U.S. and actually driving across the country are two different things,' he said. 'Brian and I had a lot to work with and a lot to expand...'
    Snider, John C. (August 2007). "Audiobook Review: Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson". SciFiDimensions.com. Archived from the original on March 24, 2008. Retrieved February 15, 2009. the co-authors have expanded on Herbert's brief outline
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