Dune: House Atreides
Well, I promised this earlier, and here it is.
Being the son of a famous author must be a trying experience, especially if you decide to follow in your father's footsteps. Christopher Tolkien was left with the uneviable task of sorting through pages and pages of his father's notes in an effort to fulfill the demand for more stories from Middle Earth. He did a remarkable job, and the Simarillion, The Unfinished Tales, and the 2 books of The Lost Tales are wonderful extensions to the legend created by JRR Tolkien. And now we get Frank Herbert's son Brian's extension to the Dune universe. Is it a worthy successor?
Taking a cue from George Lucas, the newest Dune book is a prequel, the story of a young Leto Atreides and how he became duke -- the birth of lady Jessica, the rise to power of Shaddam IV and his relationship with Fenring, Duncan Idaho's escape from Geidi Prime, and a brief history of things Harkonnen. The story is interesting enough, and the history is welcomed, but some of the details are either extremely unlikely, or just downright wrong. For instance, Dune:HA names the unknown mother to Jessica as our friend Gaius Helen Mohaim. Those of us who have read all the books know that the breeding records name her mother as Tanidia Nerus. Besides, it would be highly unlikely that the Bene Gesserit would allow Jessica to be taught by her own mother, especially given Jessica's importance in the search for the Kwisatz Haderach. Another problem, character ages and lifetimes -- Dune listed Paul and Feyd-Rautha as being young teenagers at the beginning of the book, but everyone else is up for grabs, and some of the implications seem to be stretching things. Here's a really bad one Shaddam IV born 10,134 -- Leto Atreides born 10,140 -- six years younger. This information is in appendix IV of Dune. In Dune:HA, Shaddam is in his early 30's, Leto is a teenager. Rabban kills a sandworm, and watches in amazement as it dissolves into strange little creatures leaving him with next to nothing. Fine, but that's what happens when a sandworm is killed with water, otherwise they become mouldering husks -- that's in Children of Dune I believe. And here's a logic problem. Guild Ships are powered by Foldspace Generators -- these work on the same principle as shield generators -- therefore, not only can you not use lasguns in a ship in foldspace, you can't use shields either -- because the lasguns will cause the explosive interaction, while shields will force a ship out of foldspace with unpredictable results. Why do I mention this? Because the Harkonnens develope the first Noglobe and Noship during this book, and use it to try to start a war between Bene Thlielax and House Atreides. The problem is, the noship is built on the same principal as the shield generators that can't be used during foldspace -- except in the book they were.
It's an interesting book, but someone really needed to read all of his father's books before writing his own.