Dune: House Corrino

The axis of spin for the planet Arrakis is at right angles to the radius of its orbit. The world itself is not a globe, but more a spinning top somewhat fat at the equator and concave toward the poles. There is a sense that this may be artificial, the product of some ancient artifice.
Report of the Third Imperial Commission on Arrakis


Under the light of two moons in a dusty sky, the Fremen raiders flitted across the desert rocks. They blended into the rugged surroundings as if cut from the same cloth, harsh men in a harsh environment.

Death to Harkonnens. All members of the armed razzia squad had sworn the same vow.

In the quiet hours before dawn, Stilgar, their tall and black-bearded leader, stalked catlike ahead of a score of his best fighters. We must move as shadows in the night. Shadows with hidden knives.

Lifting a hand, he commanded the silent squad to halt. Stilgar listened to the pulse of the desert, his ears probing the darkness. His blue-within-blue eyes scanned towering rock escarpments profiled against the sky like giant sentinels. As the pair of moons moved across the heavens, patches of darkness shifted moment by moment, living extensions of the mountain face.

The men picked their way up a rock buttress, using dark-adapted eyes to follow a steep, tool-hewn trail. The terrain seemed hauntingly familiar, though Stilgar had never been here before. His father had described the way, the route their ancestors had taken into Hadith Sietch, once the greatest of all hidden settlements, abandoned long ago.

Hadith a word taken from an old Fremen song about the patterns of survival in the desert. Like many living Fremen, he carried the story etched into his psyche ... a tale of betrayal and civil conflict during the first generations of the wandering Zensunni here on Dune. Legend held that all meanings originated here, in this holy sietch.

Now, though, the Harkonnens have desecrated our ancient place.

Every man in Stilgar s

Brian Herbert is the son of legendary science fiction author Frank Herbert and has written the definitive biography of him, Dreamer of Dune, a finalist for the Hugo Award. He has also written many highly imaginative novels, including The Timeweb Chronicles, the ecological fantasy Ocean (with his wife, Jan), The Little Green Book of Chairman Rahma, The Unborn, and The Assassination of Billy Jeeling. His earlier acclaimed novels include The Stolen Gospels, Sudanna, Sudanna, and Sidney s Comet, as well as Man of Two Worlds (written with his father). Brian Herbert also co-manages the legacy of Frank Herbert and is an executive producer of the new motion picture Dune and the forthcoming TV series Dune: The Sisterhood. He and his wife live in Seattle, Washington.
 
Kevin J. Anderson has written in many genres: science fiction, epic fantasy, suspense/thriller, and humor. He is best known for his work in the Star Wars, X-Files, Batman, and Superman universes, as well as the space opera The Saga of Seven Suns; the epic fantasy Spine of the Dragon; his humorous Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series; and two steampunk fantasy adventures, Clockwork Angels and Clockwork Lives, written with legendary Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart. Anderson is creative consultant on the new Legendary motion picture of Dune and is co-producer of the forthcoming TV series Dune: The Sisterhood. He is the publisher of WordFire Press and also professor and director of the publishing MA program at Western Colorado University.
 
Together, Herbert and Anderson have written numerous international bestselling novels set in the universe of Frank Herbert s Dune, as well as the definitive graphic novel adaptation of the classic Dune. They are the authors of an original epic science fiction trilogy, Hellhole, Hellhole Awakening,

Each action lays another stone in the remarkable construct of the world of Dune. Booklist
 
The second Dune series is proving to be more accessible and just as entertaining as the original. Oregonian