Book Three of the Epic Prequel to the Classic Novel Dune —Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture   The grand finale of the complex epic trilogy of the generation before Frank Herbert’s masterwork Dune .   Shaddam Corrino IV, Emperor of the Known Universe, has risked everything to create a substitute for the spice melange . . .   The substance that makes space travel possible . . .   That prolongs life . . .   That allows prescience . . .   A substance that is found only on the desert planet Arrakis, a harsh world of storms and monstrous sandworms.   Shaddam has used the noble houses as chess pieces for his scheme, causing the overthrow of powerful families, raising other houses to power.   The Bene Gesserit Sisterhood works their own plans, manipulating bloodlines, trying to create their long-awaited messiah, the Kwisatz Haderach.   Duke Leto Atreides battles his mortal enemy, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, while his love for the beautiful and wise Jessica grows even in the face of bloodshed and betrayal.   But are they all just pawns of an inevitable future centered around the planet Dune?   Look for the entire prequel series DUNE: HOUSE ATREIDES • DUNE: HOUSE HARKONNEN • DUNE: HOUSE CORRINO “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 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 , and  Hellhole Inferno . 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 et