The desert planet - the legends
The Desert Planet - The Legends is a trilogy of novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson . The three-volume cycle is a prehistory to the novel series Dune . It tells the story of the human revolt against the machines who wanted to rule the galaxy. These events form the basis for the later political, social and economic order of the empire. The events take place about 10,000 years before The Desert Planet . The novels were written after the death of Frank Herbert .
References to the later novels
Right from the start, the protagonists included some of the ancestors of characters from the later Dune novels, such as Vorian Atreides, who was an ally of the machines, or the general of the free people, Xavier Harkonnen . The emergence of the large organizations is also clear here. Zensunni Selim, for example, discovered the possibility of riding a sandworm, which, together with changes introduced by his tribal brother Ishmael, laid the foundation for the Fremen culture. On the planet Rossak , only the female inhabitants develop telepathic skills and the ability to carry out targeted genetic breeding programs. Norma Cenva , who also comes from Rossak, is a brilliant inventor who, among many other things, also invents space-folding ships and becomes the first navigator herself . On the planet Tlulax , the inhabitants develop techniques for growing and implanting body parts, which will later lead to the culture of the Bene Tleilax .
content
The first volume begins with a brief look back at the end of the old empire. After humanity had spread over much of the galaxy without encountering intelligent life on any world, a lethargy spread across all human worlds. More and more areas of everyday life were left to machines and computers. Finally, a visionary who called himself Tlaloc tried to give society a new boost. He called for the overthrow of the rulers of the empire and gathered like-minded people around him, who from then on called themselves the titans . These combined the thinking machines with weapon systems and soon conquered large parts of the known galaxy. Opposite them was the League of Nobles , which secured free territories. While the titans transformed themselves into cymeks by transplanting their original brains into mechanical and interchangeable bodies, domination took place for about a century. Then one of the titans gave artificial intelligence too much freedom, so the computers developed their own intelligence in the form of the Omnius network . Omnius subjugated the Titans and established an empire of the so-called synchronized worlds with its headquarters on the former homeworld of the humans, now called Terra-Omnius , which still faced the worlds of the League of Nobles, as well as some non-alliance planets. About a thousand years after the appearance of Omnius, the story of the legends begins , which describes the decisive battle between him and the free men.
After a major attack by machines and cymeks on the main world of the League of Nobles, Salusa Secundus , people realize that a counterattack has to be dared. The defense system developed by Tio Holtzman was previously considered safe, but the offensive showed that the machines were capable of learning enough to overcome even seemingly impenetrable barriers. Before any plans can be forged, the machines make a second attack, this time on Giedi Primus . The planet cannot withstand the attackers. Contrary to the decisions of the league, the daughter of the league chairman Serena Butler decides to start a rescue operation. With a small squad she arrives at Giedi Primus and causes considerable damage to the machines, so that the League's fleet, which is forced to act, can recapture the planet. Serena is caught and made a slave of Erasmus. There she learns that she is pregnant from Xavier Harkonnen.
In a world of the league there is now a slave revolt, but it is bloodily suppressed. At the same time, people on earth are rebelling against the rule of Omnius. This rebellion is sparked by the brutal murder of Serena's child Manion by Erasmus in front of the people. This uprising will also be stopped by force and all people on earth will be killed. Serena escapes with Vorian Atreides and Iblis Ginjo, two defectors. Back on Salusa Secundus, the three refugees convince the league of the need to call a religiously motivated war against Omnius. Serena uses the indignation over the murder of her son as an impetus and proclaims Butler's jihad on his behalf . An armada moves towards Earth and bombs it with nuclear weapons until it is completely destroyed. Vorian captured a copy of the Omnius consciousness. The machines move their center to the planet Corrin .
Decades of armed conflict followed. During this time Serena Butler temporarily withdraws from the public eye and leaves the control of the masses to her deputy Iblis Ginjo, who develops into a demagogue and seeks to gain total control over the worlds of the League by founding a secret police called Djipol . In the course of events, Serena dies a martyr's death . At the same time, the situation becomes more complicated as the titans seek open war with Omnius and also carry out targeted attacks on the league.
When Omnius spreads a deadly plague across the worlds of the League, human society threatens to succumb. The machines pull together their entire force to kill the surviving people. But these have meanwhile developed an extremely fast drive for their fleet with which they haunt and completely destroy all the now unprotected worlds of the machines. Billions of human slaves living there are also killed. The thinking machines withdraw to their last remaining world Corrin, which is so massively besieged that a stalemate arises. After more than 90 years, Butler's jihad is declared over.
After twenty years of siege, the titans and their cymeks have been destroyed. The human fleet dares a major attack on Corrin and defeats Omnius and his machines. Faykan Butler unites the relevant offices of the league and puts himself as the first Padishah emperor over the newly proclaimed empire of the people. In memory of the last battle, he changes his name and that of his house from Butler to Corrino .
Parallel storylines tell how the boy Ishmael is captured by the Tlulaxians. During the years of slavery he tries to maintain his pacifist attitude and to defend it against incitement from other slaves. When a slave revolt gets out of hand, he kidnaps the prototype of a space-folding ship and flees to Arrakis with a group of his followers . There the outcast Zensunni Selim learned to ride sandworms and had visions of a self-sufficient life of the tribes in the desert. Ishmael unites his group of refugees with Selim's desert nomads and calls the tribe Free men , a name that later becomes Fremen .
You also learn about the collaboration between Tio Holtzman and Norma Cenva. Many inventions emerge from this cooperation that are essential for the progress of history. Your stepfather Aurelius Venport. who has become incredibly rich by building a trading empire supports them. When she falls out of favor with Holtzman and is banished, Norma is captured by one of the titans. Under his torture she gains contact with the consciousness of all of her female ancestors, as the Bene Gesserit later deliberately bring about in their spice agony. Through the experienced vision she learns to master the technology of space folding ships and thus lays the foundation for the later space guild .
Further aspects of the later social order emerge during these three novels. So the robot Erasmus is the first Mentat from the doctor Raquella founds the Bene Gesserit and Jool Noret the sword master of Ginaz.
The world order in The Legends
The synchronized worlds
The realm of machines is dominated by the computer universal spirit Omnius and his assistant Erasmus, who is equipped with individual freedoms . Omnius left copies of himself on all the worlds he ruled. These are synchronized by updates transported by spaceship. The people of the synchronized worlds are either their slaves or collaborators (also called trustees ). The cymeks, the former titans, who integrate their brains into interchangeable robot bodies, play a prominent role. Because of its primary programming, Omnius is unable to kill a Titan. In the course of time, the titans developed the plan to overthrow Omnius and put themselves at the head of the machine kingdom. Particularly deserving collaborators are given the honor of being able to carry out this conversion as well. These are then called neo-cymeks . The inhabitants of the league worlds are disparagingly referred to as untamed people or Hrethgir . Although machines consider themselves superior to humans, many keep a slave in order to learn from their unrational behavior.
The League of Nobles
The League sees Omnius and his empire as an enemy. Nevertheless, it is better to avoid confrontations, especially since the machines have not been attacked for a long time. Although the enslavement of humans by machines is despised, the League has no problem tolerating slavery itself. She gets her slaves from the unconnected worlds, which is justified by the fact that followers of Buddhism live there who did not take part in the historical war against the machines because of their pacifist attitude, which the league, however, regards as cowardice. Slaves are often treated very badly in the league, for example not receiving medical care, because it is cheaper to let them die and get new ones.
The Unconnected Worlds
The Unconnected Worlds have no overarching organization. Many of them are inhabited by the followers of Buddhism, who have often relapsed into an almost pre-civilizational stage of development. Others have their own reasons not to join the league. At Tleilux, for example, they value the absence of ethical and legal controls. As a result, many of the organs and body parts made available there can simply be removed by slaves from other planets instead of actually being grown as claimed.
Novels of legends
- Legends of Dune: The Butlerian Jihad (German: The Desert Planet - The Legends 1: Butler's Jihad, 2002)
- Legends of Dune: The Machine Crusade (Eng. The desert planet - Die Legenden 2: Der Kreuzzug, 2003)
- Legends of Dune: The Battle of Corrin (Eng. The desert planet - Die Legenden 3: Die Kampf von Corrin, 2004)
Web links
- Official Dune site (English)