The Winds of Dune

June 22, 2009
Set immediately after Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah
(1969), this satisfying tale from Herbert’s son and Anderson (Paul of Dune
) follows Jessica, the mother of galactic emperor Paul Atreides, as she returns to the desert planet Dune for her son’s funeral. Paul’s suicide after his mistress’s childbed death leaves his sister, the insane and brutal Alia, as regent for his twin children. Alia releases Princess Irulan, Paul’s wife and biographer, from house arrest on the condition that she present Paul as a god, even as Bronso of Ix circulates contrasting writings focusing on Paul’s humanity. Alia, Jessica, Bronso and Irulan can describe aspects of Paul, but no single narrative can capture him. Fans of the original Dune series will love seeing familiar characters, and the narrative voice smoothly evokes the elder Herbert’s style.

Scott Brick delivers an impressive one-man show. Brick's voice is ideally suited to this sprawling story, the second book in the Heroes of Dune trilogy. In many scenes Brick must handle differentiating between the speech and thoughts of the various characters, and he does so with aplomb. The book begins after the events of DUNE MESSIAH. Paul has walked off into the sand, blind, and now is presumed dead. Alia is trying to hold the Imperial government together with Duncan Idaho, while re-establishing her relationship with her mother. As the truth is revealed about Paul's relationship with the voice of dissent and his intent regarding the jihad is discovered, Brick never lets the tension dissipate. Listeners will be glued to the high drama. B.E. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine