Dune saga: In which order should I read prequels, books and sequels?

Question

I'm really lucky, finally here in Spain all Frank Herbert's books will be published by the same editor in pocket edition! Unluckily all his works will be published in chronological order, and Dune has some prequels which I would read before the others (I have already read the classic six books saga), but I don't know what I should read before...

I think I should start with The Butlerian Jihad, followed by The Machine Crusade and The Battle Of Corrin, but.. what comes after? Maybe the three books of the three houses? Or should I read them before the The Butlerian Jihad ? And what comes after the Heretics Of Dune ?

In total 18 books of Dune will be published. Anybody can help me to put them in the right reading order?

Answer 1

I would recommend the following rough order:

Note: Books published by Frank Herbert himself are marked with "(FH)"; the rest (sequels/prequels) are written by Brian Herbert (his son) and Kevin J. Anderson.

Note: The answer is accurate/complete to the best of my knowledge as of August 2023. It may need to be updated if BH+KA publish more

1. Herbert's Dune trilogy (main timeline), with 2 chronologically-inserted Anderson books from the "Heroes of Dune" interquel and a couple of KA/BH short stories:

   • Dune (FH)
   • Optional: Paul of Dune (Heroes of Dune prequels)
   • "The Road to Dune" short story (FH) - published in Eye.
   • Dune Messiah (FH)
   • Optional: Winds of Dune (Heroes of Dune prequels)
   • Children of Dune (FH)
   • Road to Dune stories (2005, not related to FH's short story above) by KA/BH:
     • Spice Planet (an alternate Dune story)
     • Herbert's letters related to publishing Dune
     • Missing chapters
   • Optional: Short stories set around time of Dune ("A Whisper of Caladan Seas" [in Road]; "Wedding Silk" [in Tales:Expanded]; "Waters of Kanly" [in Sands]; "Blood of the Sardaukar" [in Sands])

   The reason for this order is two-fold:

   • Many people (subjective opinion) consider Herbert's Dune series to be far better than Anderson+Brian Herbert's prequels. As such, it should be read first. However, the interquel books are well regarded and can be read together, in chronological order.

   • If you read prequels first, the magic of the novel structure and revelations that Frank Herbert intended is going to be violated.

   • Jar-Jar Binks

   Once done with these, you can choose to do one of two things next:

   • See how the Dune Universe got to where it is now, by reading the prequels in in-universe chronological order (written by BH+KA).

   • ... OR; first read the "After the Scattering" sequels that happen after Children of Dune (first two books were by FH, rest by BH+KA). This can be done before reading any of the prequels, so if you wish to do so, you can read books in list item #7 below ("After the Scattering") first, before continuing onto the prequels.

     Personally, I like the exact order of this answer (prequels before sequels), but in some ways it is more aesthetic preference than factual decision - both approaches are OK. The main benefit of reading sequels first, is that you get Frank Herbert written books right away. The main benefit of reading the prequels first is that it deeply enriches the universe, helps make sense of some of the details in the sequels which to me feels beneficial but not required.

2. Prequels, far past (Legends of Dune series + short stories):

   • "Hunting Harkonnens" (short story) [in Road]
   • The Butlerian Jihad
   • "Whipping Mek" (short story) [in Road]
   • The Machine Crusade
   • "The Faces of a Martyr" (short story) [in Road]
   • The Battle of Corrin

3. "Great Schools of Dune" prequels

   • Sisterhood of Dune
   • Mentats of Dune
   • "Red Plague" (short story, prequel to "Navigators") [in Tales:Expanded]
   • Navigators of Dune (Original working title "The Swordmasters of Dune")
   • "Imperial Court" (short story) [in Sands]

4. "Prelude to Dune" prequels:

   • "The Edge of a Crysknife" (short story) [in Sands]
   • House Atreides
   • House Harkonnen
   • House Corrino

5. "The Caladan Trilogy" prequels (set right before Dune itself)

   • The Duke of Caladan
   • The Lady of Caladan
   • The Heir of Caladan

6. "Heroes of Dune" prequels

   These are set at different times, so they can be read in-between specific books in earlier-listed order, or just as a separate trilogy:

   • Paul of Dune (set between Dune itself and Dune Messiah)
   • The Winds of Dune (complicated - from what I understand has stuff from before Dune, and between Dune, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune)
   • Princess of Dune [Not published yet - 2023] (Set in 2 years before Dune)
   • Some other short stories set right before or after Dune - some of them you may have read as part of #1 set already ("Wedding Silk", "Waters of Kanly", "Blood of the Sardaukar", "The Edge of a Crysknife")

7. Future books in chronological order ("After the Scattering" grouping):

   • God Emperor of Dune (FH)
   • Heretics of Dune (FH)
   • Chapterhouse: Dune (FH)
   • "Sea Child" (short story) [in Tales:Expanded]
   • Hunters of Dune
   • "Treasure in the Sand" (short story) [in Tales or Tales:Expanded]
   • Sandworms of Dune

8. I may have missed a couple of short stories, but you should read them in correct chronological order. Wikipedia has a great table showing which short stories go with which novels.

9. Now, important: re-read Dune or even the entire original trilogy.

   This is critical. Now that you have the information in prequels (yes, some not always as great as Frank Herbert's work, but many based on his ideas and outlines), re-read Dune and enjoy how the rich history of the Universe folds into the gem that Dune is.

10. Short story sources.

    There are several short stories, and they go in different places in recommended order (largely based on in-universe chronology). This section is not about order - it what are the sources for the short stories, which are individually mentioned elsewhere in the "order" sections above.

    • Tales of Dune and Tales of Dune: Expanded Edition anthologies. Marked as [Tales]/[Tales:Expanded] in this answer
    • Sands of Dune anthology ([Sands])
    • Eye collection (contains FH's "The Road to Dune" prequel story)
    • Road to Dune - NOT to be confused with FH's story of the same name!!! This is an BH+KA anthology which contains several short stories, letters, alternate versions (including alternate version of Dune itself), and missing chapters. ([Road])

Answer 2

This is definitely a "personal choice" kind of question but my advice would be to stick with the strict chronological order of publishing if for no other reason than that the original Dune Series (written by Frank Herbert) is substantially better written than the later books written by Brian Herbert and you may be put off by the poor quality of the later books.

Essential

Frank Herbert;

• Dune (1965)

• Dune Messiah (1969)

• Children of Dune (1976)

• God Emperor of Dune (1981)

• Heretics of Dune (1984)

• Chapterhouse: Dune (1985)

Optional:

Brian Herbert/Kevin J. Anderson:

• Prelude to Dune series:

  • House Atreides (1999)

  • House Harkonnen (2000)

  • House Corrino (2001)

• Legends of Dune series:

  • The Butlerian Jihad (2002)

  • The Machine Crusade (2003)

  • The Battle of Corrin (2004)

  • Hunters of Dune (2006)

  • Sandworms of Dune (2007)

• Heroes of Dune series:

  • Paul of Dune (2008)

  • The Winds of Dune (2009)

• Great Schools of Dune series:

  • Sisterhood of Dune (2012)

  • Mentats of Dune (2014)

Answer 3

Having read all of these books when they were first published, and re-read many of them, I can in all honesty say Dune is the most essential of all of them. Read that first. Then follow with the other five by FH. Everything after that is a long haul, but if you enjoy the story, worth the trip.

Usul has called a big one! Again it is the legend.

Answer 4

Dune is the only essential book in the entire series, as Frank Herbert (as well as his son Brian, writing with Kevin J. Anderson) makes his entire postulate in that volume. Having said this, if you enjoy the original, keep going until you feel it's no longer entertaining. I read the originals years ago before he died and felt increasing disappointment with each successive book. I picked them up again 30 years later and didn't enjoy the original as much as I'd remembered, but found the sequels much better than before.

At this time, I read all the Dune books written by Brian and Kevin also. While they have a much different writing style than Frank, it's not always a bad thing. On the down side, Miles Teg went from being an amazing general (as written by Frank), allowing him to plan for otherwise-unforeseen circumstances that allowed him and Duncan to escape, to a completely incompetent ship's security chief (as written by "the others"), which allowed crew members to be repeatedly killed and replaced by Face Dancers while he cluelessly tried to figure it out. On the up side, Frank often bogs down the narrative with endless internalization that doesn't progress the plot or add anything new, just beats a dead horse until he's tired of belaboring the point, while "the others" keep a more active pace in the writing.

This being said, I wouldn't recommend a first-time reader to start chronologically (at The Butlerian Jihad at this point, counting only novels), although I enjoyed the Legends and Great Schools books immensely. I really enjoyed reading about the events that made the universe the way it came to be in the time of Dune. Also, two of my favorite Dune-universe characters came out of these books: Vorian Atreides and Norma Cenva.

If you've made it this far, and enjoy Dune itself, I would continue with the original series through Chapterhouse: Dune, then continue with the next two books chronologically (Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune), which gets you to the end, then I'd start with The Butlerian Jihad and continue chronologically from there.

Those are just my two cents.

Answer 5

It depends on whether you are new to the saga or a newcomer. Anyway, I read Dune first in 2001, for a better understanding I would recommend reading classic Dune first (i.e. the six FH novels). When you re read the saga, do it as follows (please note reading order does not reflect publishing order):

• Dune
• The Road to Dune (Dune missing chapters, A Whisper of Caladan Seas short story)
• The Road to Dune (Spice Planet)
• Paul of Dune
• Dune Messiah
• The Road to Dune (Dune Messiah missing chapters)
• Winds of Dune
• Children of Dune
• God Emperor of Dune
• Heretics of Dune
• Chapterhouse: Dune
• The Road to Dune (Sea Child short story)
• Hunters of Dune
• Sandworms of Dune
• House Atreides
• House Harkonnen
• House Corrino
• The Road to Dune (Hunting Harkonnens short story)
• The Butlerian Jihad
• The Road to Dune (Whipping Mek short story)
• The Machine Crusade
• The Road to Dune (The Faces of a Martyr short story)
• The Battle of Corrin
• Sisterhood of Dune

I have not yet read Mentats of Dune

Answer 6

Start with Frank Herbert's "Dune".

Just realize that is just jumps right in, using terms that a first time reader won't know. It's a genre convention. So just roll with it.

Answer 7

Start with Dune, this is by far the best and you could just finish it just there. If you want to go on, things do slow down with the remaining 5 books and you'll need patience to get to the interesting stuff but for me, they are still worth it for showing the completeness of his vision and contributing depth to the plot and characters in Dune. FH never finished the series, he wrote six out of seven books before he died. The sequels and prequels written by Kevin Anderson and Brian Herbert are not worth it. Not at all. They are just milking the Herbert cash cow and their writing is simply not in the same league as Frank's. IMO that time would be better spent reading something by Lem, Heinlein, LeGuin etc.