Dune News
BACKGROUND ON THE BUTLERIAN JIHAD
I
n
the original DUNE Chronicles, Frank Herbert created a future history spanning
40,000 years. In these novels, he made numerous references to a titanic,
multi-generational holy war in which humans won their freedom from the
domination of "thinking machines." In their LEGENDS OF DUNE Trilogy,
Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson introduce the characters and worlds that
DUNE readers around the globe have previously seen only in tantalizing clues
sprinkled throughout the original novels. Readers will finally witness how
Serena Butler's passion and grief ignite the war that liberates humans from
their machine masters, learn the circumstances behind the great betrayal that
made mortal enemies of House Atreides and House Harkonnen, experience the Battle
of Corrin that created a galactic empire lasting until the reign of Emperor
Shaddam IV. Through their artful magic, the authors reveal the foundations of
the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, the Suk Doctors, the Order of Mentats, the
mysteriously altered Navigators of the Spacing Guild and, finally, tell the
amazing tale of the Zensunni Wanderers who escape bondage to flee to the desert
world where they will declare themselves the Free Men of Dune.
One hundred and ten centuries from now, humanity has spread across space. And all-powerful machines rule the humans who were once their masters.
It began in the Time of Titans, when ambitious men and women used high-powered computers to seize control of the heart of the Old Empire, including Earth itself. The tyrants translated their brains into mobile mechanical bodies and created a new race, the immortal man-machine hybrids called cymeks. Then the cymek's planetary computers—each known as Omnius—seized control from their overlords and a thousand years of brutal rule by the thinking machines began.
The
human race still clings to life. Some—like idealistic Serena Butler of the
free planet Salusa Secundus and her betrothed, the soldier Xavier Harkonnen—even
dream of overthrowing the machines and freeing their human slaves. Others-like
Vorian Atreides, bastard son of the cymek Agamemnon—are proud to serve the
machines.
But their world faces disaster. Impatient with human beings' endless disobedience and the cymeks' continued plotting to regain their power, Omnius has decided that it no longer needs them. Only the destruction of thinking machines can save the human race from extermination.
