Dune: Blood of the Sardaukar (2021)

Dune: Blood of the Sardaukar (2021)

Authors: Brian Herbert + Kevin J. Anderson | Illustrator: Adam Gorham | Page Count: 42

[No Quote]

A one-shot story set in the DUNE universe, revolving around a Sardaukar colonel by the name of Jopati Kolona, who, according to the promotional blurb, must 'choose between duty and forgiveness', but it's not in any meaningful way, thanks to the weak characterisation and dull backstory that the 'elite' military leader is given.

Under orders from the Padishah Emperor, Shaddam IV, Col. Jopati participates in a situation that he deems dishonourable, and which gives rise to a moral dilemma.

Interestingly, the story's primary setting is the same as it was in the other one-shot by the same authors that I read recently, A Whisper of Caladan Seas (2021), which featured soldiers from the opposing army. The situations are different but occur around the same time. [1]

The time period for both is the same as that established by DUNE creator Frank Herbert in his first novel (1965), specifically the coordinated Harkonnen attack on House Atreides' base at Arrakeen, but the story jumps from planet to planet often in Jopati's flashback narrative, from his homeworld of Borhees to Kaitain, then to Borhees again, then Salusa Secundus, then Arrakis, then back to Salusa Secundus, then a return to Kaitan, and finally ending on Arrakis. If you're not already familiar with each destination's unique attributes and leadership, then it'll be little more than a series of unusual names with no real significance.

Only once did it feel like any attempt to establish societal differences was made, and that's thanks to the artist and colourist, Adam Gorham and Patricio Delpeche, not the authors.

The story is told from the colonel's perspective, in a supposedly troubled but ultimately passionless manner. There's an attempt to add dramatic irony by having a defining event in his life be similar to the one that he's presently involved in — and is being vexed by — but it doesn't have the dramatic power that it was probably supposed to because the text is so pathetically bland. That's also the reason I've not included a quote above; nothing in the written word stood out, with one exception: the closing lines of the story, and I'm not going to add those.

[1] The Blood of the Sardaukar one-shot was released before A Whisper of Caladan Seas' comic book adaptation, but I chose to experience them in reverse order because the latter was Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's first ever collaborative DUNE short story, so if there was any progression in the writing skills it may then become apparent. But there wasn't. The opposite was true; Blood of the Sardaukar was even more amateurish than its predecessor.

If you want to experience both stories for yourself but don't want to track down the individual one-shots, they're available together in the Dune: Tales from Arrakeen (2022) hardcover. That's two crap stories side by side for more than the cost of buying them separately. Yay?