Dune: The Waters of Kanly (2022)

Dune: The Waters of Kanly (2022)

Authors: Brian Herbert + Kevin J. Anderson | Illustrator: Francesco Mortarino | Page Count: 24 x 4 issues (inc covers, etc; it's only about 82 of actual story content)

'There was a traitor among the Atreides... a traitor.'

The Herbert + Anderson machine just keep shitting them out. And while it's well-known that you can't polish a turd, it seems you can stretch it out into four parts.

Set after the Battle of Arrakeen, as it happened in Frank Herbert's first DUNE novel (1965), it follows Gurney Halleck, the weapons master of House Atreides. In order to properly comment on the story I'll need to refer to the outcome of that battle, so there will be MAJOR SPOILERS for the first novel in what follows.

Folks who've read the novel will know that from Gurney's perspective his beloved Duke is dead, as is the noble's son and the Lady Jessica, all because someone inside of House Atreides lowered the shield walls, giving the Harkonnens a strategic advantage. Gurney and about six dozen other survivors lick their wounds and take shelter with smugglers. The Waters of Kanly invents a story of what he did while he was there, before his return in the original text.

Told from the weapons master's own perspective, it has him obsessed with revenge. He's like a scratched record on a chorus of kanly, kanly, kanly! All-consuming vengeance can be a useful tool in characterisation, but in Herbert + Anderson's hands its just another way to fill the page count. They're masters of repetition, and little else; a trait that's more prevalent in their short stories and novels. (That's what happens when you pay writers by the word.) Speaking of which, the story of TWoK could easily have been told in two issues, or a single (overpriced) one-shot like both A Whisper of Caladan Seas (2021) and Blood of the Sardaukar (2021) were.

On the rare occasion that TWoK's protagonist isn't obsessing over revenge, he works on writing a song, a musical lament for what he's lost, with some awful lyrics. It's another opportunity for characterisation wasted. (Don't give up the day job, Halleck. Oh, you kind of already did.)

Visually, Francesco Mortarino's art is of a high standard, although he seems more suited to exaggerated action comics than to drama; that's not a criticism, just an observation. His panels are bold and his characters each have unique attributes that make identifying them easy, such as Gurney's epic lambchops. The problem is the colouring, which wasn't by Mortarino's own hand.

It's much too colourful and clean. Gurney's red, white, and blue costume is a perfect example of what not to do in context. He looks more like a Marvel superhero than a battle-worn man of war: the newest member of the Avengers, Captain Baliset, makes his debut this issue! When it moves location it fares better, but the 'superhero comic book colour' feeling never left me.

The single memorable event in TWoK comes in Issue 04. It's a pleasing dramatic irony, softened somewhat by the authors' need to signpost it. Beyond that, I saw nothing of value in the text.