Dune: The Duke of Caladan

A rift develops between Duke Leto and Lady Jessica when she is ordered by the Bene Gesserit to secretly limit Noble House genetic selections for a possible arranged marriage for the young Paul and Leto discovers Jessica's manipulations. The rift widens when the Bene Gesserit forces Jessica back to their home world against the express demands of Leto that Jessica should not go. Meanwhile a vendetta against Emperor Shaddam IV by a radical family member from the leadership of CHOAM wipes out many heads of the Noble Houses when a terror plot against the Emperor is carried out. Leto considers requesting the Emperor grant him other worlds to be placed under Atreides control in lieu of the power vacuum created by the terrorist event while at the same time the terrorist leader contacts Leto and asks him to join with him in overthrowing the Emperor.

It must be difficult to attempt to write additional meaningful details about anyone who is a familiar character in this well-known series - I give the writers a (very small) kudo for attempting it. Unfortunately, in my opinion, they did not come close to reaching the levels of the original series of books by Frank Herbert. The problem for me was lack of any real tension or excitement – no matter the scenario or danger being faced, one knows in advance that the characters will come through relatively unscathed, because that is how they first appeared in the original books. The purported life-threatening situations as a result just fell flat. I have read and enjoyed almost all of the authors' previous Dune books, but this was a big let-down for me. After only a few chapters, I stopped caring, and decided to go re-read the originals instead – so this is a “did not finish” for me.