Dune: House Harkonnen #10 - BOOM! Studios

DUNE: HOUSE HARKONNEN No. 10, October 2023

Largely focusing upon Leto Atreides and his discontent with the incredibly unreasonable Kailea Vernius, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson’s penmanship certainly should have captivated the attention of any bibliophile even remotely interested in this science-fiction franchise about ‘noble houses controlling planetary fiefs.’ True, the creative partnership’s twenty-two-page plot does occasionally stray a little far away from the captivating political tension between the two former lovers, such as when Baron Vladimar Harkonnen strangely decides to stick an infant Feyd-Rautha right in front of a Laza Tiger and becomes upset that the baby is positively petrified at the beast’s angry roar. But it soon returns to the Duke’s misery and the reader’s sickening realisation that his concubine means to assassinate him rather than lose out to another woman.

Indeed, this truly horrible betrayal is really rather well-penned as it arguably sneaks up upon the audience, even whilst Caladan’s leader is still desperately attempting to seek some reconciliation with the mother of his son, by having the walls of his palace installed with blue obsidian. Such endearing devotion on behalf of “Leto the Just” makes the moment Rhombur’s sister decides to actually kill the person responsible for rescuing her from a life of slavery, all the more impactive – especially when it comes straight after the news that Earl Dominic has been slain by the Sardaukar and the slim possibility of her turning back to the Duke for comfort in her grief; “My father is dead. I have given up everything in this life!”

Sitting alongside this devious ‘scheme of destruction and death’ is the less successful subplot of Duncan Idaho and his fellow Swordmasters of Ginaz being abducted by a boatload of grumpy Grumman. Just how warriors who are supposedly superior to even the “elite military force of the Padishah Emperor” are so easily captured by a blow to the head from a cut-throat is far from convincing. However, to make matters even more contrived, rather than murder their bound prisoners for supposedly slapping “our Viscount in the face by expelling the students”, prodigious penciller Michael Shelfer is tasked to depict the pirates releasing the detainees whilst at sea, and unsurprisingly then watch as some simply dive into the safety of the surrounding water.

Written by: Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson, and Illustrated by: Michael Shelfer