Hunting Harkonnens is a short story by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, set 15 years prior to the events of Dune: The Butlerian Jihad.
The Harkonnen family moved to Salusa Secundus from Hagal. Ulf Harkonnen scolded his son, Piers for being too soft with the slaves. Above Caladan, a fleet of cymek ships led by Agamemnon attacked the transport. Everyone died except Piers who was jettisoned on the planet.
The cymeks still pursued him in the jungle when he met a tribe of Zensunni Caladan primitives led by Tiddoc. These particular Zensunni primitives lived in a geologically unstable region of the planet. They have their way to battle with cymeks, and how to disable them with minimal losses. Piers observed how they managed to attack and dismantle, part by part, the cymek who pursued him, and how they took the cymek's brain canister as a trophy, which they tortured afterwards.
The next day, Agamemnon himself visited the planet. The battle with the tribesmen erupted, when eventually Agamemnon grasped Piers. Unfortunately for both, they stood above a geyser, and fell into a lava pit. Agamemnon's brain canister detached and flew off the planet, while Piers survived, terribly bruised.
Piers knew there was no way to go back, and joined the tribe of the Zensunnis; none in the League of Nobles will ever know his fate. Xavier Harkonnen on Salusa, is virtually without family, and is adopted by the Tantors.
Continuity[]
Characters[]
- Ulf Harkonnen
- Katarina Harkonnen
- Piers Harkonnen
- Agamemnon
- Omnius (Mentioned only)
- Tiddoc
- Xavier Harkonnen
- Emil Tantor
Planets and Locations[]
- Salusa Secundus
- Caladan
- Hagal (Mentioned only)
Behind the Scenes[]
This, and the other Legends of Dune short stories, were originally made available on the dunenovels.com website as Adobe Acrobat PDF files, for free download here. They appear to be no longer available in this manner, but are included in The Road to Dune and Tales of Dune.
Ulf's lines about how Piers' civilized attitude to the slaves is not cruel enough to be worth of the Harkonnen name, echoes the much "later" Harkonnens, established by the Original Dune. However all other Harkonnens in the Legends of Dune series (including Katrina, Piers, Xavier, etc.) are noble and heroic personalities.