Tor Books have revealed the final cover for Dune: The Lady of Caladan, the second book in Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson’s new prequel series, The Caladan Trilogy. The story takes place in the turbulent year before Dune and explores the chain of events that set the Atreides family on a collision course with their destiny on Arrakis. The book will be published on September 21, 2021, which, depending where you live, may be shortly after or before the release date of the Dune movie.
Cover art is by Matt Griffin, who also did the illustration for the trilogy’s first book. Lady Jessica, after whom this book is titled, is portrayed fearless as ever, however hints of her conflicted emotional state are showing.
It’s interesting to see how the final version of the artwork differs from earlier promotional content that surfaced in February. While I feel that the latter really captured the character’s emotions in this time period, they were excessively dark.
Dune: The Lady of Caladan will continue to explore the escalating conflicts that erupted in the first book–impacting the lives of members of House Atreides, their enemies House Harkonnen, and other key factions of the Imperium. I’m especially looking forward to an intense journey ahead for Lady Jessica, as she reckons with her past decisions and recent fall out.
Lady Jessica has already betrayed her ancient order, but now she must decide if her loyalty to the Sisterhood is more important than the love of her own family…
The authors also shared that they’ve finished incorporating edits from the publisher and have turned in the final manuscript. We previously learned that this second book will be longer; likely by around 45 hardcover pages, based on the latest word count.
Kevin @TheKJA and I are very happy to share the new cover for THE LADY OF CALADAN, excellent work by @MattGriffinArt. We have turned in the 8th and final production draft of the manuscript, and @TorBooks will release the book on September 21. pic.twitter.com/LfFJanNiGQ
— Brian Herbert (@DuneAuthor) March 5, 2021
If you haven’t started this series, check out our book review of Dune: The Duke of Caladan (spoiler-free).
The second book is now available for pre-order from Amazon and other bookstores.
Source: Tor Books
