When something is narrated by Scott Brick you should be sure about one thing i.e the stuff is not second grade at all. The narrator does not put his voice in stories which don’t worth anything in front of the audience. When he puts his voice in something then it is bound to turn into a masterpiece. This is a thirty years old story but the narration has made it something which has come to the world of literature just recently by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.
If one is already familiar with Dune: The Butlerian Jihad and Dune: The Machine Crusade then it would not be hard for him to understand the theme. The story takes place decades before the event of the Dunes and three main characters are playing different roles in the story. Leto is the heir of the House of Atreides and along with him is a prince and a slave who has just run out of the clutches of slavery.
The story joins the fate of these characters together in a strange way. Leto was not ready for a war because he was busy with his studies as usual and the enemies just launched a big campaign against the whole planet at once. In desperation, Leto ran for his life and never looked back till he thought that he had landed in safe heaven.
Later in the further chapters, the story has the significant role of Helena who kills the Duke in a mastery way. The novel discusses several stories in a single go and the author’s motive was perhaps the introduction of several things at a time. It was more like a rehearsal for the future parts of the series which would conclude these things one by one.