Dune: Blood of the Sardaukar #1

Dune: Blood of the Sardaukar #1

BOOM! Studios 2021

Written by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson

Illustrated by Adam Gorham

Coloured by Patricio Delpeche

Lettered by Ed Dukeshire

When the choice is vengeance or honor, which lies at the heart of a Sardaukar?

Jopati Kolona one of the Sardaukar: the emperor's elite military unit. The Sardaukar are unbeatable, unbending in their devotion to the emperor, and feared throughout the galaxy.

When Jopati meets Duke Leto of House Atreides, the house he believes responsible for the destruction of his home planet and family, he will be forced to question a life-long hatred.

Tasked with overthrowing the Atreides stronghold on Dune for his master, Jopati will be forced to choose between duty and forgiveness.

If these books were my introduction to the Dune series you wouldn’t believe the kind of fan I’d be. The original book was much too long winded and dry for me but the way that the boys are telling this story it still has that novelisation feel to it but being a comic book it is able to take the same style of storytelling and add that extra pop making it so much more accessible to the reader. There is something exceptionally dramatic and intriguing by and about what this story offers.

I am very much enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is exceedingly well rendered. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the narration, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter is utterly marvellous in how it portrays these characters as folks we can relate to. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story, the characters and one man’s personal history I found myself caught up in this gripping story.

I greatly appreciate the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge, grow and strengthen thanks to the longer page count. The layers are where we see the characterisation, the plot twists and the backstory plus so much more and these add such great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. The way that everything is working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is greatly rendered.

I am absolutely loving the interior artwork here. The linework is exquisite and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work that we see is astounding. Backgrounds being utilised as they are expand the moments as well as work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is marvellous to see. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. I love how we see faces and facial expressions as they expand the characterisation while the creativity and imagination that we see is sensationally represented as well. The colour work is brilliantly rendered. The hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a stellar eye for colour, how it works and how effective it can be.

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I’m really a huge fan of the Dune franchise here and how it is being told. The story is strong, interesting and has this fantastic dynamic to it that is nearly unexpected. With superb intelligent writing and characterisation alongside some dynamic and beautiful interiors make this far more interesting than you’d ever think it would be.