The Testaments is the long-awaited sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. Credit:AP

Readers have been waiting 34 years for a sequel to Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale – and now a lucky few won't have to wait a week longer.

The highly anticipated follow-up, The Testaments, appears to have escaped the Gilead-style security surrounding its planned worldwide release next Tuesday, sending publishers, publicity teams and the book media into a frenzy.

The novel is one of the biggest releases of the year and has been under lock and key, with even the Booker Prize judges, who added the novel to the award's shortlist yesterday, warned they would be held accountable if their watermarked copy broke the embargo.

But some fans who pre-ordered the book on Amazon were shouting "praise be" on Wednesday as they posted pictures on social media of copies of The Testaments, which appeared in their mail boxes close to a week before the novel's official publication date on September 10.