Frank Herbert’s 1965 Dune was an overwhelming success.
Winning awards and selling millions of copies, little did readers know,
however, it was only the
beginning of the Family Atreides saga.
Picking up events roughly a decade after Paul’s ascension to Emperor, Dune Messiah is the story of his descent
from power. Knocking the hero he created
off his pedestal, readers should be prepared for a large number of changes in
the story—and not all are for the better.
Dune
Messiah continues the saga of the Atreides family in epic,
soap-operatic fashion. Paul, having
expanded his power to over much of the known universe since becoming Emperor in
Dune, is nevertheless helpless to
prevent the religious fanaticism and destruction caused by his Fremen
followers, drawing the hatred and ire of the opposition in the process. Chani, now his concubine, is unable to conceive
due to contraceptives the consort Irulan is secretly slipping her. Paul is aware of the fact, but his visions
have shown him that Chani dies in childbirth, and thus does nothing to stop
Irulan. New cabals have arisen,
also. The Benne-Gesserits, Spacing
Guild, and a newly introduced species of shapeshifters called the Tleilaxu plot
together to dethrone Paul. Everyone’s
fate once again uncertain, major changes on Arrakis are in the works.
