Dune Messiah

Dune Messiah - Frank Herbert

Book 2 of the Dune Saga, my least favorite.

Paul Atreides, better known now as Muad'Dib is Emperor, thanks to the stranglehold he holds on the geriatric/hallucinogenic drug known as the spice melange, via his fanatic and ruthless Fremen troops.

The story has Paul spending most of his time lamenting his prescience power, and seemingly inescapable fate, where he is a religious figurehead and a jihad is waged in his name, killing billions upon billions.

The rest of the book is divided about evenly between the conspirators and Hayt, the ghola created from Duncan Idaho's remains with Tleilaxu technology.

The Duneverse is greatly expanded upon, presenting the above mentioned Bene Tleilaxu and their creations, like facedancers and gholas.

It is worth reading mostly because it sets up the next Dune book, where Paul's sister Alia is regent for his chidren Leto II and Ghanima, and how they come into their own.

Dune

Frank Herbert's seminal work, considered by many the greatest SF book. I haven't made my mind up about that yet, but it is definitely in the top 10, possibly top 5.

Set thousands of years into the future, the story revolves around a desert planet called Arrakis, also known as Dune, which is the only known source of Spice melange. This drug is the basis of all interstellar travel, commerce and power, very much like oil today.

However, Dune is incredibly harsh; giant worms "swim" through the sand, capable of swallowing whole spice processing factories. Also, the desert people, known as Fremen make life difficult for miners, prospectors and soldiers alike. And they have a dream.

Two families, the Harkonnens and the Atreides have been feuding for centuries, and when the Harkonnens conspire with the Emperor Shadam Corrino to hand over Dune to the Atreides and betray them, a series of events involving young Paul Atreides unfold that will have far reaching consequences for the whole galaxy.

The novel explores religion, politics, ecology, power and technology in an intriguing way, as villains and heroes conspire, plot and counterplot both on the battlefield and in the palaces.

In these new times of ecological awareness, this book provides food for thought, and leaves us wanting more... Fortunately Mr. Herbert wrote five sequels before his death. Afterwards, his son Brian teamed with Kevin J. Anderson to write more sequels and prequels in a manner much like the Starwars expanded Universe.

Legends of Dune

For those fans of Frank Herbert's Dune saga, his son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have teamed up to shore up the backdrop of the saga itself

This Trilogy consists of three works that explain one of the main tenets of the Dune Universe, the religious ban against thinking machines, bringing into context the importance of the melange in Herbert Sr.'s saga:

• The Butlerian Jihad
• The Machine Crusade
• The Battle of Corrin

The events in this trilogy take place over ten thousand years before the original Dune saga.
Humanity has raged a war against the thinking machines, led by Omnius, the AI (Artificial Intelligence) bent on galactic domination, and assisted by the Titans, cyborgs with human brains and mechanical bodies.

Arrakis is just a desert planet, where a few Zensunni nomads eke out a meagre living, and live in fear of the desert worms.

Vorian Atreides, the son of one of the original Titans is a trustee of the thinking machines, and has grown up believing in the lies his father, the great Titan Agamemnon ; eventually he goes to the humans' side and becomes great friends with Xavier Harkonnen.

Fans of the "Duneverse" will finally find out the reason behind the feud between the Harkonnen and Atreides Houses. As with all epic conflicts, this began with a great friendship.

We also meet the individuals who eventually create the groups that are major players in the Dune Universe: The Bene Gesserit, the Shipping Guild, the Arrakis Fremen, and the Mentats.

Although somewhat repetitive in parts, I enjoyed them very much, and got more "into" the Dune Universe.