Dune Messiah (Dune #2, Dune Universe #12) by Frank Herbert, 1969
The second book in Frank Herbert’s Dune Series (six books
total), or book 12 in the Dune universe, feels more like an extension to is
preceding book Dune than a book unto its own. Attempting this book as a standalone I think
one will struggle to grasp the importance, histories, and depth of the characters
and the plotlines travelled by the novel.
Dune Messiah wraps up the loose ends of Dune and completes
the picture of Paul Atreides entire life, while setting up the next generation
of central characters in the sequel Children of Dune. The novel is also much
shorter than Dune and pacing much brisker.
Though not as good as Dune, the heaps of plots make the storytelling
intriguing, some of which I feel were rushed through, and compelling enough to
warrant reading. I think the problem
with Dune Messiah is it relies on us to draw on the strength of our connection
to the characters introduced in Dune and under cultivates new characters with important
roles.
I rate the book 4 out of 5 stars.
Character Cheat Sheet (from Wikipedia):
·
Paul Atreides – emperor of the known
universe and messiah of the Fremen: His formal (public)
name is Paul-Muad'Dib, and Fremen sietch (private/secret) name is Usul.
·
Princess Irulan – princess-consort of
Emperor Paul Atreides
·
Chani –
of Paul's Fremen tribe, imperial concubine and chosen mother-to-be
·
Alia – Paul's sister, born with prescient
awareness, a reverend mother
·
Gaius Helen Mohiam –
a reverend mother of the Bene Gesserit and conspirator
·
Edric – a
prescient guild navigator and conspirator
·
Scytale – a Tleilaxu Face Dancer and conspirator
·
Stilgar – previous leader of the Fremen,
now loyal to Paul Atreides
Synopsis from Dune Fandom:
Twelve
years after the events described in Dune, Paul Atreides rules
as Emperor of the Known Universe, following Muad'Dib's Jihad which
he unleashed by accepting the role of Mahdi to the Fremen. While Paul is the most powerful Emperor ever, he is
ironically powerless to stop the lethal religious excesses of the juggernaut he
has created.
Although sixty billion people have perished, Paul's prescient visions
indicate that this is far from the worst possible outcome for humanity.
Motivated by this knowledge, Paul embarks on the Golden Path, a complex and
perilous plan to set humanity on a course that will not inevitably lead to
stagnation and extinction, while at the same time acting as ruler of the Empire
and focal point of the Fremen religion.
The situation is further complicated by the conspiracy of
powerful interests who hope to reverse the events that brought House Atreides to the
throne, including the remnants of the displaced House Corrino, the Bene Gesserit who
have lost control of their Kwisatz Haderach, the Spacing Guild, who now are
utterly beholden to Paul, and the Bene Tleilax.
The Atreides dynasty is unstable because Paul has not produced
an heir. Chani, his
lover and concubine, is secretly given contraceptives by the Princess Irulan Corrino, Paul's
wife in title only. Though Paul is aware of this scenario, he has foreseen that
the birth of his heir will bring Chani's death, and he does not want to lose
her. But his hopes are put into question after Chani switches to an ancient
Fremen fertility diet, and subsequently conceives.
The conspiring parties, intent on ending the Atreides Empire, give Paul
a gift he cannot resist: Hayt, a ghola of Duncan Idaho, his
childhood teacher and friend. The conspirators hope the presence of Hayt will
undermine Paul's ability to rule by forcing Paul to question himself and his
empire he has created. Furthermore, Paul's acceptance of the gift weakens
Paul's support among the Fremen who see the Tleilaxu and their tools as
unclean. Additionally, the Bene Tleilax, who created the ghola, hope that it
will provide them extra insight and control through espionage orders embedded
into its psyche.
Further complicating the situation is the physical maturity of
Paul's powerful sister, Alia, who finds herself
irresistibly attracted to Hayt/Duncan. Alia and Hayt investigate the appearance
of a female corpse near the city; Hayt realizes that the fact that no-one has
been reported missing implies a Tleilaxu plot in which the woman has been
replaced by a face dancer.
Hayt also takes this opportunity to steal a kiss from Alia. She is outraged,
but Hayt just laughs, saying he took nothing more than she offered, a fact she
admits to herself privately.
Paul Muad'dib demands to see Mohiam, who fears she will be
killed, but instead discovers Paul wants to bargain with her: Paul offers to
produce a child by artificial insemination in return for the survival of Chani
and her child. Mohiam, desperate to regain the Atreides genes for the Bene
Gesserit breeding programme, would have to violate Butlerian Jihad taboos
against the use of machines. Furthermore, she realizes no child born in this
way would be a candidate for the Golden Lion Throne,
and that the Bene Gesserit could never admit the existence of such a child
without risking their position in the Empire. She decides that she must consult
with her Bene Gesserit counterparts on Wallach IX.
Six weeks
later Chani is seen by a medic, and discovers her pregnancy has become
complicated because of the contraceptives introduced to her system. Realizing
that only Irulan could be the perpetrator, Chani wishes to kill her but is
prevented by Paul. She questions whether it is sensible for Paul to continue to
spar with Hayt, and Paul replies that the Tleilaxu have made him better than
they could know and that it may be possible to restore Hayt's memories as
Duncan Idaho. Unknown to Paul, this is precisely the Tleilaxu plan; to restore
Hayt's memories as Idaho, thus fulfilling a long-time technological ambition,
and proving to Paul that they could clone and restore Chani to him after she
dies in childbirth for a heavy price.
The daughter of Otheym, one of Paul's Fedaykin commandos, asks Paul to visit her father in
secret, and while Paul realizes she has been replaced by a face dancer, his
prescient visions show that revealing this will lead to futures he wishes to
avoid. Paul is forced to admit the face dancer after she asks to be taken into
Paul's household, although he places her under guard. He then visits Otheym.
Otheym reveals evidence of a conspiracy against Muad'dib among
the Fremen, some of whom are distrustful of following the Atreides, and gives
Paul his Tleilaxu servant Bijaz, who,
like a recording machine can remember faces, names, and details. Paul accepts
reluctantly, seeing the strands of a Tleilaxu plot. As Paul's soldiers attack
the conspirators, the Tleilaxu set off a stone burner that
destroys the vicinity and blinds Paul. Paul is able to continue in leadership
by fixing his actions precisely in line with what his previous oracular visions
showed him; by moving through his life in lockstep with his previous visions,
he can see even the slightest details of the world around him. The disadvantage
of this is his inability to change any part of his destiny so long as he wishes
to appear sighted.
The unraveling of the conspiracy reveals that Korba, high priest of Paul's church, is among Paul's enemies,
and while Korba tries to deny this, persuading the Fremen Naibs of his innocence, Paul arrives to confront him
directly and Korba is put into Stilgar's custody.
Hayt interrogates Bijaz, but the dwarf, secretly a Tleilaxu Master, uses
planted conditioning words and whistled tunes
to control the ghola, and programs Hayt to offer Paul a bargain when Chani dies:
Bijaz offers Chani's return as a ghola, and the hope that Duncan Idaho might be
reawakened, in return for Paul sacrificing the throne and going into exile.
Unknown to Hayt, this also activates a hidden compulsion that will force him to
kill Paul given the appropriate circumstances. Hayt comes across Alia, who has
overdosed herself with spice in the hope of enhancing her prophetic visions.
Her peril provokes fierce emotional response from Duncan and Alia realizes that
Duncan loves her, a fact that the ghola admits to.
News emerges that Chani has died giving birth to two healthy
children, Leto and Ghanima. The twins are pre-born due to their father's prescient nature and
Chani's encounter with the spice essence while pregnant. News of the birth is
delivered to Paul, who foresaw Ghanima's birth, but had not had any prescient
warning of Leto's possible existence. His reaction to Chani's death triggers
the compulsions in Hayt's mind, and he attempts to kill Paul. But reacting
against its own programming, Hayt's body remembers itself, and a new
consciousness arises that is a mix of Duncan Idaho and Hayt unconditioned by
the Tleilaxu programming. Paul is unsurprised by this, having foreseen it.
As Paul nears a crucial decision point in time, causing his
prophetic visions to fail and rendering him totally blind, he is thrust into a
deadly standoff. Scytale, disguised as Otheym's daughter, holds a knife to the necks of Paul's children. He offers to
revive Chani as a ghola in return for Paul's abdication. Refusal of the offer
would result in the murder of Paul's new-born children. However, Paul receives
a prescient vision from the perspective of his newborn son, and using his son's
eyes, he is able to throw a dagger and
kill Scytale.
With Paul's
visions gone, he is now blind, and he chooses to walk into the desert in the
Fremen tradition, winning the fealty of the Fremen for his children, of whom
Leto II will inherit his mantle of Emperor. Paul leaves Alia as regent for his
children.
At the
conclusion of the novel, Duncan examines the irony that Paul and Chani's deaths
enabled them to triumph against their enemies. Duncan realizes that Paul
escaped deification, walking into the desert as a man, while guaranteeing
Fremen support for the Atreides line. Stilgar interrupts Duncan to suggest he
should go to a distraught Alia, and Duncan goes to comfort her. Stilgar reports
that he has carried out Alia's orders to execute Gaius Helen Mohiam, Edric,
Korba, and "a few others." Because the key players of the conspiracy
are now dead, Paul's children are left in an apparently safe situation.
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