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Description
The planet Arrakis is becoming desert again. Lost ones are returning home from the far reaches of space. The great sandworms are dying, and the children of Dunes children awaken from empire as from a dream, wielding the new power of a heresy called love.
Summary
Much has changed in the millennium and a half<1> since the death of the God Emperor. True to his prophecies, sandworms have reappeared on Arrakis (now called Rakis) and created Dune anew, renewing the flow of spice to the galaxy. The Empire, meanwhile, has fallen into chaos and... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Cast of Characters/Important People
- Miles Teg: The Bashar of the Bene Gesserit. He is their military leader and is one of few mentats in this period. He is the son of a Bene Gesserit witch who trained him to an extent in the Bene Gesserit ways. He has is descended from the Atreides.
- Duncan Idaho: Another Duncan Idaho ghola.
- Taraza: The Mother Superior of the Bene Gesserit.
- Odrade: A Bene Gesserit witch of the Atreides blood line.
- Waff: The Leader of the Bene Tleilax.
- Schwangyu: A Bene Gesserit witch charged with protecting and training the Duncan Idaho ghola.
- Lucilla: A Bene Gesserit imprinter charged with imprinting (using sex to control a man) the Duncan Idaho ghola.
- Sheeana: A young girl whos family are killed by a worm on Rakis (formally Arakis). She has the ability to control the worms.
- Tuek: The High Preist of the Church of the Divided God (worshippers of Leto II, the Tyrant whos ego is divided amongst the worms) on Rakis (formally Arakis).
Memorable Quotes
-
“Most discipline is hidden discipline, designed not to liberate but to limit. Do not ask Why? Be cautious with How? Why? leads inexorably to paradox. How? traps you in a universe of cause and effect. Both deny the infinite.”
The Apocrypha of Arrakis -
“The existence of no-ships raises the possibility of destroying entire planets without retaliation. A large object, asteroid or equivalent, may be sent against the planet. Or the people can be set against each other by sexual subversion, and then can be armed to destroy themselves. These Honored Matres appear to favor this latter technique.”
Bene Gesserit Analysis -
“Humans live best when each has his place to stand, when each knows where he belongs in the scheme of things and what he may achieve. Destroy the place and you destroy the person.”
Bene Gesserit Teaching -
“The trouble with some kinds of warfare (and be certain the Tyrant knew this, because it is implicit in his lesson) is that they destroy all moral decency in susceptible types. Warfare of these kinds will dump the destroyed survivors back into an innocent population that is incapable of even imagining what such returned soldiers might do.”
Teachings of the Golden Path, Bene Gesserit Archives -
“Ten thousand years since Leto II began his metamorphosis from human into the sandworm of Rakis and historians still argue over his motives. Was he driven by the desire for long life? He lived more than ten times the normal span of three hundred SY, but consider the price he paid. Was it the lure of power? He is called the Tyrant for good reason, but what did power bring him that a human might want? Was he driven to save humankind from itself? We have only his own words about his Golden Path to answer this and I cannot accept the self-serving records of Dar-es-Balat. Might there have been other gratifications, which only his experiences would illuminate? Without better evidence the question is moot. We are reduced to saying only that "He did it!" The physical fact alone is undeniable.”
The Metamorphosis of Leto II 10,000th Anniversary Peroration by Gaus Andaud -
“Technology, in common with many other activities, tends toward avoidance of risks by investors. Uncertainty is ruled out if possible. Capital investment follows this rule, since people generally prefer the predictable. Few recognize how destructive this can be, how it imposes severe limits on variability and thus makes whole populations fatally vulnerable to the shocking ways our universe can throw the dice.”
Assessment of Ix, Bene Gesserit Archives -
“In my estimation, more misery has been created by reformers than by any other force in human history. Show me someone who says, "Something must be done!" and I will show you a head full of vicious intentions that have no other outlet. What we must strive for always! is to find the natural flow and go with it”
The Reverend Mother Taraza, Conversational Record, BG File GSXXMAT9 -
“The outer surface of a balloon is always larger than the center of the damned thing! That's the whole point of the Scattering!”
Bene Gesserit response to an Ixian suggestion that new investigative probes be sent out among the Lost Ones -
“At the quantum level our universe can be seen as an indeterminate place, predictable in a statistical way only when you employ large enough numbers. Between that universe and a relatively predictable one where the passage of a single planet can be timed to a picosecond, other forces come into play. For the in-between universe where we find our daily lives, that which you believe is a dominant force. Your beliefs order the unfolding of daily events. If enough of us believe, a new thing can be made to exist. Belief structure creates a filter through which chaos is sifted into order.”
Analysis of the Tyrant, the Taraza File: BG Archives -
“Nothing surpasses the complexity of the human mind.”
Leto II: Dar-es-Balat Records
First Sentence
Taraza told you, did she not, that we have gone through eleven of these Duncan Idaho gholas?
Table of Contents
Series
This is book 5 in the Dune Chronicles series.
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