Chapterhouse: Dune

Dune (1965) is the first book in the series. It introduces the world of Dune, the Padash Galactic Empire, and the Spice Melange that it relies on. House Atreides moves to the planet Arrakis under the orders of the Padash Emperor. This desert planet is vital, as it is the only place in the known universe that produces the Spice Melange, an addictive substance that has life-extending properties. It can also give users precognition, making it vital for safe long-range space travel.

House Harkonnen, with the help of the emperor’s Sardukar personal guard, attack the Atreides and kill Duke Leto. His son and heir, Paul, flees into the desert with his mother, the Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica. There, he meets and lives among the indigenous people of Dune, the Fremen. Some Fremen view Paul as a religious figure, the prophesized Madi. He uses this to build support among them, eventually taking the mystical Water of Life, which gives him precognition and marks him as the Kwisatz Haderach. Paul leads the Fremen in an attack on the Harkonnens, overthrowing the emperor and claiming his throne.

Dune Messiah (1969) is set 12 years after the original. Paul Atreides is the emperor of the galaxy. As the messiah of the Fremen, he unleashed a jihad across the known universe. This was an event he foresaw in Dune but was powerless to stop. It killed 61 billion people.

His prescient visions tell him that unless he steers humanity carefully, something even worse could happen.

A conspiracy involving the Bene Gesserit, Spice Guild, and Bene Tleilaxu works with a Guild Navigator called Edric, using his prescience to hide them from Paul’s abilities as they plot to overthrow him. The Reverend Mother Mohaim builds an alliance with Princess Irulan, the daughter of the former emperor trapped in a political marriage to Paul. She secretly doses Chani, Paul’s true love, with contraceptives to prevent him fathering an heir with her.

Paul loses his sight when an atomic weapon called a stone burner detonates near his palaces. His prescient sight replaces his vision. Chani, who escaped Irulan’s drugging, becomes pregnant and dies in childbirth. Her children survive, twins with access to their ancestor memories. The infants are taken hostage by Scytale, and Paul is extorted into giving up his prescience. He kills Scytale before leaving for the desert. Paul’s sister Alia is left to raise the twins.

Children of Dune (1976) is set nine years later. Dune’s environment is changing, becoming more hospitable and wet, which threatens the sandworms with extinction and inhibits spice production. Paul’s children, Leto II and Ghanima, find that their aunt Alia is possessed by the memory identity of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.

In the desert, a figure called The Preacher rallies against the changes sweeping across Dune. Paul’s mother, Lady Jessica, returns to Dune and realizes that Alia has is by Baron Harkonnen. Alia attempts to kill Jessica, but she escapes into the desert. The Fremen rebel. After faking his own death, Leto seeks The Preacher in the desert. Ghanima remains behind, claiming that Leto is dead.

A rogue band of Fremen capture Leto and dose him with Spice. This gives Leto visions of the future. In many visions, humanity is extinct; however, there is one vision where they survive. He calls this the Golden Path and pledges himself to making it come true. He physically fuses with sandtrout, larval sandworms, and becomes a man-sandworm hybrid.

The Prophet is revealed to be Paul. Alia murders him, prompting Leto to reveal his transformed self. Trying to fight her possession by the Baron, Alia throws herself off a balcony, dying. Leto claims the throne and takes control of the Fremen.

God Emperor of Dune is set 3,500 years later. Leto II Atreides, the worm-human hybrid, rules the galaxy. All other sandworms have gone extinct due to climate change on Dune, meaning no spice production. Leto controls the remaining spice in the universe.

He has banned space travel, and technology is suppressed. He has even disbanded the Landsraad, the body that represented the great houses, leaving only a few of the great noble houses in existence. Leto’s decisions are in accordance with his visions of the Golden Path.

Leto has fostered the bloodline of his twin sister Ghanima, and her descendant Moneo is his closest advisor. Her daughter Siona fled to the desert and is leading a rebellion against Leto. Leto also maintains a line of Duncan Idaho gholas, or artificially produced humans recreated from DNA. Leto meets Siona in the desert, where he gives her spice essence. This gives her visions of the Golden Path, which she understands as important. Unexpected rainfall exposes Leto’s vulnerability to water.

Leto announces his wedding with the Ixian ambassador Hwi Noree. Duncan and Siona conspire to assassinate Leto. As his wedding procession crosses a bridge, Duncan destroys it, causing Leto to fall into a river below, killing him. His death triggers the Scattering, a great exodus from the imperium to other galaxies and planets.

Heretics of Dune (1984) is set 1,500 years further into the future. Sandworms have reappeared on Arrakis, which is now called Rakis. Spice is once again flowing through the galaxy. There are three dominant political powers in the galaxy: the technologically advanced Ixians, the genetic engineers of the Tleilax, and the Bene Gesserit. This order is thrown into disarray when the vengeful Honored Matres return from the Scattering.

Mother Superior Taraza calls Basher Miles Teg out of retirement to protect the latest ghola of Duncan Idaho on planet Gammu. Bashar Teg’s daughter, Odrade, takes control of the Bene Gesserit keep on Rakis. Bashar Teg helps reawaken Duncan’s memories of his original self. Bashar Teg is captured by the Honored Matres and tortured. The trauma of this awakens prescient powers within him.

The Honored Matres attack Rakis, and Bashar Teg creates a diversion to allow Odrade and Duncan to escape. The Honored Matres use a planet-destroying weapon that burns the surfaces of Rakis, killing all but one sandworm, which Odrade, Duncan, and a woman who can control worms, Sheeana, took as they fled.