Dune Messiah  by Frank Herbert

 

       In 1965 Frank Herbert published Dune. After it was heralded as a masterpiece of science fiction, he wrote the briefer Dune Messiah in 1969, concentrating eponymously on Paul Atreides, and then, sensing the sales potential, added sequels. They were continued by his son, culminating in the just published finale, Sandworms of Dune. Now, 38 years after its publication, four narrators capture Dune Messiah on discs, while listeners, with no glossary, try to recall the meaning of its esoteric nomenclature. The audio gets off to a lively start as the book opens with nearly all conversation, playing up the camaraderie between the narrators who have partnered on several other readings of classic sci-fi novels. While the cast works well together, some of the male narrators emphasize a stately dullness. Kellgren, the sole feminine voice, supplies real emotion and a true sense of awe.

 

Twelve years after the events described in Dune (1965), Paul "Muad'Dib" Atreides rules as Emperor, following a jihad which conquered most of the human universe.[2] Paul unleashed this jihad by accepting the role of messiah to the Fremen. While Paul is the most powerful Emperor ever known, he is powerless to stop the lethal excesses of the religious juggernaut he has created. Although sixty-one 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 hopes to set humanity on a course that will not inevitably lead to stagnation and destruction, while at the same time acting as ruler of the Empire and focal point of the Fremen religion.

The Bene Gesserit, Spacing Guild and Tleilaxu enter into a conspiracy to dethrone Paul, the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam enlisting Paul's own consort Princess Irulan, daughter of the deposed Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV. Paul has refused to father a child with Irulan (or even touch her), but his Fremen concubine Chani has also failed to produce an heir, causing tension within his monarchy. Desperate both to secure her place in the Atreides dynasty and to preserve the Atreides bloodline for the Bene Gesserit breeding program, Irulan has secretly been giving contraceptives to Chani. Paul is aware of this fact, but has foreseen that the birth of his heir will bring Chani's death, and does not want to lose her. Because of the way oracles interfere with one another's prescience, the Guild Navigator Edric is able to shield the conspiracy from Paul's visions of the future. The Tleilaxu Face Dancer Scytale gives Paul a gift he cannot resist: a Tleilaxu-grown ghola of Duncan Idaho, Paul's childhood teacher and friend, now called "Hayt". The conspirators hope the presence of Hayt will undermine Paul's ability to rule by forcing Paul to question himself and the empire he has created. Furthermore, Paul's acceptance of the gift weakens his support among the Fremen, who see the Tleilaxu and their tools as unclean. Chani, taking matters into her own hands, switches to a traditional Fremen fertility diet, preventing Irulan from being able to tamper with her food and soon falls pregnant.

Otheym, one of Paul's former Fedaykin death commandos, reveals evidence of a Fremen conspiracy against Paul. Otheym gives Paul his little 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, others set off an atomic weapon called a stone burner, purchased from the Tleilaxu, that destroys the area and blinds Paul. By tradition, all blind Fremen are abandoned in the desert, but Paul shocks the Fremen and entrenches his godhead by proving he can still see, even without eyes. His oracular powers have become so developed that he can forsee in his mind everything that happens, as though his eyes still worked. By moving through his life in lockstep with his 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 Fremen conspiracy reveals that Korba, a former Fedaykin and now high priest of Paul's church, is among Paul's enemies.

Hayt interrogates Bijaz, but the little man — actually an agent of the Tleilaxu — uses a specific humming intonation that renders Hayt open to implanted commands. Bijaz programs Hayt to offer Paul a bargain when Chani dies: Chani's rebirth as a ghola, and the hope that Duncan Idaho's memories might be reawakened, in return for Paul sacrificing the throne and going into exile. Bijaz also implants a compulsion that will force Hayt to attempt to kill Paul, given the appropriate circumstances. Hayt remains oblivious of the programming in him until near Chani's time of labor. Eventually news is brought that Chani has died giving birth. Paul's reaction to it triggers the compulsions in the mind of Hayt, who attempts to kill Paul. But rather than kill its beloved Paul, Duncan Idaho's ghola body reacts against its own programming and recovers Duncan's full consciousness. He remains conscious of the Zen-Sunni and Mentat training given Hayt by the Tleilaxu, but no longer bound to their programming.

Chani gave birth to two healthy children. Like Paul's sister Alia, they are "pre-born", and come into the world fully conscious with Kwisatz Haderach-like access to ancestral memories and in the boy's case, also the ability to see the future like his father, thanks to a combination of their genes, and an in utero exposure to the quantities of spice in Chani's special pregnancy diet. Scytale offers to revive Chani as a ghola in return for all of their CHOAM holdings. Paul refuses to submit to the possibility that the Tleilaxu might program Chani in some diabolical way, and Scytale threatens the infants with a knife while he negotiates with Alia. Paul has now been rendered completely blind by the presence of his oracular son, who he failed to predict in his visions, except for a vision from the perspective of his newborn son. Paul is able to kill Scytale with an accurately aimed dagger.

Now prophetically as well as physically blind, Paul chooses to embrace the Fremen tradition of a blind man walking alone into the desert, winning the fealty of the Fremen for his children, who will inherit his mantle of Emperor. Paul leaves Alia, now romantically involved with Duncan, as regent for the twins, whom he has named Leto and Ghanima. Duncan notes the irony that Paul and Chani's deaths had enabled them to triumph against their enemies, and that Paul has escaped deification by walking into the desert as a man, while guaranteeing Fremen support for the Atreides line.

 

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