HUNTERS OF DUNE (Novel)
The first main plotline follows the adventures of the passengers of the no-ship used by Sheeana and Duncan Idaho to flee
from Chapterhouse as a result of Sheeana's disagreement with Bene Gesserit leader Murbella's plans for the Sisterhood. The
second plot involves Murbella's attempts to unite the Bene Gesserit and Honored Matres, while conquering rebellious factions
of Honored Matres on various planets and attempting to prepare for a confrontation with an Ancient Enemy. This unknown enemy
was responsible for driving the Honored Matres back into the Old Empire. For several years, the no-ship (named the Ithaca
by its passengers) has been in an alternate universe, carrying the gholas of Duncan Idaho and the famous military commander
Miles Teg as well as the Bene Gesserit Sheeana, who has the mysterious power to control sandworms. Other passengers include
the last Bene Tleilax Master Scytale, some Bene Gesserits, a group of Jews saved from Honored Matre oppression on the planet
Gammu, and seven small sandworms that can produce spice. Finally, there are four captive Futars, fierce half-man/half-cat
creatures bred to hunt Honored Matres. The mysterious Oracle of Time speaks to Duncan and brings the no-ship back into the
'regular' universe. However, it is soon discovered by the "old man" and "old woman" Daniel and Marty, first mentioned at the
end Chapterhouse Dune, who have unknown designs on the Ithaca and its passengers. The no-ship is nearly caught
in their tachyon net, but escapes using the space-foldin Holtzman engines. Meanwhile, Murbella is trying to prevent
civil war on Chapterhouse, the only known source of melange ('the spice') left in the universe (other than the sandworms on
the no-ship). She meets an emissary sent by the Spacing Guild, which is desperate for spice. Murbella refuses their requests
due to the help the Guild gave to the Honored Matres, and demands the Guild's future loyalty, threatening to cut them off
completely. Unbeknownst to the Guild delegation and the rest of the universe, the sandworms on Chapterhouse are not yet producing
much melange; the Bene Gesserit are making it seem so, using their own stockpiles. Later, Murbella stops a brutal fight between
some polarized Bene Gesserits and Honored Matres. Though the Honored Matres had destroyed all Bene Tleilax worlds, their
descendents (the Lost Tleilaxu) have returned from The Scattering. Supposedly under their complete control are their improved
Face Dancers, creatures who can mimic other humans exactly and go undetected by all known means. It is soon revealed that
the Face Dancers have their own will and motives, as they kill the Tleilaxu Elder Burah and replace him with their own duplicate.
They have now replaced all the Lost Tleilaxu Elders, as well as countless humans on various planets in the Old Empire. Their
leader Khrone sends the scribe Uxtal (presumably the highest-ranking, if only, Lost Teliaxu left alive) to serve the renegade
Honored Matre leader Hellica, who has proclaimed herself Matre Superior and now rules the conquered Bene Tleilax homeworld,
Tleilax. The desperate Spacing Guild Administrators go to Ix to find an alternative to the use of their own Navigators (who require spice) for space travel. Unbeknownst to the Ixians
or the Guild, Khrone and his Face Dancers have infiltrated Ix. While carefully executing his own plans for Face Dancer domination
of the universe, Khrone is doing the bidding of Daniel and Marty by offering their advanced navigation technology to the Guild
as if it were of Ixian design. The Guild agrees to the development of this technology if they have a monopoly on it.
On Tleilax, Uxtal has been forced (by threat of death) to use Tleilaxu axlotl tank technology to produce the adrenaline-enhancing
drug used by Honored Matres. Khrone also tasks Uxtal to make a ghola from recently-found cell samples, which turn out to be
those of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. From the start, the young Baron is as sociopathic as the original. Later, Khrone obtains
the blood of Paul Atreides from a religious relic on the Atreides homeworld once known as Caladan, and has Uxtal make a ghola
of Paul. He plans to twist this Kwisatz Haderach ghola (using the Baron Harkonnen ghola) into a weapon for Daniel and Marty's
conquest of the universe. Later, the Guild Navigator Edrik comes to Tleilax seeking Uxtal's knowledge of axlotl tanks; the
Navigator fears his kind's obsolescence when the Ixian navigation technology becomes available. He seeks an alternate source
of spice to break the Bene Gesserit monopoly, but even Uxtal believes that secret has died with the Tleilaxu Masters murdered
by the Honored Matres. Eventually he is able to access the genetic material of deceased Master Waff, and through an accelerated
process creates several (ultimately flawed) Waff gholas, hoping to unlock the secret of producing melange in the tanks. The
entire universe is unaware that in the events of Chapterhouse Dune, Scytale had given the passengers of the Ithaca
the secret, and it was in use on the no-ship as the primary source of spice. On the Ithaca, Scytale is desperate.
The Tleilaxu had always sustained their lives indefinitely through the use of gholas; his current body is slowly dying, and
he does not have another to replace it. Needing to grow a new ghola of himself, he has only one secret to use as a bargaining
tool: a hidden nullentropy capsule containing cells carefully and secretly collected by the Tleilaxu for millennia, including
the cells of Tleilaxu Masters, Face Dancers, Paul Atreides, Duke Leto Atreides, Lady Jessica, Chani, Stilgar, Leto Atreides
II, Gurney Halleck, Thufir Hawat, and other legendary figures dating back to Serena Butler and Xavier Harkonnen from the Butlerian
Jihad. The Bene Gesserit have a vicious debate over whether to create gholas of any of these historical figures. Sheeana believes
they may prove useful, while others fear the return of such 'mistakes' as Leto II. Despite the controversy, gholas are created,
a few at a time. Scytale is allowed to have his own once the first few have been born. On Chapterhouse, Murbella trains
an elite strike force of Bene Gesserit using the combined skills of Bene Gesserits, Honored Matres and 'lost' Sword Masters
of Ginaz. Her 'Valkyries' attack the rebel Honored Matre strongholds on other planets with success, in the process discovering
that some of the Honored Matres are Face Dancers in disguise, undetectable until death. A former Honored Matre herself, Murbella
eventually accesses the Other Memory from her Honored Matre ancestors, and learns their true origins. The core of the Honored
Matres were vengeful Tleilaxu females, freed and assimilated by Fish Speakers and Bene Gesserits fleeing in The Scattering.
The Tleilaxu women had been used as axlotl tanks by their males for millennia; though the current Honored Matres did not know
their own origins, this explains to Murbella why they had been compelled to so mercilessly decimate the Tleilaxu worlds in
the Old Empire. Murbella also 'remembers' the attack by a renegade Honored Matre that first antagonized the unknown Enemy.
On the no-ship, an attempt by rebel Bene Gesserits to murder the Leto II ghola is foiled by the child himself, seemingly able
to change into a sandworm at will. The Paul ghola wants to remember his past; with the help of the Chani ghola, he steals
and consumes an overdose of spice. He has a vision in which he has been stabbed by another, evil Paul Atreides. After being
discovered by the Bene Gesserit, he concludes that it is prescience. Sheanna’s own visions bring a warning from the
legendary Sayyadina Ramallo of Arrakis about the use of the gholas. She stops the ghola program from continuing until she
can make sense of it all. Daniel and Marty inform Khrone that they have no further need of his Baron Harkonnen and Paul
Atreides gholas. They insist they have lured the Ithaca into a trap, and will soon have the Kwisatz Haderach they have
calculated in on board. Khrone, however, continues to prepare the gholas. He finally manages to restore the Baron's memories,
and instructs him to train the Paul ghola (named Paolo), who does not yet have his memories. To the Baron's disquiet, he finds
the mocking voice of his granddaughter Alia in his thoughts soon after recovering his memories. She also later threatens him
should he try to harm Paolo. Murbella contracts Ix's competitor Richese to provide as many armed ships and weaponry
as possible, in preparation for the confrontation with the unknown enemy. Later, the Honored Matres destroy the entire planet
of Richese to cripple the Sisterhood. In a final assault on Tleilax, the most powerful of the rebel Honored Matre strongholds,
Murbella and her Valkyries are victorious. It is revealed that Matre Superior Hellica and several of her elite guard were,
in fact, Face Dancers. Many of the surviving Honored Matres then join with Murbella. Uxtal is devoured by hungry sligs, and
the sole remaining Waff ghola escapes. He finds refuge with the Spacing Guild, offer Edrik something better than artificial
melange — the genetic knowledge for the Guild to create their own, optimized sandworms. The Ithaca stumbles
upon the homeworld of the Handlers, masters of the Futars. An exploratory party from the no-ship returns the man-beasts, and
soon discovers that the seemingly bucolic Handlers are actually Face Dancers, tasked with their capture. Sheanna and her companions
barely escape with their lives. Some Face Dancer ships manage to crash into the Ithaca before its escape, and potentially
missing bodies in the wreckage have the no-ship's passengers wondering if the enemies are now among them. The emergency forces
Miles Teg to reveal his hidden power of superhuman speed, unlocked in him during torture by Honored Matres in Heretics
of Dune. He has kept this ability secret because the Bene Gesserit are suspicious of any males having any 'wild talents',
lest another Kwisatz Haderach be created. To them, Paul Atreides and Leto II were disasters never to be repeated. It
is revealed that Daniel and Marty, the Ancient Enemy, are in fact new incarnations of the machine overlord Omnius and the
independent robot Erasmus, who were destroyed in the Butlerian Jihad. Before its destruction, the Giedi Prime Omnius launched
5,000 probes capable of constructing new machine colonies on any planets encountered. One of these probes eventually intercepted
a signal transmitted by the last remaining Omnius on Corrin before it too was destroyed. Its forces finally reassembled, the
new version of the Evermind is on the way back to the Old Empire to destroy all humanity. The story concludes with Murbella,
in complete control of the Honored Matres and Bene Gesserit, preparing a defense against the forces of Omnius. The Oracle
of Time is revealed to be the living consciousness of Norma Cenva, somehow still in existence millennia after the Butlerian
Jihad.
TREASURE IN THE SAND (Short Story)
Lokar is a devout priest assigned as a guide to treasure hunters coming to the dead planet of Dune to plunder its treasure.
After arrival, the drop ship leaves them for a month to weather the elements on their own.
SANDWORMS OF DUNE (Novel)
Hunters of Dune and the concluding volume, Sandworms of Dune, bring together the great story lines and beloved characters
in Frank Herbert's classic Dune universe, ranging from the time of the Butlerian Jihad to the original Dune series and beyond.
Based directly on Frank Herbert's final outline, which lay hidden in a safe-deposit box for a decade, these two volumes will
finally answer the urgent questions Dune fans have been debating for two decades. At the end of Frank Herbert's final
novel Chapterhouse: Dune, a ship carrying a crew of refugees escapes into the uncharted galaxy, fleeing from a terrifying,
mysterious Enemy. The fugitives used genetic technology to revive key figures from Dune's past — including Paul Muad'Dib
and Lady Jessica — to strengthen their chances of survival by using their special special talents to meet the incredible
challenges of the journey. Sandworms of Dune will reveal the origin of the Honored Matres, the tantalizing future of
the planet Arrakis, the final revelation of the Kwisatz Haderach, and the resolution to the war between man and machine.
RELEASED AUGUST 2007
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