Books - Children of Dune

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	Books - Children of Dune

Children of Dune is a science fiction novel by Frank Herbert, third in a series of six novels set in the Dune universe. It was originally serialized in Analog Science Fact and Fiction in 1976, and was the last Dune novel to be serialized before book publication. The novels Dune Messiah and Children of Dune were adapted in 2003 into a well-received mini-series entitled Children of Dune by the Sci-Fi Channel.

Paul Atreides had two children, Leto and Ghanima. At the end of Dune Messiah
, Paul walked into the desert, a blind man, leaving the children in the care of the Fremen while their aunt Alia rules the universe as regent. Awoken in the womb by the spice, the children are the heirs to Paul's prescient vision of the fate of the universe, a role that Alia desperately craves. House Corrino, the previous imperial house, schemes to return to the throne, while the Bene Gesserit make common cause with the Bene Tleilaxu and Spacing Guild to gain control of the spice and the children of Paul Atreides.

Synopsis

It is nine years since the Emperor Paul Muad'dib walked into the desert blind. The ecological transformation of Dune continues apace and some of the Fremen are even doing without stillsuits in the less arid climate. Fremen have started to move out of the Sietches and into the villages and cities. Millions of Fremen now, thanks to the Jihad, have experience of life off planet or out of the desert opening their minds to new possibilities, yet also causing them to forget the old ways. It is a time of great social change and economic growth on the new capital planet of the Imperium, as more and more pilgrims arrive each day to experience the planet of Muad'dib and Alia. The book opens with a meeting of the high council of the Imperial house. Those present - Alia, Duncan Idaho, Irulan (who since the death of Paul, has taken the role of caregiver to the Atreides children) and Stilgar - lament the fact that they have lost the initiative in the political arena. Paul Atreides had been powerless to control the Jihad and had left only the shadow of his religious mantle. Now Alia and her council are even less capable of controlling it. They are finding themselves tightening their grip on politics and ritual, yet only losing more control.

The two young children of Paul, Leto and Ghanima, are not normal nine year old children. Like Alia, they were forced into consciousness before birth and remember the lives and memories of all their ancestors. The children are very troubled because they have come to the conclusion that Alia has become possessed by one of her ancestors (become an 'Abomination'), and fear that a similar fate awaits them. They also realized that the quickening transformation of Dune will kill all the sandtrout and bring to an end the Giant Worms, and inevitably to the spice, a fact that only they and Alia know.

Leto has an additional fear as well: he has started to have dreams which he is coming to believe are prophetic, like his father had when he was a similar age. He fears being locked into an early prescient vision as he suspects happened to his father before him. He also has the added pressure that Alia is pushing him to enter into the spice trance, in order to unlock the door to prophetic visions, because she feels the need for such visions, in order to rule the empire, yet struggles to achieve them at all for herself.

Things have reached a heightened note of tension because Jessica Atreides is coming to Arrakis to visit her grandchildren from her self-imposed retreat on Caladan. Alia fears this utterly because she has indeed become possessed by the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, and is sure that her mother will notice, despite her erroneous belief that no-one has yet recognised the change in her. The Baron is leading her far away from the Atreides way of doing things, she has even taken a lover behind Duncan's back, a priest called Javid.

Out in the desert, a new religious figure has arisen among the Fremen, who preaches against the injustices of the religious government and the changes among the Fremen. He is called 'The Preacher', and some even believe he is actually Paul Atreides.

Meanwhile on Salusa Secundus the Corrinos are plotting again for power. Wensicia, younger sister of Irulan, rules in the name of her son, Farad'n. She has plans of Empire for her son, and has hatched a plot to assassinate the twins.

Jessica arrives on the planet already wary. She has been approached by the Bene Gesserit, and forced to recognise that she has been ignoring important duties. She makes her peace with the sisterhood, and is apparently welcomed back. With the warnings of the Sisterhood, she arrives back on Arrakis fearing that Alia and her grandchildren have fallen into abomination. At the landing field she meets Alia, and recognises straight away that for Alia, at least, this is true. Alia is actually relieved by this - the time of concealment is over.

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