Monday, September 23, 2019

The Winds of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson


(hb; 2009: second book in the Heroes of Dune duology)

From the inside flap

“Paul-Muab’Dib─cheered as a hero, worshipped as a messiah, hated as a tyrant─has vanished into the endless deserts of the planet Dune. Blinded in an assassination attempt and grieving after the death of his beloved Chani, Paul abandons his newborn twins and leaves his galaxy-spanning empire in the hands of his young sister, Alia.

“And the greatest empire in the history of mankind begins to crumble.

“Living in self-imposed exile on Caladan, Lady Jessica and the faithful Gurney Halleck receive word that Paul has vanished and is presumed dead. They race to Dune, the heart of Muad’Dib’s empire, where they find a planet in turmoil and Jessica’s daughter, Alia─along with the resurrected Duncan Idaho─willing to impose more and more extreme measures to maintain order.

“Fueling the flames of dissent, the outspoken rebel Bronso of Ix─at one time Paul’s closest friend─releases hateful treatises and disrupts sacred ceremonies, doing everything he can to destroy the myth of Paul Muad’Dib and reveal the unvarnished facts about the man who─through his jihad and corrupt priesthood─is responsible for more deaths than any other person in history.

“Working with Princess Irulan, Paul’s self-appointed biographer, Jessica tries to uncover the truth about her son. As winds of rebellion brew and treachery occurs both from outside the government within, Jessica discovers that her son had plans that extend far beyond history and that Maud’Dib may have knowingly planted the seeds for his own downfall.

“Drawn from secret to secret, from revelation to revelation, Jessica at last will come to the truth about her son’s prescience and visionary plans, a truth that will force her to choose between the memory of her son and the future of the human race.”


Review

Winds is one of my favorite extended-series Dune novels. It, in highly entertaining, plot-twisty fashion, spans the time period and events between Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. It effectively explores its iconic characters at an effective but relatively fast pace as they make wild-time transition changes, changes that will reverberate big time in later Dune novels. Like many of the Dune books, this is worth owning.

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