Dune: Part Two is all about the rise of Paul “Muad’dib” Atreides, but that doesn’t mean it tells his whole story. If you’ve already seen the movie, or have heard that there are another seven books in the series, you probably know that there’s a lot more story left to tell. The good news is, you won’t have to wait for director Denis Villeneuve to return to the series to continue the tale.
The Dune books have a somewhat spotty reputation. While the original Dune gets most of the attention as one of sci-fi literature’s seminal classics, the later books are known mostly for how weird they get, a fact that often causes people to fall off after the first. But for all the merits of the admittedly strange end of the series, Dune Messiah is an exception, and it deserves almost as much praise as its predecessor. Sure, it gets a little weird, but the conclusion of Paul Atreides’ story in Frank Herbert’s second Dune book is still very much worth reading, especially if you loved Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two.
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[Ed. note: This story contains spoilers for Dune: Part Two and discusses the premise of Dune Messiah.]
Dune Messiah picks up 12 years after the conclusion of the series’ first novel, with Paul firmly entrenched as the Padishah Emperor, or the Emperor of the Known Universe. In the years since the end of Dune, the Fremen have carried their holy war across the universe, killing billions in Paul’s name — all while Paul was powerless to stop the bloodshed.
With even more palace intrigue than the first novel, Dune Messiah is mostly about Paul’s grasp on power. He is nominally married to Princess Irulan, but Chani is his concubine and true companion. While Irulan plots with the Bene Gesserit and other factions to eventually assassinate Paul and keep Chani from producing his heir, Chani tries desperately to keep Paul alive and to get him to see the danger that lurks in his own court. Meanwhile, all of this is observed and commented on frequently throughout the novel by Paul’s sister, Princess Alia, who possesses the memories of all Reverend Mothers before her and some other not-quite-defined powers. And that’s just the first third.
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For all this plotting and scheming, what makes the book truly special is how effectively it continues Herbert’s interrogation of Paul as a character and where his destiny leads. If the back half of Dune is about how difficult it is to be the chosen one, then Messiah is about how dangerous a chosen one can make it for everyone else in the world. Paul won the battle for Arrakis, but the destruction of the universe played out just as he had seen in his dreams.
All of this playing out in Messiah also helps explain why it’s so important for Villeneuve to adapt this story eventually. While the director has said that he wants audiences to view Paul as a very complicated figure by the end of Part Two, his diminished status is unmistakable in Messiah. Paul is paralyzed by his power, both as a leader and as the future-seeing Kwisatz Haderach. He’s paranoid and ineffectual, able to see the future but not the plots right in front of his nose. It’s a brilliant and complex balance, and the journey from plucky protagonist to vulnerable emperor is one of the most interesting and bold transformations in sci-fi literature even today.
All of this makes Messiah a worthy follow-up to Dune, and a fantastic read even if you aren’t going to continue the series. Sure, it’s more fantastical than the original, with resurrected golems and psychic warfare, but it’s also a fascinating portrait of a totalitarian leader that looks surprisingly familiar to our world, even without Dune’s haze of spice. And hey, if you like the more out-there parts too, then Frank Herbert has quite a few more Dune books for you to enjoy, and they only get stranger from here.
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