Five thousand years after the events of Dune, humanity has scattered to the edges of the known universe. The Golden Path laid out by the late Leto II Atreides has led to freedom and prosperity. Sandworms again thrive, producing the all-important spice melange. The future seems as bright as the recent past until the arrival of a horrifying new threat: the Honored Matres. An extraordinarily violent, power-obsessed matriarchal cult, they are skilled in fighting and possess the ability to enslave the will of those they seduce.

Even as the Matres proceed with their dark plans, Mother Superior Taraza, leader of the Bene Gesserit, constructs a plan of her own. She means to protect, and attract to her cause, Duncan Idaho’s latest ghola, one in a chain of human-like beings constructed millennia ago from the dead man’s cells. Meanwhile, Sheeana, a young orphan, has been discovered; it seems she can control the sandworms, a power that will doubtless draw worshippers to her, further destabilizing an already destabilized society.

Opposing interests shape human destiny, aided and afflicted by powerful technologies. Over the course of the novel, a gift — or a burden — from 1500 years before will be discovered; attacks will be attempted; seductions will occur while others will be thwarted; plans will succeed and fail; and secrets will be revealed. Much will be destroyed. But something of great value will remain.

Heretics of Dune is the penultimate Dune novel written by Frank Herbert. It is a page-turner as well as an examination of power through the lenses of politics and religion. Brian Herbert’s afterword provides a window into his father’s creation of this novel, Chapterhouse: Dune, and the novels that followed.