Chapterhouse: Dune

Chapterhouse: Dune is the sixth novel in the series and the last completed by Frank Herbert. It is set thousands of years in the future. Dune itself is no more; the planet has been destroyed by the Honored Matres. The Honored Matres are a group of women seeking power, acting as a dark mirror to the Bene Gesserit, who seek enlightenment and survival. The sandworms, bereft of their former world, need a new one. Chapterhouse will be their new home, if the Bene Gesserit can terraform it in time. If their plan succeeds, it will give them full control of the production of the spice, melange. As they work, Mother Superior Darwi Odrade engages in a plot to destroy the Honored Matres. Among those on Chapterhouse are a clone of Duncan Idaho, and Murbella, his lover. Allowed to enter the Bene Gesserit as a novice, Murbella is suspected of being a spy for the Honored Matres. Ghola are clones built from a few skin cells that can remember their former lives and moments of death. The story features hive minds, mutants, shape-shifters, biological weapons, and interplanetary travel. The battle between the Bene Gesserit and the Honored Matres involves palace intrigue and war. This edition is illustrated by Guillem H. Pongiluppi, introduced by Norman Spinrad, and includes an afterword by Brian Herbert.