This is the second book in the Great Schools of Dune trilogy, though it's really an extension of Legends of Dune. The Butlerian Jihad under Manford's demented leadership. He's set his sights on the Mentat school, which is led by Gilbertus Albans, the protege of the robot Erasmus. Albans is teaching his students to emulate machine thinking, elevating human computation to its absolute peak.

Meanwhile, Josef Venport, who represents the side of technology in the struggle between his forces and the Butlerian Jihad, is conducting his own war against them, recognizing them as a destabilizing force for the galaxy as a whole. If the Butlerians win, human civilization will enter into a new Dark Age and may never rise again.

The concluding volume of Great Schools of Dune sets up the Galactic Empire as we know it in the main Dune books written by Frank Herbert. Most of the loose ends are resolved in such a way that the Galactic Empire achieves its monopoly over the Arrakis spice industry and space travel, though the newly formed Spacing Guild is set up as an independent faction within the Empire.

Now we are back to the main storyline established by Frank Herbert. Dune chronicles the journey of Paul "Muad'dib" Atreides from when he arrives on Arrakis as a teenager to when he achieves his godlike prescience as the Kwisatz Haderach and steals the Empire from Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV.

It wasn't quite as good as I remembered it, but it's still entertaining enough to keep me reading it again. It spans about four or five years of Paul's life, though much of that is skipped over once Paul and his mother Jessica join the Fremen. They disappear while Baron Harkonnen schemes to maintain his hold on Arrakis.

The world building in Dune is impressive, but upon closer examination, it doesn't hold up as well as people may think. For one thing, sometime in the distant past Buddhism and Islam merged to become "Buddislam." This makes ZERO SENSE to anyone who knows even a little bit about either religion. They are completely incompatible. There is no way that Islam would ever join itself with another religion since a core tenet of the faith is to dominate everyone everywhere for all time.

The lack of water on Arrakis is also somewhat puzzling when you factor in the technology available in the Dune universe. They clearly have the means for harvesting comets and other water-abundant sources within a solar system, so they could harvest the planetary system's local Kuiper Belt for all the water they ever needed. Water is a very abundant resource in the greater cosmos. Instead, Herbert devised an elaborate ecological system where an alien animal/plant hybrid is introduced on Arrakis that "locks" the water deep underground, when it used to flow freely on the surface.

I can summarize this book in one word: BORING.

Paul's Fremen allies, the "Fedaykin," have launched a jihad against the rest of the Galactic Empire. Why? It's never really explained, other than that the Fremen see Paul as their new god and thus want to force the rest of the galaxy to worship Paul Muad'dib.

Much of the book is simply lots and lots of conversations about "prescience" and how knowing the future is not the great gift the people believe it to be. Indeed, Paul's challenge in knowing the future is that is forced to play out the events that lead to the least worst outcome, since all futures for him are horrible.

Taking a break from Dune, I decided to read the Darth Bane Trilogy. This documents the rise of the titular villain as he claims the mantle of Lord of the Sith. He methodically destroys the old Sith Order, which was composed of hundreds or thousands of Dark Side Force users and instead establishes the "Rule of Two," where this only a Master and an Apprentice of the Sith. Darth Bane believes that the Dark Side of the Force must be concentrated in as few people as possible in order to cause the greatest destruction.

And we're back to Dune. Children of Dune takes place about 9-10 years after Dune: Messiah. Approximately 20 years have passed since Dune. Paul's children are around 10 years old, as they had just been born at the end of the previous book. Like Paul's sister Alia, Leto II and Ghanima are "pre-born," meaning they can access all of the memories of their ancestors going back to ancient Earth. They also have Paul's prescience, so they can see both the past and the future in equal measure.

Leto and Ghanima see a future for humanity without the spice and believe THAT future holds the ultimate key to our destiny, as the spice is actually holding back our development as a civilization. Even though he's physically a young boy, Leto undertakes a desperate journey into the deserts of Arrakis in the hope that he will uncover the lost knowledge he needs to usher in the Golden Path for humanity, in the process losing his own connetion to humanity. It's a sacrifice that he's willing to make.