Sandworms of Dune


 * For information on the sandworm, see Sandworm.

Sandworms of Dune is the second part of the planned seventh book of Frank Herbert's Dune series, along with Hunters of Dune. It is written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, who say that Sandworms is based on notes left behind by Frank Herbert. Sandworms is the second book of the Sequels of Dune.

The novel begins where its predecessor Hunters of Dune leaves off, making Sandworms to be the first Dune book to be published which does so. Each of the previous Dune novels (except for Sandworms' first part, Hunters), including those authored by Frank Herbert and his son Brian, are stand alone books.

The book was released in August 2007, and was published in hardback by Tor Books.

It deals with the culmination of the great Battle at the "end of the ages" foretold by the God Emperor Leto Atreides II, called Kralizec.

Finally decided is the ages-long battle between the Thinking Machine rulers, Omnius and Erasmus, with their legions of robots and Enhanced Face Dancers; and human-kind, led by the Mother Commander Murbella of the New Sisterhood, trying to unite the forces of humanity against the Thinking Machines' million-starship fleet. Lastly, detailed are the next few years of the no-ship, the Ithaca, and its crew of gholas and the vessels' leaders, a ghola of Duncan Idaho and the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Sheeana.

The Ultimate Kwisatz Haderach
It was on the Ithaca that Omnius and Erasmus also believed the Ultimate Super Being, the Ultimate Kwisatz Haderach, to be living. Continually, the two had cast their tachyon net from the cathedral on Synchrony, to capture the ship. Based upon the great rise of violence as human-kind absorbed the Honored Matres back into known space, Erasmus believed in "mathematical projections", which said that the Ultimate Kwisatz Haderach must arise, to bring order out of chaos. To further the desired goals of the Machine leaders, Omnius especially, wanted to control and dominate human-kind, by controlling the Ultimate super-being.

The Gholas on the Ithaca
During this time on the Ithaca, the Bene Gesserit Sheeana created gholas of powerful individuals from mankind's history, as she believed that when battle came with Daniel and Marty, that the gholas could lend their talents and abilities. Over the course of two decades, the gholas of Stilgar, Wellington Yueh, Liet Kynes, Chani, Jessica Atreides, Paul Atreides, Thufir Hawat, Alia Atreides, and Leto II, were created; as they were led by Duncan Idaho and a ghola of Miles Teg, through the cosmos.

Paolo and Vladimir
As a back-up plan, Omnius and Erasmus conceived a plan to decant their own duplicate of the first known Kwisatz of mankind, a clone of Paul Atreides, obtained from blood cells of the five millennia old Emperor's Blade. The clone/ghola which they created they named Paolo. They entrusted the decanting of Paolo to Uxtal, the lone-surviving Lost Tleilaxu scribe, who performed his work on Bandalong. The individual that oversaw the project for the Machine rulers, was Khrone, leader of the Enhanced Face Dancers. Khrone had earlier decanted a ghola of Vladimir Harkonnen, who raised Paolo with a violent, manipulative, and negative personality; as opposed to his predecessor from 5000 years earlier.

Paolo did exhibit bits of prescience as he grew. The chief of these was a vision of an older version of himself looking up at him, as the one down on the ground slowly bled to death. When Paolo reached the age of 10, he and the reborn Baron were brought to Synchrony to have Paolo's martial arts training completed by Erasmus.

Murbella
In the Old Imperium, it was known by Murbella, leader of the New Sisterhood, from scouting reports from the edges of human-kind out in The Scattering worlds, that the Machines had launched a million starship armada against humanity. That armada, guided by Omnius, began to destroy human-kind system-by-system, planet-by-planet towards the heart of the Old Empire, Chapterhouse and Junction.

Khrone
The Enhanced Face Dancers, originally sent out by Hidar Fen Ajidica five thousand years earlier, had been intercepted by, and improved upon by none other than Erasmus. Erasmus had perfected the mimicking technique used by the Dancers, and had already begun sending them out into human worlds to take over key positions of leadership. Khrone, leader of the Enhanced Dancers, also had a type of double agent program up his sleeves that all Face Dancers were engaging in.

When human-kind and machine-kind had sufficiently exhausted themselves in their all out war, the Enhanced Face Dancers would rise up and take hegemony over the universe. In the meantime, Khrone and his hundreds of millions of Enhanced Dancers did their bidding of their Machine Masters, and replaced many leadership positions throughout human-kind.

The Oracle
Lastly, the prescience essence of the Oracle of Time/Norma Cenva, using her tens of thousands of years-old knowledge of the universe, believed that Kralizec was coming to human-kind. The Oracle had been searching for the Ithaca as well, for the entire 26 years that Duncan Idaho and crew, kept the no-ship hidden from the galaxies. The Oracle believed that when she could find the Ithaca, since she had seen through prescience that the Ultimate Kwisatz was aboard, that Kralizec would begin.

Waff
The book begins with the just reached maturity of a serial ghola of Tylwyth Waff having just created a variant of the Rakian sandworm with the ability to live in ocean waters, called a seaworm. The seaworm also produced a strong super-potent variant of melange, dubbed ultraspice. Waff delivered the ultraspice to the Steersman Navigator Edrik, and then Waff departed down to Dune with his own plans. As soon as Waff left, Edrik's heighliner was boarded by a disguised Khrone, who then murdered Edrik, and stole the ultraspice.

Paolo
On Dan's Western Continent in Castle Caladan, Paolo did exhibit bits of prescience as he grew, and his personality was corrupted by Harkonnen. The chief prescient vision was one of year or two older version of himself looking up at himself, as a four or five year older version of himself down on the ground slowly bled to death. As Paolo reached the age of 10, he and the reborn Baron were brought to Synchrony to have Paolo's martial arts training completed by Erasmus.

Further Journeys of the Ithaca
The leaders of the Ithaca were very careful in their travels, but the incidents of sabotage increased aboard the ship. Even though a ghola of Alia Atreides was birthed, someone killed the gholas of Xavier Harkonnen, Serena Butler, and Gurney Halleck, that Sheeana had decided to raise in their war, if needed, against the Enemy. A ghola of Wellington Yueh, being tricked by the Jewish Rabbi, purposely killed a ghola of Leto being raised in the ships' Axlotl Tanks. Tensions increased as air recycling systems and food storage units were ruined and destroyed on the vessel by the unknown saboteur(s). This increased Duncan's feelings of helplessness and loneliness, as the ship, what he now felt was his ship, forced into yet another random jump, to find a way to replenish supplies.

Qelso
Idaho was surprised, as was all aboard, as the Ithaca came out of fold-space above the fruitful, but dying planet of Qelso, and he began to wonder if he had prescience in the choosing of fold-space timing and direction. Qelso was a seed world that Mother Superior Darwi Odrade had sent sisters to decades earlier, and they had seeded the world with sand-trout to begin a spice cycle. The inhabitants were openly hostile to the Bene Gesserit for this reason, and held some of the crew that went down to the world, as hostages. Duncan, who stayed invisible to the Enemy as long as he was on the ship, decided to lead a rescue team of the group.

The group, which consisted of Sheeana, a ghola of Miles Teg, and notable others was released; but the gholas of Stilgar and Liet Kynes stayed behind to help the bitter natives adapt to the encroaching desert and the ever increasing number of sandworms on the world. Idaho did make himself vulnerable to the watchful eyes of Omnius and Erasmus, in their guises of Daniel and Marty, and the Ithaca had to fold space again to safety.

Final Sabotage and Capture
Later, when the ghola of Leto II went to commune with the sandworms that were in the hold of the ship, the ghola of Thufir Hawat went to guard him should the giant beasts turn on the young man. The worms reared up when Hawat entered the hold, and immediately killed Hawat, and showed him to be an Enhanced Face Dancer. This led to a ship wide search for other saboteurs that might be involved in subversion. To question everyone aboard at the same time, all of the inhabitants of the Ithaca were called to the main assembly hall.

A serial ghola of the Tleilaxu Master Scytale used the old Tleilaxu Whistling language, which caused all Face Dancers muscles and visages to momentarily become jumbled. It was revealed that the Rabbi was indeed an Enhanced Face Dancer, and the Dancer stole away to the vessel's bridge, and locked himself in. The Dancer immediately began to destroy the ship's navigation, cloaking, and engine systems; and the ship returned to visibility. Idaho remembered back, and realized the Dancers must have boarded years earlier, at the Planet of the Handlers.

Immediately the tachyon net reappeared, and Thinking Machine starships began to surround the no-ship. Alia managed to sneak into the cockpit of the Ithaca, killing the Dancer, and opened the area. Idaho and Teg raced into the control room, Teg then went into hyper-movement, and raced around the ship at sonic speed, and repaired all of the ship's systems. As Duncan engaged the Holtzman Engines, a Machine starship rammed the Ithaca, and forced it into submission. Idaho signaled surrender, and the ship was brought to the Machine Capital of Synchrony, as the inhabitants of the no-ship realized that their Enemy were Thinking Machines.

In the Old Imperium
As a fore-front invasion before their giant battle fleet, the Thinking Machines unleashed a new variant of the Omnius Scourge to pre-decimate star systems. Murbella rallied humanity against the infectious disease, and dispatched Sheeana look a likes to planets who were in the path of the oncoming robotic invaders, knowing that the Sheeana Cult could stabilize and rally planetary inhabitants. But as the final battle of the Day of Kralizec approached, Murbella took delivery of the Obliterator weapons that had been delivered by the Ixian shipyards, and with her daughter, Bashar Janess Idaho, led humanity to a last stand over Chapterhouse.

Last Ditch Stand at Chapterhouse
The Machine armada began their last attack on the heart of the Old Imperium at Junction and Chapterhouse, and brought human-kind to the verge of destruction. As the day of Kralizec began, Murbella and her daughter, Bashar Janess Idaho held a last-ditch 'line in the sand' in a rag-tag human ship armada above the skies of Chapterhouse. Janess discovered that the ships and weapons that had been produced by the foundry star-ship yards of Ix had been greatly sabotaged, as neither functioned when humanity fired upon the Machines.

The day of Kralizec unfolded as the Machine ships attacked, but the Oracle of Time/Norma Cenva appeared with hundreds of Guild Heighliners, and completely destroyed the first wave of machine ships. Then the Oracle disappeared into fold space, leaving the human Armada dumbfounded.

Paul versus Paolo
Finally, the Ithaca was captured and brought to Synchrony, with all of the crew and the ghola children and teens aboard. First off, as Harkonnen was sent to "welcome" the crew of the vessel, he noticed the ghola of Alia, and viciously stabbed her to death. Most of the remainder of the entourage was led to the heart of Synchrony, in the capital building of the Cathedral.

Since the Machines had two duplicates of Paul Atreides, Omnius decided that Paul and Paolo would duel-to-the-death, and the victor would be ragarded as the Ultimate Super-Being, bringing change and victory for Machines—Kralizec. As the duel took place, Paolo mortally wounded Paul with a fatal stab wound. Paolo danced around in glee, and took the offered prize of Ultraspice, imbibing a huge dosage. Paolo went into a deep prescient vision, and saw all aspects of the universe simultaneously. Soon, Paolo found himself in an overdose, permanent trance; where he soon starved and thirsted to death. As Yueh was summoned to examine the boy, Yueh stabbed Harkonnen deep in the gullet, and killed him instantly.

Banishment of Omnius
Paul used his training as a Reverend Mother, with encouragement from the gholas of Chani and Jessica, to self-heal his body, and willed his organs to re-accept the life fluids that had leaked out of them. As Paul came out of his near-death experience, he announced that the final ghola of Duncan Idaho, a human with no specialized breeding, was the universe's Ultimate Kwisatz Haderach. Immediately, the Oracle of Time appeared in Cathedral, and announced that Paul was correct, that Duncan was indeed the super-being. She also announced that her watching over the Guild Navigators had come to an end, and that she would be leaving the universe—and taking all vestiges of Omnius with her. Despite Omnius' protests, before all assembled, the Oracle disappeared to another dimension removing all aspects of the Machine Tyrant with her.

Leto II, Sheeana, and Scytale
As the events of the milleniums occurred in the Cathedral; Leto II, Sheeana, and Scytale took it upon themselves to wreak havoc on the Machine capital. Leto and Sheeana released the giant sandworms from the no-ships cargo hold, and they destroyed huge areas of the Machine City. As Face dancers attacked the ship, Scytale dropped and sprayed massive quantities of nerve gas on the Dancers, killing hundreds instantly. As the giant worms destroyed machine building after machine building, Leto realized that he belonged in biological union with the giant beasts, and merged and unified his body structure and DNA with the sandworms as they traveled through the city-world.

Death of Millions of Face Dancers
Back in Cathedral, Khrone and his Enhanced Face Dancer minions announced that their time of galactic hegemony was to begin. Since man and machine had near destroyed themselves, the Enhanced Dancers would simply stay in the leadership positions in mankind; and would now take over Synchrony, since Omnius was gone forever. Erasmus announced to all assembled that he had foreseen this moment millennia ago, and had installed a kill switch into all of the Enhanced Face Dancers. Erasmus turned on the tachyon net, and instantaneously killed each and every Face Dancer in the Known Universe. Literally, tens of millions of Dancers died through all of human-kind space, ending the Face Dancer threat forever.

Duncan Idaho!
To test Duncan's abilities, Erasmus had an entire machine contingent attack Idaho. Duncan's latent abilities fully kicked in, and Idaho dispatched the Thinking Machines easily. Erasmus then suggested that Duncan and himself merge, and through the utilization of Duncan's abilities as the final Kwisatz Haderach, Erasmus entered into Duncan's nerve system as in Other Memory. Erasmus then asked for Duncan's help to pass away and die, which Erasmus did.

On Dune, Waff and the Prophet
After Waff left Edrik and went to the surface of Dune, he released 6 armor-piercing variants of the gaint sandworms into the Dune soil. After a week, they soon died. Waff felt forlorn, and gave up hope. Suudenly, from deep within the crust of the planet, giant original sandworms, having thought been destroyed decades earlier burrowed up onto the Rakian surface. Waff, overjoyed, gave himself in suicidal ectasy to the once-hibernating sandworms, and became one with his Prophet.

End of the Battle
Simultaneously, Murbella and the human fleet were equally astounded when the Machine ships just stopped functioning and drifted aimlessly over Chapterhouse, not realizing that the Oracle had given humanity a final gift of banishing Omnius permanently. Lastly, Janess and Murbella, as well as all of humanity's leaders found herself completely at a loss for words, when thousands of people instantly died all around them. The true humans suddenly realized that the dead individuals were Enhanced Face Dancers, and later found out that Erasmus had killed them through the tachyon net.

Union of Man and Machines
To humanity's great surprise, not only was the Man/Machine war completely over, but that there was also an Ultimate Kwisatz Haderach, to guide humanity and machine into tomorrow. The entire Old Imperium was filled with happiness, as it was discovered that now man and machine would live in complete harmony, with Duncan Idaho being both the new Evermind, as well as the super-being of mankind. A new order was formed where Duncan was now the supreme being in the universe, able to control machines and influence humans significantly. Mankind and Thinking Machines would work together in complete cooperation.

Duncan gave Synchrony to a union of machines, the Bene Gesserit led by Sheeana, and the Tleilaxu Scytale. The worms that Leto released were allowed to begin a spice cycle on a portion of the planet. On Qelso it was seen the cooperation that could exist with man and machine, and hundreds of Duncan-inspired Thinking Machines terraformed the world into a permanent half-desert and half-lush world. On Caladan, the gholas of Jessica and Yueh, patiently waited for the decanting of the ghola of Duke Leto. And on Rakis, Paul and Chani celebrated their lives of obscurity, living lives of simple Fremen, happy that the mantle of guiding the Known Universe was the responsibility of someone else.

Die Erlöser des Wüstenplaneten Песчаные черви Дюны