The Winds of Dune (Heroes of Dune # 2)

Paul-Muad'Dib -- cheered as a hero, worshipped as a messiah, hated as a tyrant -- has vanished into the endless deserts of the planet Dune. Blinded in an assassination attempt and grieving after the death of his beloved Chani, Paul abandons his newborn twins and leaves his galaxy-spanning empire in the hands of his young sister, Alia.

And the greatest empire in the history of mankind begins to crumble.

Living in self-imposed exile on Caladan, Lady Jessica and the faithful Gurney Halleck receive word that Paul has vanished and is presumed dead. They race to Dune, the heart of Muad'Dib's empire, where they find a planet in turmoil and Jessica's daughter, Alia -- along with the resurrected Duncan Idaho -- willing to impose more and more extreme measures to maintain order.

Fueling the flames of dissent, the outspoken rebel Bronso if Ix -- at one time Paul's closest friend -- releases hateful treatises and disrupts sacred ceremonies, doing everything he can to destroy the myth of Paul-Muad'Dib and reveal the unvarnished facts about the man who -- through his jihad and his corrupt priesthood -- is responsible for more deaths than any other person in history.

Working with Princess Irulan, Paul's self-appointed biographer, Jessica tries to uncover the truth about her son. As winds of rebellion brew and treachery occurs both from outside the government and within, Jessica discovers that her son had plans that extended far beyond history and that Muad'Dib may have knowingly planted the seeds for his own downfall.

Drawn from secret to secret, from revelation to revelation, Jessica at last will come to the truth about her son's prescience and visionary plans, a truth that will force her to choose between the memory of her son and the future of the human race.

With their usual brilliance, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have taken the wonderful ideas bequeathed to them by Frank Herbert and filled them with imagination, whole worlds, living characters, and a true sense of wonder.