The epic that began with the HUGO and NEBULA Award-winning classic DUNE continues ... More than three thousand years have passed since the first events recorded in DUNE. Only one link survives with those tumultuous times: the grotesque figure of Leto Atreides, son of the prophet Paul Muad'Dib, and now the virtually immortal God Emperor of Dune. He alone understands the future, and he knows with a terrible certainty that the evolution of his race is at an end unless he can breed new qualities into his species. But to achieve his final victory, Leto Atreides must also bring about his own downfall ...

The long-established galactic order is passing. The Honoured Matres, ruthless and all-conquering, have destroyed the planet Dune. In opposition, hard-pressed but still fighting back, the Bene Gesserit sisterhood co-ordinate their resistance from their as-yet undiscovered home world, Chapter House. Now as a new Scattering is planned, they still have one carefully nurtured asset: the sandworms, offspring of the only giant worm salvaged from Dune. Chapter House is to about to turn into a barren wasteland: Chapter House will be the new Dune.