Dune Messiah Summary

The novel Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert starts twelve years after Paul Asreides manages to conquer the Harkonnen and Sardaukar armies. With Paul’s prescience, he emerges as the new emperor and messiah to the Fremen. The Fremen supports jihadists that kill billions of people globally. When Paul takes full control of the empire and Melange's supply, he comes up with a plan to stop the merciless killings by the jihadists. Paul's predecessors have yet to succeed in stopping the killings, but he is optimistic about taking on the task.

As Paul tries to prevent human destruction in the empire, his enemies plot to kill him. The top conspirators in the plot to kill Paul include Tleilaxu, Guild and Gesserit. These enemies are not happy with Paul's leadership because he will soon discover they are part of the merciless killings in the kingdom. To actualize the murder plan, Mother Mohiam recruits Princess Irulan to complete the task. Princess Irulan is Paul’s Consort, but he refuses to give her a child. Instead, Paul has a concubine called Chani, whom he wants to be the mother of his children. Princess Iluran knows Paul's plan to have children with Chani. Therefore, she interferes with Chani's diet to ensure she does not become pregnant. However, Chani monitors her diet until she becomes pregnant with Paul.

Soon, Paul becomes aware of the conspirators’ plan to kill him. While resisting the plan, Paul becomes blind when he stumbles on an atomic component set to kill him. Fortunately, Paul survives but becomes blind. Since he cannot see using his eyes, he navigates the environment around him using his prescient abilities. Later, Chani gives birth to a baby boy, but unfortunately, she dies a few hours later. Paul defeats his enemies with his close allies but slowly starts losing his prescience powers. After realizing he is no longer powerful, Paul leaves his sister Alia to rule the empire and care for his son until he matures to take over the empire. As the Fremen tradition requires, Paul walks into the desert to await his peaceful death. After Alia takes power, she orders all the people who conspired to kill Paul to be executed, but she spares Irulan.