Summary
Chapter 1
Almost 2 years after the Arrakis Affair, the Baron Harkonnen is furious that Iakin Nefud, his guard captain, allowed Feyd-Rautha to make an assassination attempt on him. He has three members of Feyd’s conspiracy killed, on top of the slave boy Feyd sent to kill him. He still wants Feyd to take over, but he won’t let Feyd do it so soon. They speak openly about the assassination attempt, and they strike a bargain: Feyd will stop trying to kill him, and the Baron will retire peacefully when the time is right. The Baron makes Feyd kill all the slave women in the pleasure wing. Feyd resents him but won’t refuse his uncle while he needs him.
Chapter 2
Thufir Hawat, now Mentat to the Harkonnens, meets with the Baron, whom he hates. Hawat explains that the Emperor killed Duke Atreides because the Duke's soldiers were becoming too skilled; that there are millions of Fremen on Arrakis, not just thousands; that the Sarkdaukar come from Salusa Secundus; and that the Emperor fears Arrakis could be made into Salusa Secundus for the right man’s army (like the Duke). They create a plan together to cut Rabban Harkonnen’s support now, eventually replacing him with Feyd-Rautha.
Chapter 3
Now over 18 years old, Paul-Muad’Dib is deep in a spice haze, not sure what has already happened and what will happen—is Chani down south with their son, Leto II? Is his sister, Alia-the-Strange-One, born yet? He recalls an incident with Chani killing a man who came to challenge Paul. Jessica is concerned by Paul’s fanatical religious and political following.
As Paul leaves his haze, he knows that his love, Chani, is with him, and that he’s waiting in the desert for the sun to rise so he can try to ride on the back of a sandworm (“a maker” to the Fremen) and become an official Fremen. His goal remains to stop the future jihad, which he can’t do if he dies today—and that’s very likely. He begins his test, and an enormous sandworm approaches.
Chapter 4
In the deep south, where Fremen women and children have made a temporary home, Jessica sits in a resting chamber and tries not to think about Paul riding the sandworm. Harah and Alia, who's now around 2 years old, enter. Harah is concerned that Alia’s too-adult, too-knowing behavior is making the rest of the sietch anxious, and Alia agrees. Their conversation is interrupted by a nightly grieving ritual for the Fremen ancestors lost on other planets, then by a Fremen woman named Tharthar. Tharthar says that the young men are going to force Paul to challenge Stilgar, killing him and assuming official command of the tribes. Jessica and Harah agree that times have changed, and Paul should not kill Stilgar; they discuss Chani briefly—Jessica loves Chani but thinks she isn’t the right wife for Paul, and Harah believes that Chani agrees. Chani wants whatever is best for Him.
Chapter 5
Paul successfully rides the sandworm, larger than any sandworm in memory, and the other Fremen get on with him. He says they’re going south, and Stilgar thinks Paul means to call him out in a fight for command. Paul sees that Stilgar is too immersed in the Fremen way to consider any route other than combat. They see a smuggler ’thopter and get off the worm, then prepare a trap to catch the smugglers before they venture farther south and see how the Fremen are changing Arrakis.
Chapter 6
Gurney Halleck is among the smugglers, and they’re attacked by Fremen; when Paul tells him to drop his weapon, Gurney thinks he’s seeing the ghost of Duke Leto. Their reunion is happy, and when Paul asks if he’d like to enlist in his campaign against the Harkonnens, Gurney says he never left Atreides service. A storm comes, so they go into a Fremen hiding cave, where Sardaukar disguised as Gurney’s smugglers attack the Fremen. The Fremen win, and Paul keeps two Sardaukar alive (to be released to cause chaos at the final battle). He convinces Stilgar that there won’t be a challenge between them—when Paul is the Duke of Arrakis, he won’t be able to run Sietch Tabr, so Stilgar doesn’t need to die. Times change. Paul orders Chani to go south and send Jessica north. Gurney is privately shocked to know that Jessica is alive (at this point, Gurney and Hawat still think the betrayer was Jessica, not Dr. Yueh). Paul knows that even though he didn’t draw his knife, legends will say that he killed 20 Sardaukar today. His reputation is that out of control.
Chapter 7
Jessica, now in the northern desert, watches Paul give a speech in front of all Fremen to convince them he and Stilgar don’t need to fight. They’ve gotten word that Rabban has been cut off from Harkonnen support, so now is the time to strike. The Fremen are ready for battle.
In Paul’s chambers, Gurney grabs Jessica and threatens to kill her, but Paul convinces him Jessica didn’t betray the Duke. Jessica, moved, tells Paul to choose his own course, one of happiness, and marry Chani if that’s what he wishes. Gurney asks Paul to kill him for his disloyalty, and Paul is annoyed, telling him to play the baliset for Jessica instead. After this unexpected, unforeseen incident with Gurney, Paul decides that he must do something to see more of the coming future. He must drown the maker in this cavern, drink the Water of Life, and see if he’s the Kwisatz Haderach.
Chapter 8
Chani arrives in the north, having been summoned suddenly by Paul; however, she learns that Jessica secretly summoned her because Paul is catatonic, completely unresponsive for the last three weeks. Chani suppresses her fear, and she realizes that Paul’s state is related to the Water of Life. She has some brought, and he rouses almost immediately. For him, mere moments have passed; his power now is inescapable, and he orders Jessica to show him the place Bene Gesserit can’t go within themselves that only the Kwisatz Haderach can access. He looks into that place, then explains that there are two forces in the world—giving and taking—and the giving place is easily accessed by women, the taking place by men, and one can’t see far into the other without becoming something other than just woman or just man. He himself stands at the fulcrum, unable to give without taking or take without giving.
He also sees the Now: Arrakis is surrounded by Guild ships; the Emperor himself is there, with Sardaukar and a Truthsayer. The Baron Harkonnon is there with Thufir Hawat, alongside every Great House. The Guild is looking for him and can’t find him. He orders Jessica to convert some Water of Life, then Chani to find a pre-spice mass (like the one that exploded and killed Liet-Kynes)—he knows now that planting the Water of Life above a pre-spice mass will create the Water of Death, killing all the sandworms on Arrakis, destroying the spice. “He who can destroy a thing has real control of it”—and since the Guild requires spice, Paul can control the Guild. All paths, seen by both himself and the Guild, lead into darkness.
Analysis
Book 1 begins with House Atreides and ends with their fall; Book 3 begins with two chapters on Giedi Prime, and it ends with the fall of House Harkonnen. Things aren't going very well for the Harkonnens: Feyd is trying to replace the Baron, and though the Baron still finds Feyd's assassination attempts sloppy, the needle hidden on the young boy's thigh actually would have killed him if Hawat hadn't warned him. Things aren't going very well for Hawat, either, who's still forced to help the Baron because of the poison he was given years ago. It's ironic that the Baron relies on Mentats for advice, but he refuses to give them complete information—both Piter de Vries and Hawat are kept in the dark about certain matters—because the Baron wants to be in control. If he gave his Mentats full information, they could perform better; the Baron limits himself by limiting his Mentats to maintain control, actually lessening his control.
On Arrakis, Paul-Muad'Dib prepares to ride a great maker, which most Fremen do when they're 12 years old. This is his last step to becoming a Fremen, and Stilgar has been training him for it; after this, Stilgar stops being his mentor, and in the next section Stilgar is actually ready to die so that Paul can assume command. The mythology built around Paul infects everyone, not just Stilgar, as exemplified by his fanatical following among the young men of the sietch, as well as Harah referring to Paul as "Him" with a capital H.
Paul riding the sandworm is a triumphant, iconic moment more out of fantasy than science fiction: the young man rides the equivalent of a dragon. However, like after his first one-on-one murder of Jamis, Stilgar critiques Paul almost immediately after the feat is accomplished. Though Paul is a hero to the Fremen, Herbert's structure undercuts Paul's narrative heroism. He might have ridden the biggest sandworm any living Fremen has ever seen, but he did a sloppy job of it, and Herbert is quick to let the reader know.
In Book 1, Duke Leto has to emphatically reject Hawat's resignation after the attempted assassination with the hunter-seeker. Paul is now Duke Atreides, and he faces a similar leadership problem: He has to emphatically reject killing Stilgar and Gurney Halleck. While there's a parallel in leadership between father and son, the degree is remarkably different. Duke Leto led with authority and power, but Paul-Muad'Dib leads with religious and political fervor, inspiring a level of fanaticism that rightfully worries Jessica.
Most importantly, at the end of this section, Paul has consumed the Water of Life and lived; he has seen the place no Bene Gesserit can go; he is the Kwisatz Haderach. With the realization that he can create the Water of Death, Paul has every tool he needs to make a move against the Harkonnens, the Emperor, and the Spacing Guild. He will use the Law of the Minimum, leveraging the Guild's least-present necessity (spice) to dominate the environment.
