Frank Herbert's Dune ended with Paul Muad'Dib in control of the planet Dune. Herbert's next Dune book, Dune Messiah, picked up the story several years later after Paul's armies had conquered the galaxy. But what happened between Dune and Dune Messiah? How did Paul create his empire and become the Messiah? Following in the footsteps of Frank Herbert, New York Times bestselling authors Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson are answering these questions in Paul of Dune.

The Muad'Dib's jihad is in full swing. His warrior legions march from victory to victory. But beneath the joy of victory there are dangerous undercurrents. Paul, like nearly every great conqueror, has enemies--those who would betray him to steal the awesome power he commands. . . .

And Paul himself begins to have doubts: Is the jihad getting out of his control? Has he created anarchy? Has he been betrayed by those he loves and trusts the most? And most of all, he wonders: Am I going mad?

Paul of Dune is a novel everyone will want to read and no one will be able to forget.

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 of Ix - at one time Paul's closest friend - releases hateful treaties and disrupts sacred ceremonies, doing everything he can to destory the myth of Paul Muad'Dib and reveal the untarnished 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 extend 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.