Heretics of Dune

Dune Chronicles

Content Ratings

Moderate Romance

The Honored Matres use sexual conditioning and erotic bonding as tools of domination and control, which is discussed and depicted in a moderately explicit political and strategic context throughout the novel.

Intense Themes

Sustained depictions of institutional manipulation through sexuality, the erasure of cultural identity, the use of religious organizations as instruments of power, and trauma inflicted on individuals by conditioning programs.

Moderate Violence

The novel contains large-scale military destruction of entire planets, assassination, and interpersonal combat; the Honored Matres' attacks result in mass death on a civilizational scale.

Synopsis

Fifteen hundred years after the death of the God Emperor, the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood and the powerful Honored Matres—a mysterious force returning from the outer darkness—compete for control of the galaxy and the precious spice. At the center of the conflict is young Sheeana, a girl on Arrakis who can command sandworms, and a ghola of Duncan Idaho created to serve as a weapon. A fast-paced entry in the saga exploring the nature of sexuality, power, and institutional control.