"A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct."
This is the story of Arrakis. The desert planet. The most dangerous place in the universe — and the most valuable.
Paul Atreides — son of Duke Leto, heir to House Atreides — dreamed of a desert he had never seen.
He saw blue eyes staring at him through sandstorms. A girl with a knife. A future written in fire.
His mother, Lady Jessica, a sister of the Bene Gesserit, had trained him in the ways of the Voice — the power to command with a word.
But nothing could prepare him for what was coming.
The Emperor ordered House Atreides to leave their ocean world and take control of Arrakis — the only source of melange, the spice that made interstellar travel possible.
He who controls the spice, controls the universe.
Beneath the sands, sandworms — ancient creatures half a kilometer long — guarded the spice with primal fury. The Fremen called them Shai-Hulud. Makers. Gods.
It was a trap. The Emperor and House Harkonnen had conspired together.
In one terrible night, Arrakeen fell. Sardaukar shock troops descended from the sky. Duke Leto was captured — poisoned by a traitor in his own ranks.
With his last breath, the Duke triggered a poison tooth — a final act of defiance aimed at the Baron himself.
He died as he lived: with honor.
Paul and Jessica fled into the desert — into the killing sands that no offworlder had ever survived.
The desert tried to kill them. Heat that could boil blood. Sandstorms that stripped flesh. And always — the worms, drawn by any rhythmic vibration.
But the desert was also alive with people.
The Fremen found them — desert warriors who had survived Arrakis for generations. They moved like ghosts. They fought like demons. And they had been waiting for a prophecy to be fulfilled.
A prophecy about an outsider who would lead them to paradise.
Paul became one of them. He took the Fremen name Muad'Dib — the desert mouse, the survivor. He learned their ways. He rode the sandworms.
And his visions grew stronger.
He saw two paths: one led to salvation, the other to a holy war that would burn across the stars. Billions would die in his name.
Both paths terrified him. Both paths were inevitable.
The sleeper has awakened.
THE SPICE MUST FLOW