The Machine Crusade

Years have passed since the Jihad against the overmind Omnius and the thinking machines blazed up in the instant that the robot Erasmus hurled an innocent toddler to his death. The child s mother, Serena Butler, is still the spiritual leader of the Jihadi, and the former slave foreman Iblis Ginjo is their political and military organizer. Vor Atreides and Xavier Harkonnen lead the fleet, Vor with a common touch and the good looks preserved by life-extending treatment, and Xavier with sheer determination and courage. But the decades-long war has cost countless lives and sapped the people s resolve. When Omnius makes a startling offer of peace, Serena knows it is a terrible mistake to compromise with machine intelligence but can t naysay her exhausted followers. In a desperate move to save the Jihad and the millions of enslaved humans on machine-dominated worlds, Serena goes as the sole ambassador of peace to Omnius stronghold on the planet Corrin. Meanwhile, an isolated physicist is discovering how to fold space, Selim of Arrakis is building a tribe and a legend, and Iblis is making a demonic deal with the flesh merchants of Tleilax to provide organ replacements for the Jihadi army.