All 23 Dune novels, laid out in chronological canon order

17. The Winds of Dune (2009)

After Dune Messiah, the story skips forward another handful of years before we get to Frank Herbert's next sequel, Children of Dune. However, Brian Howard and Kevin J. Anderson have written another bridge book to plug that gap. Without spoiling anything, there's a power vacuum on Arrakis after the end of Dune Messiah. In The Winds of Dune, Paul's mother Lady Jessica returns to the planet to try and put things to rights.

18. Children of Dune (1976)*

Back to Frank Herbert's novels, Children of Dune mainly centers around twin siblings Leto II and Ghanima, the children of Paul Atreides and Chani. Think of this book as a passing of the torch to the next generation of Dune characters.

Like the first Dune book, Children of Dune is a sweeping epic with some memorable action scenes, which it serves up without sacrificing the heavy tone of the series. While Denis Villeneuve has said he wants to direct a Dune Messiah movie, he doesn't think he'll get to Children of Dune. That's a shame, because it would make a good movie. If Villeneuve doesn't want to direct it, I hope someone else does.

19. God Emperor of Dune (1981)*

God Emperor of Dune takes us to a whole new era of the Duniverse. Thousands of years after the events of Children of Dune, the galaxy is ruled by a god emperor, a man who was merged with a sandworm. You'll just have to take my word for it that it makes sense if you've read the books. This one is a little more like Dune Messiah, which is to say that's ponderous and concerned first and foremost with the interior intellectual lives of the characters. It's one of the trickier Dune books, but full of food for thought.

Okay, now we're going to jump ahead to the final era of the Duniverse yet recorded: