Gom Jabbar: A Dune Podcast

Dune Messiah opens twelve years into Muad'Dib's jihad, with Emperor Paul Atreides worn down by his own visions. Abu and Leo kick off their Dune Messiah Book Club with the first 50 pages, just in time for Dune: Part Three.

Bronso of Ix gets the first word, and the hosts fall a little in love with the historian as he needles Muad'Dib's priests. Scytale's meeting with Gaius Helen Mohiam, Princess Irulan and the Guild Steersman Edric gets read for its subtext within subtext, while Paul's late night with Chani shows a man weighing one beloved life against the agony of multitudes. With help from the Dune Encyclopedia, the hosts trace how a Landsraad revolt turned into a holy war, then close on spice morsels about the Qizarate and the Dune Tarot, plus a fruitless hunt for the meaning of Mirabhasa.

This episode contains NO SPOILERS beyond the books and pages covered thus far.

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Abu and Leo conclude their reluctant coverage of Sandworms of Dune, the final part of Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's conclusion of the Dune saga. They summarize the remainder of the book and discuss what it's all about, in the end.

This episode contains SPOILERS for all six of Frank Herbert's Dune novels, plus Hunters of Dune and all of Sandworms of Dune.

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Abu and Leo reluctantly launch into their coverage of Sandworms of Dune, the final part of Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's conclusion of the Dune saga. They summarize the first half of the book, and vent their feelings along the way.

This episode contains SPOILERS for all six of Frank Herbert's Dune novels, plus Hunters of Dune and the first half of Sandworms of Dune.

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Get ad-free episodes and more: ⁠patreon.com/gomjabbar⁠

Say thank you with a tip: ⁠buymeacoffee.com/gomjabbar⁠

Buy custom-designed Dune merch: ⁠gomjabbar.shop⁠

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Princess Irulan Corrino, Shaddam IV's eldest daughter and Paul's wife in name only, finally gets her own character deep dive. Abu and Leo dig into what the Dune Encyclopedia says about her life and legacy, with an eye on Florence Pugh's return to the role in Dune: Part Three.

Dune historians are brutal about Irulan's Bene Gesserit abilities, yet they also credit her as an independent thinker who never fully bought into the Sisterhood, and her near silence about her own mother hints at what the record leaves out. Her schemes in Dune Messiah get written off as "small spurts of rebellion," and the hosts make the case that her history was sanded down to fit the cult of St. Irulan the Virgin that rose a century after her death. They also run through highlights of the writings recovered in the Rakis Finds, including The Chakobsa Way, Arrakis Awakening, and a drama called Ornithopera. The episode closes on how Denis Villeneuve might move her to the center of the conspiracy.

This episode contains SPOILERS for Children of Dune.

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Abu and Leo dig into "Greenslaves" and "Occupation Force," two stories Herbert wrote in the decade before Dune made him famous, to see what they reveal about the mind behind the books.

"Greenslaves," published in Amazing in March 1965 and later expanded into the novel The Green Brain, follows a Brazilian extermination program built to wipe out every last insect, and the swarm that has learned to disguise itself to survive it. In "Occupation Force," published in Fantastic in 1955, a U.S. general readies the nukes against an alien ship parked over Washington, only for its ambassador to deliver a reveal about exactly how long humans have actually been under alien rule.

This episode contains SPOILERS for Frank Herbert's short stories Greenslaves and Occupation Force. There are NO SPOILERS for the Dune novels.

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Abu and Leo finish their Lost Entries run through Carl B. Yoke's psychology manuscripts, uncovered at the Fullerton Archives. This week they read two unpublished Dune Encyclopedia entries on the psychology of the Sardaukar and the Harkonnens.

The Sardaukar entry centers on the Dhama ti Kama, the corps' secret training manual, which Lady Margot Fenring somehow stole for the Bene Gesserit. Its author, the Sardau shaman Kiwan Kalama, lays out a Freudian program for turning children into warriors, and it is every bit as grim as that sounds. The Harkonnen entry introduces Dr. Amertine Moritani Harkonnen, a granddaughter of Shaddam IV who married into the family after the Baron's death and made him the subject of her Study of the Dark Side.

This episode contains SPOILERS for Children of Dune.

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Abu and Leo finish Hunters of Dune, the first book in Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's conclusion of the Dune saga. They break down the back half of the book and vent their feelings about how this is all just so wrong.

They cover the Ithaca's stalled journey through the Scattering, Duncan Idaho's fixation on the absent Murbella, and the ghola children growing up aboard the no-ship. On Chapterhouse, Murbella's war against the Honored Matres comes to a head, including the reveal that the Honored Matres descend in part from Tleilaxu women. Uxtal's doomed attempt to resurrect a Tleilaxu master and Khrone's efforts to reawaken a young Baron Harkonnen push the ghola storylines toward their conclusions. Along the way, the mysterious old couple behind the Scattering's chaos finally comes into focus, setting up next episode's dive into Sandworms of Dune.

This episode contains SPOILERS for all six of Frank Herbert's Dune novels, plus the entirety of Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.

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Get ad-free episodes and more: patreon.com/gomjabbar

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An unpublished Dune Encyclopedia manuscript called Psychology of the Fremen never made it past Willis E. McNelly's editing desk, until now. Abu and Leo dig into what got cut, in part one of a two-episode dive into the Fullerton archives' unreleased psychology entries.

Carl B. Yoke, a Kent State University professor, wrote it as one of five planned psychology profiles that also covered the Bene Gesserit, the Sardaukar, the Harkonnens, and the Imperium. Yoke's Fremen entry builds its case through an invented smuggler-poet, whose writings and observations of Fremen psychology survived in the Bene Gesserit archives on Wallach IX. From there, Abu and Leo trace a psychological system mapped almost entirely onto Carl Jung.

This episode contains NO SPOILERS for the Dune novels.

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Get ad-free episodes and more: https://www.patreon.com/GomJabbar

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The 2026 Hugo Awards hand Best Novel to Alix E. Harrow's The Everlasting and give Murderbot its first-ever trophy, while WorldCon finally reveals the price for the 2023 Hugo scandal: a lifetime ban for administrator Dave McCarty and lesser bans for three others. Plus, Silo closes its most divisive season yet to a critic/audience split the internet doesn't seem to agree with, and the Bobiverse's fifth book proves the series still has it.

Stellar Dispatch drops every Tuesday. New main episodes every Friday on the Stellar feed.

Stories this week:

2026 Hugo Awards winners announced at LAcon V

WorldCon censures and bans four 2023 Chengdu Worldcon officials

Silo season 3 finale review

Not Till We Are Lost (Bobiverse #5) review

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Abu and Leo begin the book club coverage of Hunters of Dune, the first novel completing Frank Herbert's saga after his death. They walk through the first half of the book's tangled plot before turning to the continuity breaks and creative choices they think do real damage to the Dune canon.

This episode contains SPOILERS for all six of Frank Herbert's Dune novels, plus chapters 1-44 of Hunters of Dune!

Listen to "The 7 Deadly Sins of Brian Herbert" episode HERE

IN THIS EPISODE

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