Much in the same way as Asimov’s Foundation series started out, Paul creates a religion to facilitate the execution of his power and vision for the universe. His fanatic legions perpetrate a Jihad across the universe, killing tens of billions of people and cementing the new political order with Paul ostensibly ruling the universe as a living god.
But Paul finds himself unsatisfied with what he has done. The character of Muad’dib has become a living thing of its own outside of his control, with a universe-spanning priesthood pulling the strings, plus the many secret plots against him by other houses.
He spends the book dancing around crises while setting the scene for the rise of his son, before a strange and confusing ending.
This book is deeply introspective. Very little actually happens outside of politics and machination and intrigue and internal dialogue. It will be interesting to see how it’s adapted for film and whether it hits like the recent movies did.