the slaves and recognition for their role in constructing a decoy fleet during the successful defense of Poritin. As punishment, he is separated from his wife and daughters and reassigned to Cenva's laboratories. Ishmael's devout religious pacifism clashes with Aliid's militancy, destroying their friendship. Norma leaves the world just in time to avoid a slave uprising during which Aliid, unaware of the consequences, fires a lasgun into a Holtzman personal shield. The resulting explosion wipes out Tio Holtzman's labs; the slave revolt is eventually brutally crushed. Ishmael manages to escape offworld with a hundred slaves including his older daughter Chamal and her husband Rafael by forcing the Tlulaxa Tuk Keedair to fly the on Norma's prototype spacefolding ship to the lonely desert world of Arrakis. Meanwhile, Norma, due to her heritage as daughter of the main Sorceress of Rossak Zufa Cenva, finally taps into her latent powers under great pressure (precipitated by her capture and subsequent torture by the Titan Xerxes) to become the spearhead of humanity. She envisions a future in which massive ships transport goods and humans instantaneously across the universe, using the Holtzman effect to fold space. Norma's ships are the first of what will later be known as heighliners, and her family uses their monopoly on such travel to found the Spacing Guild. On Arrakis, Ishmael and his followers struggle to survive on the desert world. They are saved after Keedair alerts the followers of Selim, who are also Zensunni, to their presence. Selim's followers welcome the former Poritrin slaves into their number and the two communities merge to become the Free Men of Arrakis. Finally, the remaining Titans take their chance becoming independent from their machine master Omnius on the planet of Bela Tegeuse. Reception Dune: The Machine Crusade debuted at #7 on The New York Times Best Seller list. References Dune (franchise) novels 2003 American novels 2003 science fiction novels Novels by Kevin J. Anderson Novels by Brian Herbert Tor Books books