God Emperor of Dune
Dune Chronicles #4
by Frank Herbert
SF
Dtb, 404 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 

Good stuff.

After having read Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderson’s prequels and sequels, the little throw away references took on a much larger import.

The Golden Path is still not spelled out for the reader. We simply have to figure out stuff while the main story unrolls. That is one thing I really enjoy about the Dune Chronicles, they are not the “Transformers” of books, but a very thoughtful and insightful look at what it means to be human.

Herbert deftly weaves words and thoughts to reveal his idea of what humanity is and where he thinks it could go. In many ways, a psychological version of what Neal Asher graphically shows with his souped up science in his Polity universe.

Poor Leto. To see, to know, to sacrifice, all for a species that turns on him, reviles him, fears him, worships him and ultimately, just wishes he didn’t exist.

Herbert also tries to posit the non-existance of any sort of God because he claims it is incompatible with free will; free will being the ability to DO anything one wants. which is why the argument fails, because free will is about the ability to make the CHOICE about doing something, even if it is between 2 horrible choices.

So anyway, lots to love about this book 🙂

Dune Messiah & Children Of Dune
Dune Chronicles #3-4
by Frank Herbert
SF
Dtb, 592 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 

Dune Messiah:

Paul Atreides’ downfall. The Jihad has been conveniently all wrapped up and the bureaucracy is starting it’s inevitable creep.

Paul has trapped himself by prescience and knowing the future destroys him.

He gives up, but I can’t blame him.

 

Children of Dune:

Leto and Ghanima are the main characters. Alia takes the predetermined path of the preborn. Leto takes the path of vision instead of prescience and sets up humanity for the Golden Path, whatever that is.

Fantastic! Instead of a simple messianic action story like Dune, we get a full fledged galactic spanning empire intrigue underpinned by arguments of free will and what it means to be human.

There were lots of monologues and dialogues that Herbert threw in that bored me to tears, or went completely over my head, or appeared to delve into completely pointless ethereal world views,

BUT, it was great nonetheless! I feel like I can learn a lot of what is going on inside Herberts head, and I always like a psychological twist to my reads.