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Title: Children of Dune
Title: Children of Dune
Series:
Dune Chronicles #3
Author:
Frank Herbert
Rating:
4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre:
Science Fiction
Pages:
420
Format:
Digital Edition
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Synopsis: |
Paul is dead, Alia is ruling as regent and conspirators to topple the Atreides Empire are crawling out of the woodwork.
Paul's children, Leto and Ghanima, are
10 years old and must begin to take on the trappings of power. They
must also avoid the path of Abomination that has overtaken Alia
[she's given in to the inner voices and allowed one of them to take
control at times] while fulfilling the vision that Leto has of the
human race. A vision that apparently Paul saw and couldn't bring
himself to commit to.
So all the children have to do is:
survive their aunt who wants them dead, survive their grandmother who
wants them as pawns for the Bene Gesserit, survive a rogue group of
Fremen who want all Atreides dead, survive the other Houses who want
to ascend to Imperial status and finally, survive the lives inside of
them who want to take over.
Easy-peasy.
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My Thoughts:
|
Overall, my
thoughts haven't really changed from my '12 read. There were places
that still bored me to tears. I suspect some of that is because the
underpinnings of Dune have an islamic cast to them and so I couldn't
follow all the half-sentence, unfinished, thoughts.
This time around I
realized that Leto had seen the Golden Path before he was dosed with
spice, so what he was seeing was not a prescient view of the future.
So how did he see it? He makes a point of calling it a vision instead
of prescience, but where did it come from? Paul's “visions” were
him looking into the future when he was high on spice. Leto couldn't
take the chance of taking spice because the inner lives would
overwhelm him during that time. The only thing I can think of is that
he was able to see everything his father saw because of his preborn
condition.
The other thing I
noticed was that most of Herbert's speculation about viewing the
future and such were all predicated on there NOT being an Omniscient
Being. Which is interesting because the Dune mythos is built on the
whole idea of prophecy and gods, albeit humanity ascendant. Prophecy,
or visions of the future, are something that come from God. He is an
omniscient, omnipresent Being and hence is not bound by time or
space. Herbert's idea of The Future was where humanity was not
constrained by ANY force, within or without. He was writing about
humanity without a guiding hand. Which is the antithesis of what I
believe as a Christian. And yet the questions he asks are just as
intriguing and eye opening as any I could think to ask. And THAT is
why I like the Dune Chronicles so much. The questions about
humanity.
Completely
satisfied about this re-read. While I had re-read it back in '12, I
hadn't read it before then since at least '99. This is one series I
am very glad to own in hardcover as well as in digital form for my
Oasis.
★★★★ ½
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