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Title: God Emperor of Dune
Title: God Emperor of Dune
Series:
Dune Chronicles #4
Author:
Frank Herbert
Rating:
4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre:
SF
Pages:
436
Format:
Digital Edition
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Synopsis: |
Dune is transformed. The worms are gone. The Spice is a dwindling product handed out each decade by the God Emperor from his private stores. Leto is now a pre-worm and 3500 years old. Mentats are outlawed and gone. The Fremen no longer really exist. The Tleilaxu grow Duncan Idahoes for Leto. Leto has taken control of Bene Geserit breeding program. The Ixians supply Leto with technology while experimenting on their own.
There is peace. The Great Houses are
gone. Populations reside on their own planets and enjoy a level of
living that has been unheard of before. Leto's Fish Speakers, an all
female army, provide whatever force is needed should a situation
arise.
Leto is fermenting humanity. Trying to
change it from the inside out. He sees the glimmer of this in Siona
Atreides, who is currently leading the rebellion against him. She can
fade from his pre-sight, which means that her descendants will free
humanity from the curse of prescience and prophecy.
Of course, Leto has enemies. The
Tleilaxu plot his overthrow with their face dancers. The Ixians are
breeding a human who is the perfect fit for Leto, and who they will
control. Siona co-opts the current Duncan and they are figuring out
how to kill Leto.
Leto knows.
Leto also knows that when he dies, his
body will release sand trout that will begin the desertification of
Dune once again and bring back the worms and the spice in a couple of
hundred years.
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My Thoughts: |
This version that I read had an introduction by Frank's son, Brian. While I normally hold my nose at the travesty he and that son of a goat Anderson created with the Dune prequels, I did find this introduction extremely enlightening and helpful. It prepared me for the kind of book this would be.
This
felt like a play, with Leto II being front and center and soloquizing
for most of the book. A lot of action happens, a lot of information
is told, but it is all off stage, as it were. Leto talks. A lot.
With his Major Domo, Moneo Atriedes [Siona's father], with The
Duncan, with Siona, with the love of his life Hwi.
Hwi.
Now there is pathos. To have someone built to love you and to have
them built so as to attract you. It is redeemed from pablum by Hwi
knowing all of this and still choosing Leto over her Ixian masters.
She does love Leto, willingly and unwillingly.
I
thoroughly enjoyed this read, yet again.
However. If someone
were to read this book and call it boring, dialogue heavy or
unenjoyable, I would not try to correct them. Leto constantly tries
to push other characters into understanding by asking them questions
instead of answering their questions. Leto does that a lot and it can
be frustrating. There were a couple of times that I wanted to shake
him and shout “Just answer his question, you gigantic jerk!”.
This was an idea book but those ideas were not all nicely queued up
like bowling pins in an alley. They were disguised, hidden,
scattered. It was frustrating and I will not deny that. I don't think
it is a weakness of the book or the writing though. It was
deliberate. Herbert wanted his readers to think and thinking can be
hard work at times.
This was a re-read
book, like all the other Dune Chronicles books I'm reading. My
first recorded instance of reading it was only back in '12. However,
I know I read it in highschool and in Bibleschool at least 3 times.
So this is my fifth time? The fact that I'm still frustrated with it
and yet enjoying it so much says a lot about the quality of the
writing.
★★★★ ½
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