God Emperor of Dune

I am only now writing the review of this a couple months after reading and I am curious as to my original star rating of 4. I believe its closer to 4.5 out of 5 but not entirely a 5. Or maybe it should be a 5? That is my struggle with this book. In essence, this book so heavily leans into philosophy and very abstract concepts which is a departure from the previous three. Despite my lack of excitement for philosophy and abstraction, I truly enjoyed this almost as much as I did with the original Dune. At times it is certainly slow and it's easy to lose sight of where the story goes, but something about it just feels right after the previous three; it's almost like a reprieve.

So, the star rating will stay at 4 today, but ask me on other days and I would likely tell you it is a 4.5 or a 5 depending on my mood. It's certainly a favorite and something I will have to return to after a second read.

L'Empereur-Dieu de Dune n'est pas le volume le plus facile d'accès mais c'est peut-être le plus beau, dans ce cycle de Frank Herbert. Leto II, fils de Paul Atreides et de Chani, a sacrifié sa vie pour préserver l'avenir de l'humanité. Trois mille cinq cent plus tard, son corps est transformé : plus ver des sables qu'humain, il règne sans partage sur son empire. Plus tout à fait humain, le Tyran va pourtant connaître l'amour avant de disparaître, non sans avoir laissé un dernier héritage à l'humanité.

Lu en VO.
On retrouve un tome similaire au 2ème, plus en dialogue et accès sur les personnages et leurs motivations. Il reste toutefois plus dynamique que le 2° ce qui n'est pas déplaisant.

Cette fin en revanche. Cette fin... Grr !
———————————————-
Read in VO.
We find a volume similar to the 2nd, more in dialogue and centered on the characters and their motivations. However, it remains more dynamic than the 2 ° which is not unpleasant.

This end, however. This end ... Grr!

God Emperor of Dune could be considered the start of a new triology in the Dune saga. Tho it follows some of the previous characters introduced in prior books, the changes in the way that it approaches themes and structure, as well as in universe, makes this a completly different expirience that some how still resembles the original material.

The book follows Leto, now transform into the image of a worm, and God Emperor of the universe while it converses with Duncan Idaho and new characters about free will and different themes (sometimes connected and most of the time without any real purpose for the plot).
The story will have some tangents where it describe in-universe politics and religion but most of the time it would be throught exposition delivered by Leto that at least expands his character (sometimes). But I think this is the biggest problem with the book, not the quantity of conversations and dialogues it has (previous books managed this almost perfectly) but the way that it treats them. It doesn't follow any real structure for it story and that translate into conversations without any real point in them that also don't evolve the characters.
This makes you feel that the book doesn't progress at most points, which it's a shame, since the parts where it concentrates in the plot are really interesting.
This is where the character of Duncan shines, since the plot advances through him most of the times, and that allows to develop even more than before.
The rest of the characters aren't very memorable (apart for one or two) and the story doesn't focus enough for them to be.
I can't really talk more about of the book, since it doesn't have any consistent plot most of the times and serves more for a way to expand ideas. The times it has it really work but also don't come close to the previous books since those use their time and conversations to develop their themes and give weight to it.

Tho God Emperor of Dune isn't really terrible and it gives you an interesting read for Dune fans, it was really a disapointment for the way the saga was going.
Parts of it saves it (Duncan for example) but not enought for my to outweight the others.

Let's see how it works within the context of the “next triology”. Into Heretits of Dune.

There is no question the Dune series is influential. It deserves its place in the pantheon of sci-fi. However, God Emperor was my least favorite. Leto II goes on and on about his “Golden Path”, but there is never any really clear idea of what this means.

Political and philosophical machinations and discussions abound, and in the end I was left wondering really what had taken place in the book and how important it was.

It's a bit difficult to put my thoughts and feelings about the book into words.

What I liked:

- the characters feel more cared about, more alive. Even Nayla is not a prop (as I felt Irulan to be), her inner turmoils are better shown and explained. I really enjoyed observing them this time.

- the conversations felt real and it was mainly through characters talking to each other that the story was told. It usually isn't a good way to move on the story, but here it worked for me somehow.

- the world building was pretty strong, even though we never left Dune. Those remarks and arguments managed to create the feeling of the great intergalactic empire.

- the shebang joke.

What I liked much less:

- still too much vagueness. I get that I as a reader should trust that Leto knows what he does and he has a plan and so on. But still I needed some more 'splaining. Why did Leto need Hwi? What was Moneo's role in all that happened? What actually did Moneo realise? I did my best to pay attention, but still I feel that either I didn't understand some things or they were not evident enough.

- the Duncans and the way they were used over and over again. Also, Leto always claimed that he needed Duncan, that he had some deep attachment to him, but at the same time the way Leto treated Duncan felt so rude and off-handed. So in the end he needed Duncan just to fulfil his role in the premonition, climb the wall and place Nayla where she was supposed to be? Oh yeah, and to breed with Siona. I feel sad and angry for the way Duncan was objectified here.

TL;DR

I did not enjoy this book as much as the others, I felt like nothing happened at all. We are so far ahead into the future and for some reason we are focused on this boring stale timeperiod of all that happened between Children of Dune and now. Many people say this is their favorite Dune book so I came pretty excited into it, unfortunately it was such a big dissapointment.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

X - Main Story: Extremely boring, nothing happens it's just philosophy talk galore, every conversation is about a philosophical topic. It's just so boring.

X - Side Stories (if it applies): I don't even remember if there were side stories all I know is that this book is boring.

X - Characters: All my favorite characters are gone, literally the only ones left are my least favorite ones from previous books, Leto II and Duncan Idaho. This to me is not Dune, you can be on Arrakis and have spice and all that but this is not Dune. Also Fremen are a joke who wear fake stilsuits and fake weapons, pathetic. The new characters are garbage too, none of them hold a candle to any one of the characters from the previous entries.

X - Setting/Ambiance: Garbage planet, we went from one of the most interesting ones, a desert planet with sandworms to a paradise with trees and grass. Basically just like any other boring habitable planet out there, great...

X - Ending: Terrible ending, all I can say. Didn't like it.

Extensive Review

So we keep hearing stories about what happened before we time jumped, about fights and conquests and such. So I would assume we would get more information on this, sadly this was not the case.

How about seeing how Leto II created his Fish Speakers (female soldiers completely devoted to him) and started conquering all the worlds along these three thousand and five hundred years, soldiers must have fought back when they heard they were being relagated to farmers and wouldn't be able to fight anymore before eventually submitting to him?

No.

Oh okay.

How about the part where Leto II during all these years managed to turn the Fremen, pround desert warriors who always fought back against their oppressors go from that to husks who wear plastic replicas of their weapons, fake stillsuits and pretty much forgot their ways?

No.

Oh...

How about the Landsraad and all the other houses, the Spacing Guild, the Bene Gesserit fighting againsts Leto II once they saw he was becoming a tyrant? Sure he controlled the spice, but some of them must have faught back and tried before giving up hope and submitting to him, no?

No.

...

Instead we are at a point where he controls everything and everyone, sure a few skirmishes happen here and there, some rebels but this is nothing. I felt like as a reader I've arrived too late in the story, everyone is beat into submission and has no hope to even try to go against Leto II.

Okay so the story is a letdown. No worries we've got the characters to pick it up...right?

I don't think I've liked a single character is this book, except the Bene Gesserit sisters. No matter when they appear or what they're doing I always really liked them because they're always scheeming and probing, it's their nature. You have to really do a terrible job to put in a Bene Gesserit sister and for me to not like her as a character.

But I wasn't interested in the rest and I hate that because how many good characters we had from the previous books? oh, so many memorable ones but that's the problem with jumping three thousand and five hundred years in the future. I'm not kidding when I say that some of the least important characters in previous books like say Harah is a better character than any one present here except for Leto II and Hwi. And once you start to talk about big names like Jessica, Alia, Ghanima, The Baron, Stilgar... it's not even a fair competition. You might say that it's because those characters had time to develop over the course of three books but just pick a single book, say Dune Messiah. Duncan as a ghola mentat arguably a new character, Alia not a child anymore so a new character, Irulan. Who even comes close to these in this book?

Duncan in this book, this guy just won't die, just let the poor man die for the love of Shai-Hulud. Killed while taking down 17 sardaukar helping Jessica and Paul escape?, amazing! Then he gets revived and I was like "uhhh I don't know...", but he's a mentat now so that was a cool new addition. Then he dies again and now he's just Duncan, getting manipulated by everyone because he's just so loyal to the Atreides. As long as you talk in Paul's voice and say something he said to him he will do anything you want. "Duncan, hello?" Just because Leto II has all the memories of Paul and can recite them at will doesn't mean he's Paul. I don't get why that's such a hard concept to understand even though Leto II constantly tries to convince us by saying he's the entire Atreides family as one. No, if you let Paul take over you and become an abomination then yes, he's Paul. Using his voice and talking of past experiences is like me having some recording of my grandfather, playing it and saying I'm him because I posses that.

I don't get this admiration every one inside the story has with Duncan, he's a good soldier who's good with the ladies. Gourney has some problems but I liked him way more than Duncan, even Duncan himself said that Gourney would beat him six out of ten times. Leto II doesn't have that strong connection with Duncan as Paul did. Even if I buy the "Leto II is Paul" thing, by that logic he could literally have used any other character from the previous books to keep reviving. I'm sure he could procure the body of whoever he wanted and give it to the Tleilaxu. There is a scene where Duncan visits a village and he sees some one who looks exactly like some one who was very important to him in his past life, I don't think that was a coincidence, so my point is that we could have had anyone better than Duncan as a recuring character from previous books, let this man die, please.

Another thing I got disappointed by Duncan is in a scene where fifty face dancers attack Leto II and his Fish Speakers, as they fight the face dancers all change into Duncan. At this moment I was like "yeah!, here we go. They killed the original one and one of them switched with him, brilliant. Finally things will get interesting, how will he manage to evade Leto II and blend in correctly." Then I kept reading and reading and reading... "Okay he's waiting for the perfect moment, he only has one shot he's got to make it count. Or maybe he's secretly sending info to the Tleilaxu about Leto II?, oh the possibilities." Then I reached the ending of the book and no, all that skirmish was for nothing and Duncan was the real one all along, "great..."

Moneo is a yes man who fears Leto II because he knows when he gets in a bad mood he could kill you involuntarily. Just barks orders around and I guess he's strong because he evaded an attack from Duncan with ease but we never see him do anything else. His conversations with Leto II are, "Yes, Lord", "No, Lord", "I'm sorry, Lord"...

Siona is boring and doesn't bring anything to the table. Any female character from past books is more interesting than her.

The Fish Speakers were cool, an army of devoted fanatic females is a nice idea, I liked that. Unfortunately we don't get to see them very much. They're just there awaiting orders and obeying. We don't get to see them in their free time. Or the relationships they have between them or any of that.

Sad to say but I did not enjoy reading this book.

Honestly have a mixed reaction to this installment in the Dune franchise. On one hand, it's brilliantly written, with a ton of interesting concepts, and great moments, but on the other hand, it drags along quite a bit. Moreover, I can't call this a masterpiece on the level of the past few books. It's still good, but I guess it somewhat felt more like a side-story to the Dune universe, since Idaho is really the only character left from the original cast. And I mean, that led into some great “out-of-time” moments with Idaho; arguably one of the best characters in this novel, next to Leto II. When it comes to Leto, I think it came down to personal preference, but I thought his character was extremely intriguing. He's a God, slowly losing his humanity, but as the story goes on, it starts to seem like he still has a lot of humanity left in him, that ultimately stands as his weakness (besides water). I didn't really feel too fond of the newer characters, but I still thought Frank wrote them in a way that made them good characters in my eyes. Story-wise, it's perfect, and it concludes on a decent note. I'm still contemplating if I should continue after this, since a good majority of the original characters are gone now, and all the new characters Frank introduces don't give off the same appeal as the old ones, besides Leto II and Moneo. Overall, it may be the weakest one I've read. The plot is amazing and far surpasses Children and Messiah in terms of grandiose-ness, but it lacked much of an emotional pull that the others had, for me, at least.

Another gold entry into the Dune universe by Frank Herbert. As a friend of mine, Epic Talez once said, everthing Frank Herbert touches is gold

The more I re-read Dune the more I am convinced that Herbert was a philosopher at heart. This book is no different, combining the philisophical discussions of religions, gods, tyranny, and Letos golden path with action, intrigue and our heritage and roots.

This entry is set 3500+yrs after the events in children of Dune, and Arrakis, aka Dune has been terraformed into a a whole new world, with only a small area of desert left on the world. Leto is the God Emperor and a religious cult following has sprung up around him.

The ultimate test of what it is to be human and Letos ongoing struggle with his humanity and his ancestory and the godhood overtaking him. Such a good story.

Unlike anything else. Definitely a shift in style and tone from the previous trilogy. So much philosophy and thought bundled into Leto’s dialogue, worthy of several reads to fully understand. The way that Herbert managed to demonstrate the proof of the Golden Path’ necessity slowly throughout the plot rather than just outright say it is incredible. And the plot was just as intriguing as the others.