God Emperor of Dune by frank herbert

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 31,2025

Buddy Read with Markus

Actual Rating: 2.5 stars

n n I was born Leto Atreides II more than three thousand standard years ago, measuring from the moment when I cause these words to be printed. My father was Paul Muad’Dib. My mother was his Fremen consort, Chani. My maternal grandmother was Faroula, a noted herbalist among the Fremen. My paternal grandmother was Jessica, a product of the Bene Gesserit breeding scheme in their search for a male who could share the powers of the Sisterhood’s Reverend Mothers. My maternal grandfather was Liet-Kynes, the planetologist who organized the ecological transformation of Arrakis. My paternal grandfather was The Atreides, descendant of the House of Atreus and tracing his ancestry directly back to the Greek original.n n

Blah, blah, blah. This whole book was about Leto and how amazing he is. And this book started off so strong...

n n The three people running northward through moon shadows in the Forbidden Forest were strung out along almost half a kilometer. The last runner in the line ran less than a hundred meters ahead of the pursuing D-wolves. The animals could be heard yelping and panting in their eagerness, the way they do when they have the prey in sight.n n

Siona is on the run for her life. She stole the journals of the God Emperor of Dune in hopes to find important information. I was ready for rebel fighting and this story to be centered around Siona and the resistance. But it was all about Leto, the journals, and his justification of being a tyrant Emperor.

To be quite honest, I was annoyed with his scenes and looked forward to Siona and Duncan..which were rare.

n
n This planet of Arrakis from which I direct my multigalactic Empire is no longer what it was in the days when it was known as Dune. In those days, the entire planet was a desert. Now, there is just this little remnant, my Sareer. No longer does the giant sandworm roam free, producing the spice melange. The spice! Dune was noteworthy only as the source of melange, the only source. What an extraordinary substance. No laboratory has ever been able to duplicate it. And it is the most valuable substance humankind has ever found.n
n

I want my DUNE BACK! I want the sand and the spice. I want the stillsuits and the REAL Fremen...this didn't feel like Dune at all. The wisdom wasn't there, the feel wasn't there and Dune wasn't what it once was. It would of been better if there was more resistance and fighting to bring Dune back to what it once was, but it was always second to Leto. I really hate Leto, much more than Paul...actually I love Paul. I wanted to love Siona, but I didn't get to see her often and Duncan...is the same Duncan.

I think the only thing that saved this book was the writing...beautiful writing and the narrator is awesome but that's about it.

I hope in the next book it gets back to what it once was...I can only hope.

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MisterJRPG

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 31,2025

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.

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aynondoe

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 31,2025

Sižets jau kļūst pavisam nosacīts, bet autora pārdomas par lietu dabu joprojām izcilas. Nodaļu epigrāfu dēļ vien ir vērts lasīt.

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Meg_Boesch

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 31,2025

God Emperor of Dune made me feel really weird while I was reading it, and this is after like a half-summer of feeling really fucking weird reading every one of these books, but seriously -- I am saying, weird. Like, the universe opens its eye and watches you watching it. That kind of weird.

One weird thing about this book, aside from the title being the most metal thing on earth, is that it is essentially one long scene. Herbert finds ways to break it up, of course, but really, it's somehow 400 pages of all the characters saying, "What's your deal, God Emperor of Dune?" and then Leto II, the God Emperor Sandworm-Man, speaking in riddles that drive you crazy. This book literally doesn't explain anything until the last 4 pages, which really shouldn't work, 400 pages of questions and 4 pages of answers, and it doesn't work, I guess, not totally, except while you are reading it, during which time it totally does.

Herbert uses this book, essentially, to discuss the nature of societal power structures, and what about them works and doesn't work, and why he believes this is so. And because Herbert's not actually a sociologist and Leto II is not actually a trustworthy or sympathetic character, the layers of interpretation you need to go through just to make sense of the book's ideas are hard to even pinpoint. Reading this book is like herding cats, if cats were made of light.

God Emperor of Dune is not only really fun to say, it is also a pretty cool book to read. I don't know if it's actually good, but I do know that I got a lot -- a lot -- out of going through it. Check in with me in four years or so, and we'll see if I was able to read it again and actually make sense of it.

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RedStarTheWorst

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 31,2025

God Emperor of Dune (Dune, #4) - Frank Herbert

هذا الجزء هو آخر جزء نشر قبل وفاة فرانك هيربرت، جزء آخر مدهش من هذه السلسلة العظيمة، رحلة أخرى لربوع آراكيس كوكب كثيب، قفزة زمنية تقدر بآلاف السنوات، مؤامرات وتغييرات تغلي في الخفاء وبهدوء شديد، والإمبراطور الإله لكثيب يعرف كل شيء غبر المسار الذهبي الذي يرعاه. حوارات مدهشة وعميقة في رؤيتها الاستشرافية لعالم اليوم وشخصيات قديمة جديدة وأفكار تناقش مرارا وتكرارا؛ ربما للتأكيد على أنه لا شيء يتغير، جزء آخر عظيم .

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ryuLzei

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 31,2025

Il quarto libro della saga è sicuramente più difficile dei primi tre e soprattutto molto molto diverso. È un libro incentrato tutto su i dialoghi. Come Herbert aveva già fatto nei precedenti romanzi anche qui non è lasciato assolutamente nulla al caso. Bisogna prestare molta attenzione ai dialoghi tra i personaggi ricordando le faccende avvenute in precedenza.
La bravura di Herbert è ancora una volta confermata. Come avevo detto nelle recensioni precedenti Herbert è un maestro nel creare dialoghi in contesti e situazioni non semplici. In questo volume ne ho avuto la conferma.
La bravura è ovviamente anche quella di creare una continua sfida con il lettore mettendolo alla prova. Siamo noi che dobbiamo fare delle ipotesi su quello che sta accadendo perché volutamente le faccende non vengono spiegate subito.
Ovviamente a fine libro non tutto viene chiarito e resta quella finestra aperta che non sappiamo dove conduca...
Fino ad ora credo sia il volume più impegnativo della saga. Sicuramente non è una lettura semplice ma ne è valsa veramente la pena.

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nnadel27

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 31,2025

Review to come

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arcsine99

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 31,2025

“Quasi tutta la civiltà è basata sulla vigliaccheria. È così facile civilizzare insegnando la vigliaccheria. Si annacquano i criteri che porterebbero al coraggio. Si mette un freno alla volontà. Si regolano gli appetiti. Si delimitano gli orizzonti. Si fa una legge per ogni movimento. Si nega l'esistenza del caos. S'insegna perfino ai bambini a respirare lentamente. Si addomestica tutto."
― Frank Herbert, Imperatore Dio di Dune

Quarto romanzo del ciclo di Dune di Frank Herbert, a mio giudizio il più ermetico ma anche il più affascinante. Mi piace ricordare sempre che Dune non è solo il primo romanzo, e senza aver letto i successivi si perde il suo vero scopo.

Sicuramente è un romanzo il cui messaggio non è immediato e merita più letture per apprezzarlo appieno e poter decifrare tutte le scelte compiute dai personaggi nell'ottica della saga intera.
I primi tre libri possono considerarsi il preambolo per arrivare a questo. I successivi ne contestualizzano le scelte.

La figura dell'Imperatore-Dio è poesia e speranza, un concentrato di filosofia e sociologia, l'unico essere capace di avere una visione d'insieme della razza umana e guidarla nel suo futuro incerto pur se ad un costo altissimo.

Leto ha accettato il Sentiero Dorato e ne subisce le drammatiche conseguenze. Figura tragica e unica, completamente da capire.
Il messaggio del ciclo di Dune è sottinteso nelle sue parole. Tappa fondamentale per capire il vero significato dell'opera.

Romanzo che meraviglia ancora e ancora ad ogni lettura successiva e riesce ad incantare con i sui dialoghi.

-------------------------------------
“Almost all civilization is based on cowardice. It is so easy to civilize by teaching cowardice. The criteria that would lead to courage are being watered down. The will is curbed. Appetites are regulated. Horizons are delimited. A law is made for every movement. The existence of chaos is denied. Even children are taught to breathe slowly. Everything is domesticated."
― Frank Herbert, God Emperor of Dune

Fourth novel of Frank Herbert's Dune series, in my opinion the most hermetic but also the most fascinating. I always like to remember that Dune is not just the first novel, and without having read the subsequent ones you lose its true purpose.

It is certainly a novel whose message is not immediate and deserves multiple readings to fully appreciate it and be able to decipher all the choices made by the characters from the perspective of the entire saga.
The first three books can be considered the preamble to get to this. The following ones contextualize the choices.

The figure of the Emperor-God is poetry and hope, a concentration of philosophy and sociology, the only being capable of having an overall vision of the human race and guiding it into its uncertain future even if at a very high cost.

Leto has accepted the Golden Path and suffers its dramatic consequences. Tragic and unique figure, completely to be understood.
The message of the Dune series is implied in his words. Fundamental stage to understand the true meaning of the work.

A novel that amazes again and again with each subsequent reading and manages to enchant with its dialogues.

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Dune #4

God Emperor of Dune

frank herbert

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Leto Ii Atreides

Duncan Idaho

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frank herbert

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