God Emperor of Dune by author Frank Herbert is a religiopolitical novel disguised (poorly) as science fiction.

3,000 years after the events of Children of Dune, the planet Arrakis has undergone many ecological changes. It is becoming wet and green. The people live in tribal-like communities in relative peace by way of being forced to live the traditions of old, and not only on Arrakis, but around most of the galaxy. And it's all because of the God Emperor's 'Golden Path'. Who is the God Emperor, you may ask. Why, He's only the 3,000 year old son of a Messiah, who has morphed into a giant hallucinogenic producing space-wurm with near omniscient abilities about past, present and future and proclaimed himself the God Emperor of the whole freaking universe, is all. And His name is Leto! Leto has a plan. It's a golden plan. He dominates all of space and time because He's smart -- Super Smart. And He does it all for the sake of humanity. But there are people who really don't like Him and want to assassinate His wurmy ass. This presents a problem. One, He's freaking omniscient, idiots! Kinda' hard to kill someone who knows everything in the entire space-time continuum, don't ya' think? Second, if He dies, His golden path dies with Him. Damn. Well, that doesn't stop these forward thinking rebels. They're sick and tired of a tyrant telling them to live the old ways and customs of Dune's past. "Only fools want to live in the past." But wait, Leto is going to awaken the human race to a new level of consciousness! Down with the old customs, in with the new!!!!!!!!!!

God Emperor of Dune is little more than 98% political drivel, a touch of bizarre Gnosticism, and 1% story. The extreme vast majority of this story is told through innumerable boring conversations Leto has with various servants who are standing in his underground chamber while he hovers on a floating cart that gets mentioned about 1,969 times. Then in the last about 20 pages of the book, something happens. I came away with a few conclusions: first, Frank Herbert was on drugs; second, Frank Herbert decided to share his overly-common political opinions rather than write an interesting story with deep characters and conflict; third, I want my own hovering cart. I was sadly disappointed with God Emperor because I loved the first three books in this series. I was about to 1-star this sucker until I realized: wait, this book is about a freaking giant Space-Wurm who is the God Emperor of the entire freaking MULTIVERSE. That's worthy of more stars in and of itself.

God Emperor of Dune
Book 4 of the Dune Chronicles
By Frank Herbert

A Dune Retrospective by Eric Allen

What do you say about the book that was so completely terrible that it so turned you off of the series that you refused to read the four books that came after it for over a decade? This book is bad in a way that few things achieve. Oh, yes, there are worse things than this book in human history, and I do not mean to cheapen the horror of those atrocities, but when it comes to complete and utter failures in fictional exploits, this is amongst the worst.

By this time in his career, Frank Herbert's Dune series had sold multiple millions of books. He was a veritable gold mine for his publisher, and so, he had the power and influence to basically get anything he wanted from them. As a result, God Emperor of Dune is pure and complete insanity. Oh, but its not just normal insanity, oho no. Its a special sort of insanity. Its the sort of insanity that happens when you give crazy way too much money, power, influence, and creative license. I like to call this kind of crazy, George Lucas Syndrome.

Allow me to explain. In 1977 George Lucas, a rookie filmmaker, under huge budget constraints, and with heavy studio influence, managed to produce one of the greatest movies of all time. Though Star Wars was well recieved by the world at large, his distributer still placed very harsh budget constraints on the following two films. These movies were a great illustration of the concept "Art from Adversity". Despite all of the people telling him no, all the limitations of special effects technology, all of the problems with budgeting and studio executives trying to change his work, he managed to produce one of the most lucrative franchises in movie history. He was viewed as a filmmaking genius by many... and then he made the prequels. He had unlimited funds, was no longer constrained by the limits of special effects technology, and most importantly, everyone on earth was utterly terrified to tell him no, because he could very easily take his goldmine of a series elsewhere and be just as happy. When you take the adversity, the thing that CLEARLY created the art to begin with, out of the picture, you are left with a man who is completely insane, making movies that are also completely insane.

What does this have to do with Dune, you ask? Plenty. You see, having sold millions of copies of his first three books in the Dune series, Frank Herbert had enough clout with his publishers that he could have taken a dump on a blank piece of paper and they would have published it, because they were utterly terrified that he would take his series elsewhere. And so, when he handed them the manuscript for God Emperor of Dune, NO ONE SAID ANYTHING ABOUT HOW TERRIBLE IT WAS TO HIM!!! They published it because he wrote it, it had Dune in the title, and people would buy it, read it, and claim to love it because of it.

So, this leaves the question, was Herbert balls out insane from the beginning, and simply constrained by his publishers and editors to create art for his first three books? Or did he just do a crapton of drugs between book 3 and book 4? We may never know the answer for sure.

Why is this book so bad? Well, lets find out, shall we?

I can't put enough quotation marks around the word "story" here, so I won't even try. 3500 years have passed since the events of Children of Dune. Leto Atreides II has become a giant sandworm with a human face and arms... Yeah, I'll give you a minute to wrap your mind around that. You good? Ok, moving on then. The ENTIRE plot of this book revolves around Leto talking, and talking, and talking, and talking, and talking, and talking, and talking. He talks about being a sandworm. He talks about what it means to be a sandworm. He talks about why it's important that he has become a sandworm. He talks about how being a sandworm fits into his plans. And through all that talking, HE NEVER MANAGES TO TALK ABOUT WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT TO THE PLOT OR WHY I SHOULD CARE!!! And then he dies, easily killed by his utter arrogance in believing that mere humans could never possibly rise up against him. And I get a lot of people telling me I've got it wrong on this... but try reading his last few bits of dialog after falling in the water with this in mind and tell me I don't have a point. If this was not what Herbert meant to convey with this dialog, he sure failed at what he actually meant to get across to me.

The Good? Nada. In fact, skip this book if you plan to read this series. Your life will be better for it. You miss absolutely nothing that the next book does not readily explain in a few sentences, and you don't have to wade through all the complete fail that this book embodies.

The Ugly? First of all, while Herbert's views on women were pretty apparent in his previous works, he is openly sexist in this book to a huge and offensive degree. He has some extraordinarily strange views on the roles women play in society, what they want out of life, and how their thoughts and feelings differ from those of men. He devotes a large section of the book to explaining in great detail why women are inferior to men, veiling it behind the guise of praising them as a gender. Nice try Herbert, but you FAIL to hide your complete contempt for women in general. Every woman that I know that has read this book has come away from it TERRIBLY offended. Women beware, this book basically says that you're the scum of the universe and the source of every problem that man knows. If this sort of thing offends you, and believe me, I'm a guy and it offends ME, steer clear of this book.

Not only does Herbert put forward some very offensive ideas about women, he also puts forth some very offensive views about homosexuals, soldiers, and pretty much all humanity in general. Women get the worst of it here by far, but soldiers and homosexuals come close on their heels. He seems to have great contempt for pretty much anyone that is not exactly like he is. This is an actual line from the book. I have not altered it in any way. "All soldiers are homosexuals at heart." There are so many layers of offensiveness buried in those six little words that I could write an entire essay on that alone. Needless to say, it is offensive to every party mentioned in multiple ways. It takes true talent and bigotry to imbue such a short sentence with so many layers of insult to so many different people. And let me say right here and now, so that there is no mistaking Herbert's views for my own, though I may come from a strong Christian background, I have no problem with gay people. My philosophy on life is that everyone should have the freedom to live as they see fit, and it is not my place to tell them that they are doing it wrong, regardless of my own personal feelings on the matter. I have worked with gay people all my working life and you know what I've learned about them? They're people. Just like everyone else. Doing their best to live their lives in a world that is not very accepting of them. They deserve to live their lives just like everyone else.

Every character in this book other than Leto exists for one purpose and one purpose alone. To ask questions that facilitate even more talking from him. Let me describe to you every scene in this book. Leto rants for about thirty pages on his morality and plan for humanity. Someone is confused by his complete insanity and asks him a question. He then goes on at great length explaining the answer. The other character is still confused and asks another question, which facilitates yet another long and boring rant from him. These characters have no personality. They have no motivation. They have no plans or desires of their own. They exist within the plot for one purpose and one purpose only, to give Leto an excuse to further explain Frank Herbert's insanity.

Leto is still not a sympathetic character. He has more personality here than he did in the previous book, this is true, but here he is even more loathsome because of it. I'm sorry, I do not sympathize with a grotesque mockery of humanity who goes on, and on, and on, and on about he's the only hope of said humanity, and as such has the right to severly subjugate all life in the universe under his strictures and rule. He was not a likeable character to begin with, and here, he has become a loathsome tyrant that it is impossible to sympathize with. So why should I care about a book that is, primarily, about him talking at GREAT LENGTH about his own personal philosophy? I don't. I really, REALLY don't. He's a terrible character, and as an extension of that, any story revolving around him is also terrible.

Herbert STILL does not seem to feel the need to explain what motivates Leto to do what he has done, and why I should care about it. These are basic elements of the plot of this book and the previous one that are COMPLETELY LEFT TO THE READER'S IMAGINATION. IF you want me to care about your character and the story revolving around him, you have to tell me WHAT he is doing, WHY it is important, and most importantly, WHY I SHOULD CARE!!! These are basic storytelling elements that Herbert completely FAILED to employ.

In conclusion, this book is awful. It's a special kind of awful, the sort of which you will rarely find in fiction. It's basically a thinly disguised excuse for Herbert to give his own philosophies on life. If you want to write a book of philosophy, by all means, go ahead and do so. But don't try to tell me it's the next installment of your epic science fiction series. This book gets ZERO stars, but since the rating does not show up here on Goodreads with zero, I threw one up there. It feels FAR longer than it actually is. It centers around a character that is completely and utterly loathesome, without a SINGLE redeeming characteristic, and I'm supposed to feel for this character? Yeah, sorry Herbert, but no. I don't. I really, REALLY don't. This book is terrible in a way that few books are. And worst of all, it's boring. I can forgive bad writing. I can forgive a bad story. I can forgive wooden characters. It is my opinion that one of the truly unforgivable things that a storyteller can do, is to tell a boring story. Only the most hardcore fans of the Dune series will likely be able to find any enjoyment here, to any casual readers I typicaly recomend that this book be skipped over, because it really is THAT bad.

Check out my other reviews.

You might love this book, you might hate it, but you definitely can't complain about this series not being full of surprises. It's spectacularly unpredictable and yet coherent in its lore, which is why I'm paying my respect with a full-star rating.



God Emperor of Dune is the fourth instalment of the Dune saga. We've moved on thousands of years from the events of the first book and the planet once a desert is now green with life. Leto II is still alive, but he's now ruling as a sandworm-humanoid creature with legions of Fish Soldiers over people that are growing increasingly suspicious of their ruler and his obsession with what he refers to as the Golden Path.

It's insane what range this series entails. I might be particularly appreciative of this now that I've read four books of the Wheel of Time saga in which after literally thousands of pages everything feels kind of slow and repetitive, but I'm pretty sure that I have never read a series in which what would happen in the next book would be that much of a surprise. Dune Messiah is very different to Children of Dune and now we're being mostly stripped of the action of the predecessor and are being served a rather philosophical and analytical novel consisting mainly of conversations between Leto II and different people of from his court.

It's crazy how well history has been built: we actually get to feel nostalgia for earlier books. The events of Dune feel long ago now and we get to reminisce on earlier generations. There's a true sense of time having passed, with the planet no longer being an actual dune and as Leto II containing parts of his ancestors within his unlikely figure we get to remember past states alongside him.

n  "The illusion of the past was here, though. He felt it as he moved. Fantasy, of course, he told himself, a vanishing fantasy as long as his enforced tranquility continued. Even the sweeping barrack which he traversed now was not as great as the ones of the past. None of the dunes were that great."n

I don't actually think this is the best book, but it's the book that made me most appreciative of the entire series. In terms of story, it's not quite as deep as Dune Messiah and not quite as twisted as Children of Dune, but with each book there's a true sense of this universe expanding, developing and growing and a lot of things came together now. Reading this definitely helped my understanding of the previous novels as well, as so many things are explained that we only had vague clues about. It's incredibly self-indulgent in a way that makes me excited about really diving into this universe so rich and surprising.

Leto II is a fascinating character who allows political and religious elements to take center stage here. He has taken extreme measures in order to bring what he considers peace to Arrakis and we get to witness an almost ancient creature now grasping at his last bit of humanity. Much of his book's charm lies in his ideas about the role of a God in society and power in politics and I highly suspect that Herbert utilised this novel to practice some sort of self-study (hilariously so – I really can't explain why the Duncan's sexuality and homophobia would suddenly be a topic unless Herbert was figuring some personal stuff out through writing this...)

Overall, this might not have been a perfect book and taken as an individual piece of writing it might even be considered slow and long-winded, but as part of a larger puzzle it's extremely rich and satisfying. And I can't often say that I don't have the slightest clue what a fifth book in a series is going to be about – the only thing I know for sure is that I'll be reading it.

Uhm … holy shebang!

I'm very much looking forward to Villeneuve's interpretation of Dune that will be shown in theaters this year so I decided to not only read the original book but also the rest of the series.

This books shows Leto II having become a God Emperor to the known universe. Leto still has a human face but the rest of the body is covered in sand trouts. He’s 7m long, 2m wide, the legs have developed back into some form of fin, his arms are still recognizably human though. He knows he’ll turn into a full worm soon.
We also re-encounter Duncan Idaho. Yep, Leto keeps awakening gholas of the original Atreidis bodyguard and uses them for different roles.
Leto and Duncan are the only familiar characters we meet in this volume. Because we start this 4th book off about 3500 years in the future from the previous three books!

Leto II has carefully enforced the Golden Path, the great plan to ensure the survival of the human race, all this time. In order to create peace and ensure the survival of us all, he has ruled with an iron fist, holding back most spice, prohibiting mental training and making other "questionable" choices.
Spice is rare (not least because almost all sandworms are gone), Arrakis is a forest planet complete with wolves patrolling a citadel and inhabitants that don’t even all believe the stories of the planet once having been a desert.
At the beginning of the tale, a few youths break into Leto’s "tomb" on Arrakis, dreaming of glory like the mythological Fremen (yep, there are no actual Fremen anymore either), cursing Leto and being determined to destroy him so as to end his rule! Instead, what they end up doing is stealing personal journals.
The prologue shows the discovery of records in an even farther future, a time when Paul Atreidis / Muad'Dib and Leto II / the God Emperor are ancestors that have passed almost into myth. Not too much is left of their own original recordings (and what can be found is "of primitive material" and thus only accessible, if at all, with difficulty) so any discovery is extraordinary and valuable beyond belief. What they found are the journals Siona had stolen and their reaction teaches us that humanity will come to appreciate what Leto has done.

The one opposing Leto the most is Siona, a descendent of Ghanima and Farad’n (she’s the daughter of Leto’s advisor during his last years).
One must understand that despite people living longer than 100 years thanks to Melange/Spice, I doubt that the people living in any given moment could truly comprehend the full plan. The interesting part was that when Siona, for example, saw the Golden Path during her spice-induced trance, she still didn’t agree.
However, peace comes at a price and Leto has learned to make the hard choices (I mean, he lived so long and is so powerful, yet he is never tempted but accepts and even works towards his own death - to say nothing of the loneliness he must have suffered from). And that is what has earned him more and more enemies (from within the Empire and outside, because they all want more power for themselves). So yes, several factions are planning the God Emperor’s death.

There is so much more to look at, so much more getting explored all the while we’re following Leto, Siona, Duncan and a few others … but I can’t spoiler too much. Let’s just say that, as usual, there are plans within plans, and god-like powers do not mean there is no risk to Leto. But maybe that’s the whole point?
(I loved that the water of life was what "killed" Leto and that he, technically, didn’t really die but will live on in the many worms his death is creating - it’s like organ donation but with pieces of his mind in those sand trouts - which also means that the life on Arrakis will be aware and conscious, not "just animal".)

In my opinion, this 4th book was the weirdest, most alien, and "worst" so far. I don’t know if it is due to there being hardly any people I knew and couldn’t connect with Siona very much, or if it was for some other reason.
Simultaneously, though, it was truly awesome! Not just the typical writing style (which, yes, I love) or the fact that it felt like a story about Ancient Egypt (despite Arrakis no longer being a desert) but also where the author is taking this series, what has happened in this book alone, also what has happened between books 3 and 4, and what might still happen until the end of the series - the scope is actually blowing my mind! I loved how every step served a purpose, how the author never took the easy way out and made us embark on a journey full of twists and turns that has such an intelligent plot, I can only marvel at his creation.

So yeah, I’m quite confused now. *lol* Mind you, "worst" book still puts this firmly ahead of most others I’ve read. I’m simply comparing it with the others of this series that I’ve read so far.
Not to mention that the books make you think a lot about our reality. The danger of religion or - in this volume, specifically - about the theory regarding stagnation being the death of any species (and what that means for us right now) to name but two examples (I agree with the author regarding both). Considering when the books were written, how the author concealed his theories (had to), … it is irrefutable proof of his intelligence.

I can't wait to continue.

O Zlatnoj Stazi za ljudski rod Leta II Atreida Bogocara, Crva.
Serijal je i dalje jak podjednako kao i sama prva knjiga u njemu.
Herbert je majstor dijaloga, carskih audijencija i njegova radnja tece prateci razgovor a manje samo pokretanje likova u vremenu i prostoru.
Obozavam ovu filozofsku naucnu fantastiku.

"He felt excluded from this conversation, an object of amusement by two superior beings."

That sentence from the novel sums up how I felt about almost the entire book. In this fourth entry of the Dune series, the law of diminishing returns is at work. I enjoyed the first three books to a point, but as I'm figuring out now, the more you get into the series the more necessary it becomes to read the next book in order to fully enjoy and understand the previous book---the exception might be the first book since it's pretty good on its own but it does end kind of suddenly.

But with each subsequent book the plot centers more and more around some never fully explained McGuffin that is talked around, mentioned obliquely, or couched in esoteric gobbledygook language that doesn't help in understanding anything. And always this unexplained thing is relatively simple to explain and is actually really important to the overall story... of the next book. All is eventually kinda sorta revealed almost at the end of one book... but we don't see the effects of this revelation until the next book. Having the payoff to the book you're reading now happen in the book you haven't read yet... not so great.

I don't like books that treat the reader as if they can't possibly understand anything and are heavy handed in explaining everything, but neither do I like stories, dialogue, or plot points that skip past being puzzling yet solvable directly into enigmatic and pretentious.

I know this book was more philosophical and... meditative? than the others, but there was this constant bringing up of certain topics that elicited reactions in the characters that were totally lost on me because not even a hint of context is given. There are certain things we as a reader can't possibly know because this made up world hasn't been fully explained to us.

But over and over in this book there are allusions made that assume a certain level of in-world knowledge that just doesn't exist. This was okay in the first book since everything made sense after we spent time in the world (not to mention the glossary's help in defining a lot of words) but now, in this book, which takes place in what is essentially a vastly different world, the reader is left out in the cold.

Also, the plot is rather simple for the number of pages it covers but that's due to innumerable conversations that explain (or more likely obscure) the philosophy and politics of the world/universe. It's interesting (at times) but the characters (except maybe for Leto) are all cardboard cutouts for different points of view. They are challenged here and there, they struggle over their situations and choices, but it was all rather mechanical. I never really got to 'know' them. One example: two characters fall in love. Why do they fall in love? Because, that's why! It's an unbelievable and forced event, plot-dictated rather than 'realistic'.

This is how the book comes across to me:

-The Ixians have sent you a fruit basket.
-The Ixians are... clever, aren't they? (raises eyebrow)
-You mean...? (shudder)
-Yes! They have finally reached their utmost capabilities. It has happened.
-You don't mean they've...?
-Yes.
-They built...?
-Yes.
-And they also...?
-Yes.
-But I thought...?
-No.
-Have they also...?
-Yes.
-Shall I...?
-Mmmmm...... not yet. Let's wait one minute and three seconds.
-May I eat one of the fruits?
-Do butterflies tap dance on a monkey's tricycle?
-Huh?
-ANSWER ME!
-I I I---If it serves my Lord it will be tap danced.
-Ah hah hah, you amuse me. Wandering in a desert is as rewarding as a desert wandering in you.
-Yes my Lord.
-YOU KNOW NOTHING OF DESERTS! YOU KNOW NOTHING OF FRUITS! I HAVE LIVED A THOUSAND LIVES IN A DESERT AND BEEN A MILLION EATERS OF FRUIT!

And so on.

I think maybe I need a break from the series. I will read the next two books that Herbert wrote but I don't know if they're not working very well anymore because they just don't work or because my head is not at the right place for what these later books are trying to accomplish.

If I wasn't already obsessed enough with the Dune series, I certainly am now. This was one of the most bizarre, enthralling reads I've experienced in a long while. I'm almost tempted to reread this one, and that is something I don't do very often.

From story plotting, to character crafting, to the whole crazy half-man, half-worm thing, this book was a total gem and a joy to read. I cannot recommend this enough.

n  n    LINK TO MY FULL PODCAST REVIEW HERE.n  n

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I have read this book at least twice. Possibly three times. It's after the third book and before the fifth, so, whaddaya gonna do? Yanno?

It's interminable and boring and terrible. It's godawful. It's some dudeworm who thinks he is the shit talking about how awesome he is and how he has ideas? He says all these things that are supposed to be eyepopping revelations but really they are not. I don't know. I like the 5th and 6th books in the series for some reason (I guess just because I like reading about the Bene Gesserit) and to get to them you have to read this dumb thing. Hwi, oh Hwi! Give me a break.

For Christmas this year I got a "hooded cowl" but the hood isn't really big enough and when I wear it I look like Leto. Maybe I should take a photo and add it to this review.

It’s disappointing and kind of weird how the first dune book has so many complex female characters and a huge part of Paul’s journey is embracing the masculine and the feminine in order to become a leader, whereas this book has no interesting female characters and is obsessed with traditional gender roles.

this book is also about that guy you know who loves to hear himself talk. too bad nobody else does :/

I wish I liked this book more than I did. 2.5/5

“And that’s when things got weird.”

Science Fiction is the weirdest of the genres. Dune is a weird entry in the sci-fi cannon. Emperor of Dune is the weirdest book in the series. I was here for every minute of it.

I loved it. It’s bizarre, crazy, hilarious, and definitely one of a kind. Stay and pontificate with a 10,000 pound worm god/man about socioeconomics, philosophy, and history.

Much as I loved this book, I can only recommend to hard core Dune fans. It’s just way too much otherwise.

My last question is....why Duncan Idaho?

Useful background book to read if you've ever thought you might like to rule the Universe. It's a really terrible job.

In many ways - this is better science fiction than the original trilogy, because it attempts to be truly experimental. The alien nature of Leto II, Paul Muad Dib's son who fuses with the Sandworms is fertile ground for discovery. Unfortunately, much of the action is repetitive conversations between the same small cast of characters over a 500ish page novel. Herbert's strengths in Dune came from a web of possible desires driving a diverse set of characters. God Emperor of Dune smothers itself in reflection on the nature of a change that is never truly described. Rather, Herbert follows the lovecraft trope of the unthinkable being...unthinkable - allowing Leto II to be heroic because of a Golden Path that likely was more of a drawing board idea than fully fleshed out plot.

Some of the later Dune books have great snippets of imagination about telepathy and deep memory. There are interesting concepts of deep time, and mythbuilding that are still here - but they are affected by a 3000 year old protagonist who is bored of the very ideas that are most interesting.

Duncan Idaho is a poor audience surrogate - he's unlikeable, and through most of the first book the most forgettable of the retinue, overall mixed experience.