Dune Messiah
By Frank Herbert

A Dune Retrospective by Eric Allen

Four years after the publication of Dune, those who cried out for a sequel were finally answered. Frank Herbert returned to Arrakis for a book that was very different from the action packed first volume of the series, but at the same time, still held a lot of the familiar. When I tell people that I actually enjoyed the sequel to Dune more than the original, the answer I get from the overwhelming majority is, "Wait . . . Dune has a sequel?" People know of Dune nowadays through the 1984 cult classic movie. Some people may be vaguely aware that the movie was based on a book, but never bothered to pick it up or look for sequels. Which is a shame, because they're missing out on this little gem of a book.

Twelve years after taking the throne of the empire for himself in Dune, Paul "Muad'Dib" Atreides has become something of a God, or Savior figure to the Fremen, who have taken up arms and spread out throughout the entire known universe bringing a Holy War to subjugate all beneath his rule. All of this, very much against Paul's own wishes. He has become a figurehead, standing atop the empire as Emperor, while priests of the religion that worships him rule in his name. He has made good his promise to begin turning Dune into a paradise, and now the desert runs freely with water. Another sign to his followers of his godhood.

Princess Irulan, Paul's trophy wife, and the means by which he secured the throne is anxious to follow her Bene Gesserit orders to bear the royal heir, but Paul has no love for her and refuses it to her, instead remaining true to his real, Fremen wife Chani. This leads Irulan to join a conspiracy against the Emperor, meant to discredit him, destroy his reputation, and take the wind out of the Fremen Zealots' sails. Out of spite, she has been feeding Chani contraceptives to prevent her from ever bearing Paul an heir, but this plan failed, and Chani conceived anyway.

It is discovered that Fremen are part of the conspiracy against Paul, and while meeting with a man to get the names, Paul is blinded in an attempt on his life. Through the powers of his oracular sight, he can still see, though his body is blind.

Long story short, after Chani dies in childbirth, Paul wanders into the desert alone, blind and broken, never to be seen again, and leaving the Empire in the hands of his sister Alia until his children are old enough to assume rule.

The Good? Again, Frank Herbert did a ridiculous amount of research before writing this book. It shows in how he truly understands the mechanics of economics, politics, and religion. The religion that he has built up around Paul is intriguing, and realistic, and the atrocities that its zealots commit in his name feel logical, and realistic as well.

Paul's suffering under the burden of the sins of those who follow him is really well done. This book is more a character study on him, than really anything else, showing the impact his actions have had on him as a person. This is a very different kind of book than the first in the series. Where the first book was all about war, this one is all about the consequences of it on the man that started it all. Despite its short length, this book has a very big and important message, and it delivers it exquisitely. Many people tend to complain that this book is rather boring after the first one, but I found Paul's inner struggles to be just as, or perhaps even more entertaining than the battles of conquest and Paul's coming of age, etc from the first book.

This book is remarkably better written and put together than the first book. Not only did Frank Herbert apparently do quite a bit of research in the four years between books, but he also improved on his skills as a writer quite a bit. The storyline is tighter, less convoluted and far less confusing than that of the first book. It almost reads like something written by a completely different writer because of the increased quality of the writing, and the change of focus, but at the same time, it still has his unique style and flair to it.

The Bad? I have never liked the Third Person Omniscient perspective that Frank Herbert uses. This is where the story is told by a narrator in third person that will change viewpoints between characters at the drop of a hat, without warning when any given character has any important thoughts or observations on what's going on. I find it to be rather confusing and distracting at times, and I've always thought of the style as rather amateurish. This is wholly a point of opinion, and true, many very good books are written in this particular perspective, but I don't like it, and will always count it as a bad mark against any book it appears in.

Frank Herbert doesn't really seem to "get" female characters. He doesn't really seem to understand what motivates women, how they think, how they act, how they talk, and why they do the things that they do. Going by his female characters, one could almost say that he never met a real woman in his life. As such, they are basically just men with breasts. They have all the right girly bits, because someone in the universe has to, but the their minds and personalities are about the furthest thing from feminine as is possible. Back in the '60s this was a VERY common thing, which is getting somewhat better these days, but still lingers on. Frank Herbert's portrayal of women fits those of the times, but to anyone that might be, or has ever actually met, a real woman before, it's going to feel a bit off. Back in the day this sort of thing was acceptable, but I find it to be annoying and distracting, if not downright offensive, in this day and age.

In conclusion, Dune Messiah is a VERY different type of book than its predecessor Dune, and it does have its vices, but the good more than outweighs the bad by far. The focus on Paul's dilemma with the Jihad that he inadvertently started is spectacular. Watching his inner turmoil over the countless billions that have died in his name play out is excellent. And if the female characters are off, everything else is dead on. He's created a fantastic world, with fantastic people (if you think of them all as men, anyway) to live in it, and did a great deal of research to make everything from the economics to the religion feel realistic. As an entry in the Dune Saga, it's probably one of the best.

Check out my other reviews.

It´s mainly a psychological warfare battle with psi weapons, many conspiracies, less action, and very good dialogues.

Some favorite elements:

Sci-Fi pregnancies are always a fertile ground for plot ideas, bad pun intended, and as each mother of any species and epoch wants the best for the unborn and has the healthiest diet possible, there is one question that comes with pregnancy enhancing drugs and magical substances turning embryos in mentalists.
Especially when pimping the baby in the womb is totally safe and nothing can go wrong anymore or each complication and problem can immediately be solved thanks to very advanced future medicine, the mother loses the legitimation to refuse any optimization possible, because it would actively harm the child by reducing the chances in the future and in competition with others, something already in discussion regarding genetic engineering nowadays.
If it´s magic powder and its quality and quantity that decide over the future career of the child as a doctor, engineer, or god-emperor, it´ a bit trickier to find the right amount, because there are no mini- and nanobots patrolling the body scanning around. You know, I guess even fictional characters´ bodies might have different tolerances and biochemistries so how does a woman decide how much is too much and will the eyes of the kid glow too blue or too less and is a too less even desirable if it includes lower potential? If it´s already shining trough the womb during pregnancy, it might be just the right dosage.

The world with shapeshifters, clones, psi powers, breeding programs, and intrigues that are distilled in a much smaller area than in the first novel, intensifying the suspense of so many different fractions competing with another.

Philosophical, political, social, ethical, and moral questions in vast amounts, I would like to know how many books and ideas Herbert used to create the philosophy of the world and its protagonists and would be interested in a list of the references and how he modified and changed all the ideas, there is certainly a wiki, Reddit, or blog dealing with this. Diving deeper in this second dimension of the story might only be possible when rereading or regularly stopping while reading to reflect on what has just been said and to try to put it in the context of the whole story.

It was so cool and could have been much longer, everything is perfect here and there would have been the potential for double the size with all the suspenseful elements and open questions. And the dialogues, it´s not often the case that there is something to read like that, so go for it.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

Pre-review: There are a total of 127 people waiting in line to borrow Dune from the library, so I made do with requesting the Chinese translation of the second book instead. XD

My review for Dune vol. 2: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My review for Children of Dune: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

My review for book 6 Chapterhouse: Dune: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Premise: some 12 years after Paul Atreides defeating the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV, a few parties banded together to bring Paul (now the Emperor) down, Paul's legal wife, Princess Irulan, seemed to be among the conspirators.

Well, the context in the volume vaguely reminds me the Stars Wars trilogy and its prequels: a young dude getting awesome power in a desert, the woman he loves winding up dead giving birth to his twin, etc, and I'm not saying it in a bad way. XD

I like the internal struggles Paul, the main character, has with himself, Mr. Herbert had done a believable character study on a character who is worshiped by most of his subject as a living god but at the same time he still has much self-doubt, he still struggles to protect himself and his loved ones (and from time to time he failed to do so), he also struggles to do the right things despite having awesome psychic(?) power and military power at his disposal.

Still, I am surprised to see Irulan doesn't play as much role as I expected in the story (she is nowhere in sight in the later part), thankfully she does more things in Children of Dune.

Alia, Paul's younger sister, on the other hand does have a more center role to play in this story as a teenage girl, I enjoy her interaction with her brother.

Dune Messiah doesn't have many action scenes (just a few scenes) so the tension isn't as high as the first book, but I do like the topic of court intrigues and how even a great ruler can be dragged down by politics and his own power (e.g. Paul's ability to see the future). There are plenty of open battles in Dune, but in the second book the danger comes more from the endless schemes from the different factions.

Dune book 1 tells a story with traditional heroism as its main theme, then in the second book the author seems to have taken a step back and done a full analysis on the many side effects of heroism and the inbreeding of religion and political power. The author seems to be telling us: even when the ruler has the best intention at heart, the result can still be disastrous for himself and everyone under his rule.

PS: I continue to find the description of the desert planet's eco system, the different POVs from various characters, the practices of the tribes (although the gender role stereotypes in this fictional tribal society is hardly endearing) and the schemes dished out by the different factions to be well constructed and intriguing.

PSS: the 2021 Sci-Fi epic movie, Dune Part 1, is pretty damn great! Do watch it!

a lot of people said that this book was bad but it’s not? some people say to read it as an epilogue to Dune and after that it really helped my enjoyment of the book.

Returning to the original world of Dune has a special place in my heart. I seem to recall that Messiah was written before Dune but obviously Dune was published before it.

Of course, a beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct. This every fan of Frank Herbert knows. To begin your study of the life of Dune, then, take care that you first place this in its proper time.

Know then that it is the year 2021 and all the covidiots and Q factions have taken over the universe. What was once an act of glorious revenge against a teetering empire has now become an entrenched tragedy.

Reading Dune Messiah is the tragedy that we deserve. Taken over by religious zealots, icons over careful deliberation, countless dead instead of a stable empire.

But that's where the comparison fails. Paul, unlike any of us, has a much clearer idea of the future, being able to see it, however imperfectly, and he is caught in a web of intrigue and guile and that beautiful sliver of hope hidden in the future that only his eyes see, where only perfidy, assassination, and betrayal seems to be his new bed.

Twelve years after the end of Dune, Alia is a teenager and a bright star. Irulan wants an heir to the Empire, Chani is a devoted but flattened character, as is Paul, as all futures grind down to singular points. The time of crisis comes and tragedy, depression, and horror awaits.

But at least there is a copy of Duncan Idaho. Now a mentat, a tool of assassination -- and a human computer -- his role captures Paul as hardly anything else could have.

Honestly, for years, I thought this one was the worst of the Dune books. But mostly that's because I cared too strongly for Paul, never wanted to see him fall. In actuality, the book is delightfully intellectual and complex, showing us so much more about the Fremen and the pitfalls of a religion-based monarchy and the hellish pitfalls of prescience.

Being a god is not all it's cracked up to be.

And in a moment or two, Paul's son is going to ask his papa to hold his beer.

And we're back! Things haven't gotten much easier for Paul twelve years after the events of Dune. He's now ruling over the desert planet as the Emperor, however, the increase in power comes with an increase in enemies.



The Muad’Dib takes the center stage, on whom not only the past weighs heavily, but also the future: he knows that his lover Chani is going to die once she'll give birth to an heir. It doesn't help much that former allies and new foes conspire against him and that the Tleilaxu, a guild of genetic manipulators, present him with an uncanny reincarnation of long lost friend and teacher Duncan Idaho.

Dune Messiah is a lot shorter than its predecessor and in many regards smaller in scale. There's less action and a heavier focus on dialogue and character interactions, which feels different, yet not less interesting. If you liked the first novel, it will feel natural to reunite with beloved characters and become a witness to how their stories develop. I was also surprised by how natural new additions felt – Paul's sister Alia for example plays a much bigger role in this one. Both a Reverend Mother of the Bene Gesserit and a leader of the Qizarate priesthood, she makes for a very interesting fifteen-year old!

It's a good balance between revisiting the world we have come to love and new additions. In terms of world building, there's less in a way, since the foundations have already been laid out, but the new concepts and ideas that Herbert introduced in this volume felt interesting and like a natural addition. The Bene Gesserit breeding system played a role, but then there are also clones and shapeshifters, with all the legions feeling different about each of these. So much intrigue!

I thought the adult Paul makes a better character. While in Dune he was discovering his psychic powers and coming to terms with being the Muad’Dib, he is now an adult who wields power and responsibility. I kept thinking about how much of a hero he really is: while he knows of horrible things to come and has the ambitions to prevent them, he doesn't always succeed and his personal ghosts and feelings cost other people's lives. I enjoyed the ambiguity with which other characters interact with him as well, after all, is it really good to have a messiah amongst you?

Terrifically intriguing and surprisingly complex, this was a joy to read and honestly, I enjoyed it just as much as the first novel. I wasn't looking for a repetition of its predecessor, so this felt like an exciting addition with a great feeling of both familiarity and newness. Can't wait to see where the next instalment will take us.

Sometimes one book is enough. Sometimes less is more. Sometimes a story needs to be left alone.

I have never been more disappointed with a sequel in my entire life. It’s that bad I wish I never read it and I also wish that the author never wrote it because it adds absolutely nothing to the franchise. I’m so surprised at how poor it is. I’ve heard that the series gets worse with each book, and I can’t imagine how it could get any worse than this. So, I’m going to stop right here and save myself writing anymore negative reviews and wasting my time with bad writing.

The main problem is that nothing really happens. The plot is non-existent, which is surprising considering just how intricate the first book is. The world is huge, and Herbert could have done so much with it. Instead, he extended the story further than it should have been and the consequences are dire. The only point of interest, a resurrected character from the first book, fails to deliver the drama and tension he appears to bring with his presence.

Ultimately, because the first book is just so fantastic, the sequels will only ever be compared to it. It’s how these things work. A series needs to be consistent in its imaginative power and it needs to be consistent in its drive and quality. This is so weak compared to the first book that I could only ever be disappointed. Whilst there are some interesting aspects, they suffer because the plot stays so stationery and frets over the ethics of religious jihad and Paul’s impassivity in the face of his destiny.

I also found the mention of real-world historical figures a little odd considering there was no mention of anything like this in the first novel. There is a comparison between Paul and Hitler, as Herbert considers who has killed more people during the act of conquest. And this threw me totally off because the series seemed very self-contained. It’s like Richard III being mentioned in a Star Wars novel when the universe wasn’t built on ours initially. This totally destroyed any sense of immersion in the plot.

Herbert should have just stuck to one book or, better yet, actually wrote a decent sequel or something new.


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This was good. But I guess I am rating it a 4 despite some issues I had with it.

So I welcome any discussion and counterarguments. Sometimes when I listen to the audiobook I wonder if I am missing something.

For example, I kinda felt like Paul is kind of an asshat? I don't know how to be any more diplomatic than this. Am I alone on this? I wondered as this story unfolded and the dialogue was revealed ... that... like... okay, so how is Paul better than the prior emperor? Or the Harkonens? I did not find him particularly sympathetic or an inspiring protagonist. To me, frankly, it kind of made the story unappealing.

All that being said, this is really imaginative and the story is well conceived and I like that we had all these plots and schemes.

So I thought Dune was the best thing since the bound codex, right? And I read it about five times over the course of my young-adulthood. And then I read Messiah and was pretty much completely dissatisfied. Not enough to give it a poor rating, since it is interesting (I mean, we all still care about Paul, even if he is a whiner) and it did keep my attention.
You haven't seen foreshadowing until you've read Dune Messiah. It takes that to a whole new, grotesque level. And pretentiousness. Thought Dune was pretentious? Hah! This one makes Dune look like a chimney-sweep in comparison. It's as though Frank Herbert managed to make a blunt weapon out of pretentiousness and use it directly on the reader's mind.
My final impression was of just another massive philosophical acid trip consisting of a bunch of people smarter than me bandying hints and portentous minutiae in the middle of a half-realized desert wonderland for over three hundred pages. And I didn't really care about Duncan Idaho, anyway, since he was only in Dune for like forty pages and he only spoke about twice. Telling me ten times in a row that Paul really really liked Idaho is not going to make me feel the same way about him, Frank Herbert!
Now I'm afraid to read number three.

n   “No more terrible disaster could befall your people than for them to fall into the hands of a Hero.” n

No, that’s not a quote from this book, rather it is one of Liet-Kynes’ thoughts from the original Dune... but oh my, what a piece of foreshadowing that was! The quote works quite well as a tagline for Dune Messiah.

Dune Messiah is a very different book from Dune, and yet it’s impossible to discuss it without the context of the first novel. That’s because Messiah, despite taking place twelve years later, feels less like a self-contained story in its own right (although it does have a central plot which is resolved therein), and more like an extended aftermath to that initial volume. In it, we learn about the consequences of Paul’s status as a godlike ruler. And in all his flaws and moments of regret, Paul felt more real, more human in this novel than he ever did in Dune.

While the story was interesting enough with its scheming and intrigue, and the added worldbuilding elements were fun, the book's true strength lies with its core message. In no uncertain terms, Frank Herbert was warning about how dangerous it can be to blindly and unquestioningly follow our leaders.

Although this book doesn’t capture the grand majesty of Dune, I appreciate that it’s not a rehash of the first novel. Instead of a sprawling epic, this is a more intimate, character-driven book. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I can see why some readers might have been disappointed upon its initial publication.

My biggest complaint is that my favorite character from the first book (Jessica) is essentially absent from this one.

Overall, it’s a thought-provoking novel, it just didn’t engage me as much as I’d hoped.

Completely Different Tone Than Dune #1

Dune #1 leaves us in a complete cliffhanger. However, Dune #2 starts up 12 years later.

In the introduction to the version that I read, Brian Herbert (the author’s son) wrote that one magazine labeled this book as the “disappointment of the year.” However, he explained the book is supposed to show how absolute power can corrupt leaders including Paul Atreides.

Dune Messiah has a completely different tone than Dune. Dune was filled with adventure and hope, the entire group working, willing to die, to transform the environment. Further, Dune had a bunch of very strong female characters. In contrast, Dune Messiah is more political and emotional. Also, the depiction of women is just horrible. Alia is boy crazy, and Irulan and Chani are only focused on Paul and producing an heir.

In 12 years, Paul has matured. He is not the boy of Dune. He makes decisions almost cavalierly.

The book was definitely entertaining though. The audiobook had an entire cast of characters, and it was such a rich experience. As with Dune, I could pick something up new each time reading Dune Messiah. However, the tone on this was much darker than Dune, and it wasn’t inspiring. The ending of Dune Messiah was so weak, the complete opposite of the ending of Dune.

Recently, I was reading a list ranking all of the Dune books, and this one was rated the very worst of the series so I am still excited to continue with this series and hope that the future is a little less bleak.

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¿Qué decir?
No era lo que esperaba, es Dune. Nunca es lo que uno quiere, solo lo que debe ser.

El respeto que siento por un personaje como Paul hasta ahora no lo había sentido en mucho tiempo. Siento que es un libro no disfrutable, sino significativo después de los acontecimientos del libro anterior.
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Casi un mes desde que terminé el libro, vuelvo con una reseña completa de las que hace tiempo no hacía.

n  El mesías de Dune: Te quiero mucho Paul (también te odio)n ⭐⭐⭐⭐

El mesías de Dune tiene algo que me impacta de entrada, y es el tono tan diferente al libro anterior.
Las sagas cambian entre libros, se adaptan a los cambios, a los personajes o los sucesos transcendentales para que se sienta una evolución. En cambio en El mesías de Dune, hay saltos enormes. Primero temporal, ya que sucede 12 años después de Dune y segundo en cuanto a la narrativa. El cambio no es para nada sutil, y tiene muchos cambios respecto al primer libro.

Empezamos con los personajes