This was a good sequel to a great book, which is actually harder to pull off than we give authors credit for. When they set the bar so high with an exceptional first novel in a series they're expected to meet or better it which is not an easy task. I think it was very well done in this case.

12 years have passed since the end of Dune. We're thrust into a world where the long term consequences of actions taken in the first book are evident and seldom what we expected or what was intended.

There were two main points that really struck me about this book. The first was that the commentary on government and power was well developed and thoughtfully presented. The other was the way in which seeing the future as a sequence of possibilities all changed by small actions was presented. Usually the future is one thing and fate or destiny allow multiple paths but only one outcome. I've always found this hard to accept and find Herbert's way of dealing with knowing the future far better thought out.

I look forward to continuing the series.

Dune Messiah is an incredibly different novel than its predecessor, Dune. Taking place twelve years after the events of Dune, Dune Messiah digs into the nitty gritty of Paul’s rule as emperor by taking a philosophical approach to it.

As with Dune, Herbert throws his readers into the deep end with no floatation device. Dune Messiah is a difficult book to situate yourself in, especially if you haven’t read the previous novel in awhile. New characters, new cultures, and new technologies are introduced with little to no explanation. For the first half of the novel I felt like I was drowning in this world.

Dune Messiah is a philosophical novel. I took a couple of philosophy courses in university and hated them. So, Dune Messiah was a difficult read for me to get through. Twelve years later, Paul is more than just an emperor, he’s seen as a god. After reading countless reviews for Dune Messiah and interviews with the author about the novel, Herbert said that he wanted readers to see Paul as a warning of the dangers of seeing powerful people as godlike. This is a central tenet to the novel hence the many heavily influenced philosophical conversations. Where Dune is full of action, Dune Messiah is slow as Herbert takes considerable time trying to get his point across.

What I enjoyed most about Dune Messiah is the heavy foreshadowing. Maybe foreshadowing isn’t the right word since Paul’s ultimate fate is told to readers directly within the first few pages. Readers get to experience Paul’s downfall firsthand and witness the consequences of his actions.

Overall, Dune Messiah is a difficult read if you’re not a fan of heavy philosophical debate. The ending of the novel sets up what is to come in the future making me cautiously optimistic.

n  “Truth suffers from too much analysis. -Ancient Fremen Saying”n

This Dune successor tells the other half of Paul Muad'Dib's story who rose from underdog to a very human god, struggling with the devils that came with him. Intrigues and hidden meanings lurk around every single corner and complement Arrakis' beautiful extremes.

Mysticism, religion, holy war, politics and Tleilaxu biotech and shapeshifters complement the character development of Paul and his sister Alia - from heroes to gods and back again to normal humans. Paul tries to stop the juggernaut but he has to put everything in it.

I've read this book a couple of times, though not as often as Dune (my very personal review is here). I always wondered about its size, and if it could be understood as just another fourth part of Dune, changing the original tension arc to a very different one, a deconstruction of Paul ending in a Greek tragedy. This time, I read the book very differently: not in one rush but slowly, a chapter a day as a buddy read.

“Now I am free.”

One of the most interesting characters is the Tleilaxu ghola Hayt, enriching the world building with the new dimension of biotech. He slowly gets back the memories of Duncan Idaho. But he is not only just so transforming back, but a worthwhile individual with a conflicting combination of Mentat with Zensunni background. His discussion of consciousness and the implications on eternal life versus Paul's precognition in space and time was fascinating and gave me a lot to think.

With my current re-read, I discovered the focus on female characters: First of all the huge hole of absence of Lady Jessica, who was mentioned only a couple of times and lives her life on Caladan. Paul's sister Alia of the Knifes gets a central virgin-harlot role and we see her struggle with her teenage hormones - with all her awakened experience, the human body takes its early toll, and a romance evolves:

“This one must have a mate!” Stilgar blurted. “There’ll be trouble if she’s not wed, and that soon.”

Chani is still the tough woman supporting Paul, and she gets one of the most memorable sentences when Paul asked her to refrain from her Fremen harshness and she accepted this:
She did it the way sand accepted water: absorbing and concealing.

Gaius Helen Mohiam plays her role as tough negotiator and I still remember the walk of the old Reverend Mother through Paul's oversized reception hall.

The logic of the book has weaknesses but it has got the same epic, pompous grandeur and literary style as its predecessor. Plus it is more concentrated and brisker.

I was really missing the story of the 12 years following Dune. But Frank Herbert skipped that time and we have to read about those by his son in Paul of Dune. It is a deconstruction of the first book's hero, leading to a Greek tragedy which has to end in the hero's death, freeing him from Jihad and deification. "“There will be a worm for Muad’dib,” they said."

In general, this novel is more character driven than story driven. It seriously lacks action but compensates in dialogues. With an intrigue led by the Tleilaxu together with Bene Genesserit and the Guild, the book follows a simple plot and builds up tension very slowly, only to release it at the very end of the book like a bow string released in one moment.

It is a great counterpoint to Dune but read it only if you are invested in this universe. At the same time it is only a segue to Children of Dune which made it possible that SF entered mainstream.

I said in my review of Dune that one of the things I really appreciated was that it could be “viewed on so many different levels, from political, philosophical, scientific, or simply as a fantastic adventure novel... and it works so well, no matter which angle you look at it from, because Herbert treats each of them as equally important.” While writing the sequel, I think Herbert must have considered it and said something along the lines of, “Yeah, that was great… now let’s pretty much ignore everything that wasn’t philosophy.”

I exaggerate of course. Elements of those other aspects are still in place, but the story this time around is from people sitting at tables and discussing the existence of fate and ways to avoid prophesy rather than overthrowing evil barons. In fact, there are times where I felt that it hardly seems like a full novel, and more like a series of short scenes Herbert wrote, pat himself on the back over how clever they were and then decided to try to tie them all together.

Now some of you may be sitting there going, oh, I guess that means you didn’t like it then Tim? HA I say! The philosophy was what appealed to me the most of those aspects mentioned in Dune! I can read about people sitting at tables and talking for hours!

…

But yeah, I’d be lying if I said there weren’t a few parts where it got a bit old, and I wished for the descriptions of the desert, the plots within plots within plots… but by the end, I was satisfied as they were there all along, you just have to look closer to see them in play. In fact, by the end I realized that it was an extremely well developed novel, and that it was I who was at fault for not seeing the intricacies at play. Herbert demands your full attention to see what’s going on all around.

Which brings me to the thing Herbert does best in this novel; one of the big aspects of the Dune series thus far is that he gives you every main character’ thought process. There is no main POV character in each chapter, he will give you the thoughts of everyone, thus showing who thinks they are fooling who and who is actually fooled. He does this and he plays it fair the entire time, yet still manages to hide plot points in plain sight, and it is extremely well played.

The first book was a masterpiece in terms of world building, here that takes a backseat to prophesies and philosophy, but Herbert does manage to introduce at least one fascinating new aspect to his universe. The Face Dancers are introduced as assassins and shape shifters. One can walk into the room a pudgy male guard and leave as a small servant girl. They take contracts, but with a sense of honor and a condition; they must always leave the would be victim with an opportunity to escape. They need to know they are in danger and must be presented with an out. I find this new aspect fascinating and would have loved to see a bit more of a focus on them.

I want to close this review by briefly describing my favorite scene in the entire book; it is one of the scenes where people sit and talk at tables. An older Fremen discusses why he joined up in Paul’s campaign. It wasn’t glory or the spoils of war… it was because some of his friends described the sea, and he couldn’t believe it. He felt it must be a prank. He then goes on to describe it to a character who has been to many worlds and obviously seen the sea many times, but the character finds himself absorbed in the Fremen’s words and realizes that he’s experiencing this description in an unusual way, lost in the story and seeing it with new eyes… I couldn’t help but smile, as Herbert made me feel the same way. For a brief moment I forgot I was reading, and could hear this old voice telling me about the sea…

A well earned 4/5 stars, but with the notation for those who fell in love with the first novel that this is not a sweeping epic. This is a small chamber piece… just, you know, with giant sand worms.

I can see why people don’t like this book, it’s nothing like the first one. Dune: messiah features an older, cynical Paul, there’s no giant battles and the tone is very melancholy. I expected all that going in and I thought it was really good, we have perfect moments but they don’t last forever, people change and time goes on. I’m interested to see what happens next. I can understand too how after only reading the first book, people can be unclear about Paul’s heroic disposition. He falls somewhere between hero and villain, it’s more about the danger of combining religion and politics.

***متن حوای اسپویل از جلد قبلی و همین جلد است.***

تو اواخر کتاب اول، یه صحنه ای بود که خیلی دوستش داشتم. جایی که پل بر سپاه پادشاه قبلی غلبه کرده و انتقامش رو از هارکونن‌ها گرفته. جایی که حره‌مردان دیگه اونو نه به چشم، اصل یا پل مودب، بلکه به چشم منجی موعود می‌بینین. موجودی الهی و مقدس. موجودی که به نامش کشتارها به راه افتاده. توی اون لحظه پل خودش رو تنها می‌بینه. موجودی کی از بقیه انسان‌ها دور افتاده و دیگه نمی‌تونه دوست و رفیقشون ب��شه. بلکه باید نقش منجی و فرستاده الهی رو بازی کنه و خودش رو توی نقشه‌های سیاسی فرو ببره. توی این جلد این بخش از داستان پل خیلی بیشتر بهش پرداخته شد. و از این بابت راضیم. اینکه پل اون منجی که فکر می‌کرد نیست. و حره‌مردان هم می‌بینن که از اون چیزی که اول می‌خواستن دارن فاصله می‌گیرن.

این کتاب برخلاف قبلی، کمترروی اکوسیستم و فضا‌سازی تمرکز داره و در عوض تمرکزش روی سرگذشت پل و خواهرش و بازی‌های سیاسیه. این قضیه از طرفی خوب بود و از طرفی هم نه. با این که داستان اکثرا رو دیالوگ پیش می‌رفت، بعضا جاهایی میشد که حوصله‌ام نمیکشید تا ادامشو بخونم.

پایان بندی کتاب هم به نظرم بهتر از کتاب قبلی بود، اما شاهکار نبود. همچنان مثل پایان بندی جلد قبلی شتاب‌زده بود و سوال‌هایی که همینجوری وسط هوا ول موندن.

"Çok fazla güce sahip olan kişi zamanla yalnız kalmaya başlar. En sonunda da gerçeklikle bağını yitirir... ve yıkılır gider."

The whole book felt like an abridged version of a much longer, more interesting and full story. So many things happen off page and we only hear about them after the fact, when those events could have been shown and raised the stakes or been utilized to develop the characters and our connection to them more.

I liked the political maneuvering of this story and didn't even mind that it wasn't a ton of action in the traditional sense, but things happened so quickly and without the same gravity that they held in book one.

By the end I felt like a silent, distant observer rather than sucked into the story like I did with Dune. I rarely say this but I think this book actually could've been a lot longer and I would've enjoyed it more.

3.5 ⭐
***SPOILERS AHEAD***


He is Muad’Dib, the Kwisatz Haderach. He is the Golden Stranger, the Fool Saint, the Messiah. He is th…..

n  n

Ummm, ok lady! To be fair, he’s not a boy anymore but he has been very, VERY naughty!
I mean, consider the likes of Genghis khan, Hitler, Stalin or Mao Zedong. All responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people! Combined, they might have the blood of nearly Two Hundred Million innocent people on their hands. Well, their efforts pale in comparison to the young Paul whose Jihad, over the 12 years since his becoming Emperor, has raged a Holy War across the Universe resulting in a staggering amount of casualties:

…at a conservative estimate, I’ve killed sixty-one billion, sterilized ninety planets, completely demoralised five hundred others. I’ve wiped out the followers of forty religions…

… Yeah, it’s not pretty. And it’s all kind of because he lit a flame that he’s powerless to put out; completely losing control of the fanatic juggernaut of annihilation killing in his name, highlighting the dangers of a charismatic leader (regardless of the morality of their motives) and a runaway ideological/religious movement, and bringing the foreshadowing in Book 1, full circle (a “planet [or one might say a Universe] afflicted by a hero”)

You can't stop a mental epidemic. It leaps from person to person across parsecs. It's overwhelmingly contagious. It strikes at the unprotected side, in the place where we lodge the fragments of other such plagues. Who can stop such a thing? [There is no] antidote. The thing has roots in chaos.

I loved the first Dune book so much that when I closed the final page it was with both a heartfelt fondness and a profound sadness! A post-coitum kind of sadness that left [me] with a desire to bathe […] and to sleep. But that’s a personal matter and I won’t elaborate. The point I was approaching is that ‘Messiah’ is a very different beast than Book 1 but still very enjoyable in its own right. It maintains the same abundance of sinister plotting and schemes within schemes (possibly even more) as the first while largely downscaling the grandeur of the story itself, both in length and scope.

Paul and his sister Alia strain the limits of their prescience in order to keep their heads above shark-infested waters. What good is keeping your head above the water if it’s shark-infested you ask?... Exactly!

Somebody commented on a recent update of mine that they didn’t like this one quite so much because of how powerless Paul was and, while I totally get where they were coming from, it was actually one of my favourite aspects of ‘Messiah’. Paul is not actually physically powerless to prevent the many elements of danger surrounding him; he has the people and the ability to destroy all opposition, but he is deadlocked by his need to maintain, and bring to fruition, the realisation of his chosen future vision. He is no longer just the OP Gary Stu that he was in Book 1 as, even with the knowledge afforded him by his prescience, he is still answerable to the “fate” of his chosen path.

”He knew with terrifying certainty that if he tried to break out of the enclosing pattern here, it’d become a thing of terrible violence. The power in this deceptively gentle flow of Time oppressed him.”

It’s far from a perfect work. In fact, you could poke holes in the plot until the cows come home. My buddy-reader, Nastya, and I did. Highly amusing, I recommend it.
There are some abysmally under-developed characters, some over-the-top evil villains and the bizarre over-sexualisation of a 16-year-old. She actually has the body of a 16-year-old and the mind of a grown woman (and then some) but it’s still feels ickily predatory. Oh, and I’m not usually one to offer Trigger Warnings but if a Bro getting a boner over his own Sister and repeatedly fucking her with his eyes while marvelling at her newfound femininity is triggering to you…. Then yeah, you’ll be triggered. But alas, as our beloved Reverend Mother would have you know, "the brother-sister crossbreeding must be explored!"

Thanks very much to Sister Nastya of the Bene Gesserit for the buddy-read. A pleasure and made me sit up and take notice of a few things that I might’ve otherwise let slide. Bring on Book 3! :)

The most tragic book in this series so far.

He has lost his moon...

I'd love to see Denis Villeneuve adapt this book. It would be absolutely heartbreaking and profound.

You stand in a valley between dunes. I stand on the crest. I see where you do not see. And, among other things, I see mountains which conceal distances.

All power is limited.

Treasonous conspirators seek to destroy the emperor. And the deified emperor’s visions may cause self-destruction.

This book is slower than the first, with not much happening until the last third of the text. It seems more like a setup for the book that follows.

The world-building and mysticism make these books worth the effort. Finally meeting a steersman and other lifeforms has me interested in learning more. I look forward to the next installment.

دیدن آینده همون قدر که یه موهبته می‌تونه یه نفرین ابدی هم باشه. آیا حال و زندگی نزدیکانمون و میلیون ها نفر دیگه رو بخاطر نجات یه آینده دور نابود کنیم یا همه چیز فدای آینده باید بشه؟
این کتاب به نسبت کتاب قبلی، دیالوگ محورتره و تم سیاسیش خیلی بیشتره و حجمش خیلی کمتره و خیلی غم‌انگیزتره