"Yo os muestro la falsa felicidad y la catástrofe-sombra llamada Leto, el Dios Emperador. Ahora bien, ¿aprenderéis lo que es la verdadera felicidad?"

Leto II Atreides, el Dios Emperador, ha gobernado durante 3,500 años luego de convertirse en un híbrido de humano y gusano en "Hijos de Dune". Años de terraformación iniciada por Pardot y Liet Kynes finalmente han dado sus frutos; ahora corren ríos donde antes habían dunas y montañas. Cuchillos crys que descansan en los museos junto con los nebulosos recuerdos de las costumbres Fremen, destiltrajes que solo responden a propósitos de ostentación, y Fremen de Museo de ojos pardos. No, esto ya no es el viejo Dune, es un planeta totalmente distinto. Es Arrakis.

Quien controla la especia, controla el universo. Leto gobierna el imperio monopolizando la especia, mediante el miedo y el despotismo, y con una fuerte dependencia religiosa. ¿Acaso es cierto que las religiones solo crean extremistas y fanáticos? Leto aprovecha su condición de "dios" para moldear y depredar, aunque aborrezca el trato divino; el depredador no odia a su presa pero la necesita y la consume. Tal vez sea el mayor tírano en la historia, pero su tiranía es una deliberada, fríamente premeditada para cumplir con su Senda de Oro, y los dioses tienen más poder que los tiranos. Como parte de sus planes también creó su propio programa genético, el cual es clave para la Senda y cuyo clímax es Siona Atreides, parte de una larga descendencia de Ghanima Atreides y Farad'n Corrino. No sería justo decir más sin spoilear, creo que solo puedo decir que el mesianismo se puede ir a la mierda de una vez.

Ha sido el libro más débil de la saga; conserva su maravillosa prosa y la atmósfera que hacen de Dune una de las mejores sagas de todos los tiempos. Herbert es realmente brillante pero puede llegar a ser muy críptico en sus mensajes y tira mucho hacia la parte moral y filosófica en esta parte. Esto último no es malo si la trama avanza a un ritmo aceptable, el problema es que al final te das cuenta de que realmente no pasan muchas cosas en casi 600 páginas. Por otro lado siento que hay esperanza en "Herejes de Dune". Mejora, según dicen.

With this book I ran out of energy to read the Dune series any further. Reading this book drained life out of me, until I died and abandoned reading science fiction (for the second time). Nowadays of course one can just read the gist of it on Wikipeadia, but in the dim and distant past, curiosity about a story could only be satisfied by the personal turning of the pages of an entire book.

The opening I thought was great and it was interesting to see the outcomes of the Fremen's plan, outlines the previous thousand or so pages of the three preceding volumes, to irrigate the surface of Dune - and for a book series with such a focus on ecology it was completely indifferent to the number of trees that would need to be sacrificed to the paper-mills and the release of waste water into rivers and lakes...I think I would have enjoyed this more if Herbert had followed the technique that Asimov used in the Foundation series of using short stories and novellas to create a narrative that spanned great reaches of time rather than having great blocky narratives bound into print bricks based around single points in time. One can see the problem, the writer has a vision of a mighty story with deep roots, whose branches sweep across immeasurable distances with a trunk that grows through time to support the universe, but can't realise this without dropping wedgy slices in to the lap of the reader. After a few hundred pages I found myself without interest in a super brained spaceworm using eugenics and captive breeding to plot against itself, or in perpetually reincarnated characters who didn't amuse me the first time they were alive. Possibly best consumed via the medium of Wikipeadia rather than in person.

Jak dla mnie jest to najsłabszy tom. Wciąż utrzymuje jednak, że jest to genialna seria i jestem ogromnie ciekawa kolejnych tomów.

Zdecydowanie ryje po psychice.

After awhile I was feeling that I was back at my Philosophy classes back in High School, but hey, I can't argue against a best-selling author.

Поредната част на сагата за Дюн надмина всичките ми очаквания.
Не посягайте към нея, ако не сте прочели поне "Децата на Дюн", защото ще е почти невъзможно да вникнете в идеите й.
Тази част има силно философска и психологическа насока. Голяма част от посланията са предадени под формата на писма , като лична изповед и завет към съмишленици, но и към бъдещите поколения.
Определено това е една силна история за нечовешка саможертва,отдаденост на човешкия род и непримиримост в преследването на мечтата за спасяване на човечеството по пътя на Златната патека. След хилядолетия управление на малкия Лито ,еволюиарала симбиоза на човек и пясъчна твар, достигнала стадий предчервей , Аракис е оставена в ръцете на подготвените от него селектирани атреиди.
Нямам търпение да прочета какви изпитания е подготвил авторът за Айдахо и Сиона.

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

I loved the first three Dune books, but this one felt lackluster in comparison. It started out exciting, with the discovery of Leto II’s journals, perhaps to explain himself or his actions, and is set 3000 years after Leto II became God Emperor and enacted his Golden Path. I kept waiting for the revelation of what the Golden Path would be, or how it had turned Moneo and Siona from rebels to devotees... (But did it really work on Siona? The ending seemed rather ambiguous on that point). I wanted to be enlightened too! I kept expecting the great reveal of why Leto II acted as he had. I felt like it never came to light, unless it was simply to perpetuate feudalism among the stars. I wanted more insight into the Bene Gesserit, or Ix, or Tleilaxu, or the Guild, but didn’t get much. I continue to hope that these differing perspectives will get their day in the sun. Ix at least seemed to get some explanation, though I was expecting more background about the Genesis or Hwi Noree. I think it would have been really interesting had she turned out to be a robot, the very antithesis to the Butlerian Jihad. I’m guessing there are some typos up there when it comes to Herbert’s universe, sorry for that.

I’ll finish out the series as written by Frank Herbert, but I’m not sure about the books written by his son... I don’t really know anyone who has read those and if they are of any literary value, or just a son trying to cash in on the legacy of his father. (Looking at you, Christopher Tolkien!)

This book is horrible. A total mess. Frank Herbert had been writing a book without sense sometimes even ridiculous. What is the point? I ended this book almost infuriated. Leto II is disgusting and a jellyfish literally speaking. I put this book in the shelf “worst books ever”. Really a sub one star

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.

Once again a straight forward plot with an interesting idea that makes up the equivalent of a twist, kind of? Philosophical components and some dialogue interactions are the most interesting elements. The actual plot is deceptively simple for the page length. Not that much actually happens. It’s there to further the things being explored. But so far the second book did both much more masterfully than any of the others, in my opinion.

The problem with these notions being explored is that, while very interesting, their foundation shows distress in modern times. So many sociological components are outdated and when it demonstrates this, one wonders what else is prone to collapse. An army of bi/lesbian warriors without a voice.

Queerness as a cultural component is completely misunderstood and miscontextualized. It doesn’t feel like this could possibly be the future in any real sense because the only firm things it holds in its grasp is philosophy. Meanwhile for thousands of years people take drugs and have orgies and the most powerful weapon is a lasgun. And they display no awareness whatever of gender roles beyond the role ascribed by the empire.

As people, they lack compelling aspects. As cogs working to propel the plot and the exploration, they’re nearly perfect. But how much value is that when without this withholding of selfhood? Something great always deters this fiction from complete enjoyment, immersion, and ‘greatness’, for lack of a better term.

The pattern of monarchies and similar systems has a message of value for all political forms. My memories assure me that governments of any kind could profit from this message. Governments can be useful to the governed only so long as inherent tendencies toward tyranny are restrained. Monarchies have some good features beyond their star qualities. They can reduce the size and parasitic nature of the management bureaucracy. They can make speedy decisions when necessary. They fit an ancient human demand for parental (tribal/feudal) hierarchy where every person knows his place. It is valuable to know your place, even if that place is temporary. It is galling to be held in place against your will. This is why I teach about tyranny in the best possible way—by example. Even though you read these words after a passage of eons, my tyranny will not be forgotten. My Golden Path assures this. Knowing my message, I expect you to be exceedingly careful about the powers you delegate to any government.

The God Emperor charts His Golden Path leading creation into eternity.

I fully understand why many people are not a fan of this book due to the divergent direction this takes in comparison to the previous books in the series—but I enjoyed it. I enjoyed exploring the mind of the God-tyrant. And I enjoyed seeing the planetary evolution of Arrakis.







Spoiler:







I mainly love the idea that Leto had to make himself the villain in order to save all life. He saw this as the only way to preserve the Golden Path. Clever stuff.