I felt like I was reading a philosophy book. It's nothing but rambling and thoughts by Leto II, and the more I read of the Dune books, the more I'm lost. This whole spice / prescience / breeding shit is get even more out of control if that's even possible.

Чесно кажучи, ця книга ще менше вразила. Хоча вдалося зловити кілька цікавих ідей. Наприклад ідея лідера-хижака, яка ще відгукується у Пітера Вотса і сліпобаченні.

Ще була загалом хороша ідея із перетворенням впродовж тисячоліть у нову форму життя через симбіоз. Природа/бог/людський розум пізнають різні параметри всесвіту, додаючи одне одного, але при цьому межі втрачаються.

Дещо бракує (і не зовсім зрозуміло) дзенської підготовки Айдаго. Тут він постає як неврівноважений персонаж, який гойдає човна. Також відчутним є занурення автора у гриби ще більше: все намішано, орієнталізм розкривається у тексті сповна, але немає глибини.

Не певен, чи готовий продовжувати цю мандрівку із Гербертом)))

HOW is this by the same person who wrote Dune? It's terrible. Truly, awful. The concept is awful, the gender politics are awful, the eugenics, the homophobia, the endless, tedious monologues.
The beginning held so much promise: a rebel on a treacherous race through the woods, carrying the stolen diaries of a god-emperor-tyrant who sent his 10ft wolves after her. And then it's just hours and hours of Leto making these points over and over again to different, but often the same, members of the cast:
1) The Golden Path is the Way
2) To get there, I must install a pharaohic order for 4 millennia. Then, when everyone is happy I will cause a war and humanity will remember how to survive wars and so be good at everything again.
3) Obey the plan, I know best
4) Nothing surprises me, except when it does, which I enjoy
5) Women are easy to manipulate but don't have a whole lot to prove, so they won't try and rebel in the army and are. good at maintaining order
6) Naturally I also make sure they are horny af and rent them out as prostitutes to keep things in order in other ways
7) They're also pretty gay. Which is awful but good for an army.
8) I don't have genitalia
That last one shows up far too often. The Hwi character and him together made me a bit sick. It wasn't just the fact that they were by all definitions different species but also that he has 3-and-a-half thousand years on her and she was a supremely innocent, sweet young woman. The whole thing felt gross.
Also the homophobia from Duncan was really really weird and came out of nowhere in the first 100 pages, only to disappear and rear its ugly head at the end.
And the book's greatest sin is that it's really boring. The last 15 or so pages have some very limited, albeit surprising action, but it just made me feel like this whole thing was for nothing. Who edited this? Why didn't it get cut by at least 2/3rds? How on earth will I finish the last 2??

Also Brian's introductions are basically just an advert for Brian. ugh.

Na va, įžengiau į "anksčiau neskaitytos Kopos serijos knygos" zoną. Ir, manau, visai neblogai šioje zonoje. Bent jau pamažu, labai pamažu, pradeda aiškėti užmojis ir kas čia apskritai šioje visoje serijoje vyksta. Nors vistiek viskas juda labai lėtai ir labai filosofiškai. Ir labai nemažai tų dialogų, po kurių mano reakcija būna "pala pala, ką? Que? Tai ką čia kas norėjo pasakyt?"
Manau, kokie 7/10 būtų fair, bet kaip visada apvalinu į viršų. 4*

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.

Za wysokie miałem oczekiwania po tym, czego nasłuchałem się o czwartej księdze Kronik Diuny.

+ przemyślenia Leto II , z których można wyłuskać ciekawe obserwacje odnoszące się do świata rzeczywistego
+ patos i klimat tego uniwersum, który zdążył się zbudować w czytelniku, jako że to już 4 tom
- nie dzieje się w tej książce bardzo dużo...
- nadal nie do końca wierzę w 3000 lat niemalże stagnacji wszechświata, ale pewnie się czepiam

Postaram się mieć krótszą przerwę przed Heretykami, niż miałem czytelniczo między Dziećmi i Bogiem :)

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.

What a tragedy, the original 1965 Dune is one of the most legendary novels of all time.

Yet the sequels leave a lot to be desired. I understand the impulse from Herbert to continue the story, I really do. Both for reasons of his own imagination, and because the fans want more of the planet Arrakis and the Atreides line. But with each sequel, it gets less interesting. They aren't so much about plot but world-building, with a new paradigm endlessly explained while little story progresses.

In this iteration, Leto the second has lived for thousands of years and is mutated into a worm by the spice or something. He is the titular "God Emperor" and gets to write secret journals explaining how the whole space empire thing works in this setting.

There seems to be a bit of a plot, I think it concerns someone trying to overthrow him and his weird marriage. And there are Fish Speakers. Mostly though, it's about speeches.

Herbert gets to indulge in long-winded conversations with all his opinions on stuff. On bureaucracy and a female soldier force, etc. Some of it is interesting. Some of it really doesn't age while, like a treatise on homosexuality (which admittedly even the first Dune utilized as something only for the evil villains). Even when the conversations between the giant talking worm and his subjects are fascinating, you have to admit this is not quite a novel.

I'd strongly Dune to everyone, and absolute classic. Read and reread. Then, everyone but the most rabid fandom should just ignore the other books...

Well, I think that's it for me reading this series!

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.

I'm going to write two reviews for this book, they are both true.

God Emperor of Dune is a rambling mess and a waste of time. About half this book is people talking with Leto, and him just interrupting them with cryptic vaguely related questions which they don't really answer, so he interrupts them with yet another cryptic vaguely related open-ended question. The idea of the Golden Path is inherently compelling, and sometimes caused it to be page turning as I kept reading to try and find out more about it, but like it just kept feeling like it was spinning it's wheels as a concept, and the novel and Leto kept promising me answers and not delivering, which made it feel like it was thin, a veneer pretending at greater understanding. Also, Frank Herbert had some weird things going on in his head about gay people, everytime anything related to homosexuality comes up I prepare myself to absolutely cringe, and I needed that preperation every time. Aside from just being icky, it breaks the illusion that this is the words of some ancient being, or some author who really has humanity figured out and makes you wonder how much of this is just the nonsensical shower thought of some dude while he was high.

2.5/10


Second review:
God Emperor of Dune is the first Dune sequel that feels like it has truly escaped from under the shadow of Dune. Incredibly ambitious in scope, and worldbuilding, this is an extremely idea's-based novel that drops fire conversation after fire conversation. The Golden Path is presented in such an engaging way, giving us very little information without earning it, causing me to be constantly investigating, trying to put pieces together, which lead to a really engaging, nearly addicting read at time despite the very very slow plot. There are some weird lines that didn't age well, but that is overshadowed by a towering achievement of a novel that only Frank Herbert could have written.

9.1/10



I guess I will average them out and write 3 stars

An inflection point for the series, and a very odd one at that.

At the end of Children of Dune, Leto II, 12-year-old son of Paul Muad'Dib, had covered himself with sandtrout (the small, water-encapsulating creatures that are an early part of the life cycle of Shai-Hulud, the sandworms of Arrakis) and taken the Imperial throne, in accordance with his prescient visions. Smash cut to:

3500 years later: Leto still rules, now as God Emperor, although over the millennia he has undergone a transformation -- the sandtrout have made him into a small sandworm, albeit with a human face and human arms & hands. And his rule is as absolute as he can make it, as per the constraints of his prescient visions. Arrakis itself, Dune no more, has been transformed into a world of open rivers and forests, with one small desert and, most critically, no sandworms and hence no melange except for the vast stockpiles Leto accumulated before the extinction of the rest of the worms, and which he now doles out grudgingly to the Spacing Guild, the Bene Gesserit, the Bene Tleilax and other petitioners.

And not everybody is happy with the status quo ...

Also in the mix: Siona, descended from the Atreides via one of Leto's breeding programs; she's currently rebelling against his reign although Leto has plans in that regard. Duncan Idaho, latest in a series of gholas (cloned from Duncan's original cells and given Duncan's original memories). Hwi Noree, the latest Ixian ambassador, specially bred to be Leto's downfall.

I know this is a divisive book in the series, but I've always liked it. It's definitely on the talkier and more philosophical end of the spectrum, but it's kind of a staggering work of imagination regardless.

And it was directly adapted into an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy ("Mandy the Merciless").

If you've made it this far, to Book Four, you're surely aware of the sprawling, whafuck miasma that constitutes Herbert's original vision of Dune. This reached its zenith in Books Two and Three when the reader is confronted with sad-sack main characters whose primary function is to KNOW EVERYTHING that will ever happen. What a conceit! And yes, it only works about half the time since such power granted to one central character is actually kind of boring while at the same time infinitely impenetrable. But we move on from Muad'dib eventually, thank God, 'cause that fellow's just way too wishy-washy, especially considering that he knows everything that will ever happen.
So we come to his kids. Book Three, the weakest so far, focuses on them, their travails, and some other crap. Then you get to the end and Leto II, Paul's son, turns into a goddamn sandworm-human hybrid and gains freakin' superpowers. Oh yeah, and he knows everything, too.
Thus, Book Four. 3000 years later Leto "Big Worm" Atreides pretty much holds sway over everyone. The spice doesn't flow and the Ixians and Bene Tleilax, Skynet and Clone War-folk, respetively, are out to even the playing field. There is much to love here. Duncan Idaho, now in his 4,637th reiteration, gets dragged along. There's all kinds of weird plans, prophecies, and machinations by Big Worm. It's confusing and hard to follow...until you get about 3/4 of the way through and suddenly the whole goddamn mess of this Dune saga starts to make sense. And it's pretty sweet! My favorite entry since the original.