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The view of the desert soothed him.
Quite a heady experience, and not one to be entered lightly.
Don’t even consider reading this if you haven’t read the novels preceding it. However, if you are invested in the Dune Universe and you have read the original Dune Trilogy (Dune / Dune Messiah / Children of Dune) this can be a very rewarding, albeit challenging, read.
Presented as part future historical text, part memoir and part mythos, God Emperor of Dune is somewhat unlike any of the Dune novels that came before. Taking place more than 3000 years after the events of Children of Dune , but still revolving around Leto II (yes, he is that old by now), this book continues the Dune / Herbert tradition of subverting events that came before. And then some.
While some of what transpires here was hinted at in the previous novel, it is still a somewhat uneasy turn of events. The book doesn’t make it entirely clear who you should be rooting for, either. It’s all grey area, and it takes a long time for character motives to become clearer. Half the people in the story don’t seem to know what the hell is going on either, which does make for a truly remarkable reading experience (intended or otherwise).
There are fewer characters this time round, with just about everything revolving around the God Emperor and his actions. The only additional characters are the (befuddled) few with whom the emperor has surrounded himself.
The narrative is interspersed with quotes from the history of the Dune universe, as well as diary entries, notably those of the God Emperor himself. As such, the flow of the novel takes some getting used to. It is heavy on philosophical meandering and, to a lesser extent, political maneuvering. The story takes the long view, and concerns itself with the future of the human race on an intergalactic scale as dictated by the “Golden Path” that Leto is following via his (by now very formidable) prescience. As such, there is very little in the sense of immediate gratification. In fact, compared to this, the original Dune is a pretty straightforward adventure yarn. This, by the way, is not a criticism; I love the original Dune.
I suppose it would be easy to dislike this book, based on how strange it truly is. And you wouldn’t know how strange unless you read it. It is perhaps worth noting that Herbert had some aid in the form of magic mushrooms when writing some of his Dune stories (by his own admission). Perhaps God Emperor of Dune is case in point. All in all, a mind-bending affair.
…they saw only the great emptiness, an eerie place especially in moonlight – dunes at a distance, a distance which seemed not to change as the traveller moved – nothing anywhere except the seemingly eternal wind, a few rocks and, when they looked upward, stars without mercy.
This was the desert of the desert.
In the end, though, it is telling that I wasn’t indifferent to the fates of the main character(s). There are some memorable scenes (and one fairly moving one) toward the close of the novel that puts everything in perspective. The story had, after all, managed to get under my skin, and in the end, everything makes a tragic sort of sense. Such is the nature of the Dune novels.
The truth is, they don’t make them like this anymore, and any return to Dune is likely going to be a rewarding experience.
The Worm comes!
Quite a heady experience, and not one to be entered lightly.
Don’t even consider reading this if you haven’t read the novels preceding it. However, if you are invested in the Dune Universe and you have read the original Dune Trilogy (Dune / Dune Messiah / Children of Dune) this can be a very rewarding, albeit challenging, read.
Presented as part future historical text, part memoir and part mythos, God Emperor of Dune is somewhat unlike any of the Dune novels that came before. Taking place more than 3000 years after the events of Children of Dune , but still revolving around Leto II (yes, he is that old by now), this book continues the Dune / Herbert tradition of subverting events that came before. And then some.
While some of what transpires here was hinted at in the previous novel, it is still a somewhat uneasy turn of events. The book doesn’t make it entirely clear who you should be rooting for, either. It’s all grey area, and it takes a long time for character motives to become clearer. Half the people in the story don’t seem to know what the hell is going on either, which does make for a truly remarkable reading experience (intended or otherwise).
There are fewer characters this time round, with just about everything revolving around the God Emperor and his actions. The only additional characters are the (befuddled) few with whom the emperor has surrounded himself.
The narrative is interspersed with quotes from the history of the Dune universe, as well as diary entries, notably those of the God Emperor himself. As such, the flow of the novel takes some getting used to. It is heavy on philosophical meandering and, to a lesser extent, political maneuvering. The story takes the long view, and concerns itself with the future of the human race on an intergalactic scale as dictated by the “Golden Path” that Leto is following via his (by now very formidable) prescience. As such, there is very little in the sense of immediate gratification. In fact, compared to this, the original Dune is a pretty straightforward adventure yarn. This, by the way, is not a criticism; I love the original Dune.
I suppose it would be easy to dislike this book, based on how strange it truly is. And you wouldn’t know how strange unless you read it. It is perhaps worth noting that Herbert had some aid in the form of magic mushrooms when writing some of his Dune stories (by his own admission). Perhaps God Emperor of Dune is case in point. All in all, a mind-bending affair.
…they saw only the great emptiness, an eerie place especially in moonlight – dunes at a distance, a distance which seemed not to change as the traveller moved – nothing anywhere except the seemingly eternal wind, a few rocks and, when they looked upward, stars without mercy.
This was the desert of the desert.
In the end, though, it is telling that I wasn’t indifferent to the fates of the main character(s). There are some memorable scenes (and one fairly moving one) toward the close of the novel that puts everything in perspective. The story had, after all, managed to get under my skin, and in the end, everything makes a tragic sort of sense. Such is the nature of the Dune novels.
The truth is, they don’t make them like this anymore, and any return to Dune is likely going to be a rewarding experience.
The Worm comes!
