Review of God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert

Given the coarse, operatic nature of Dune’s two sequels, I was reluctant to continue the series.  I thought Leto II’s rise to power was an appropriate place to leave off in the cycle despite the three sequels Herbert penned. After posting my reviews of Dune Messiah and Children of Dune, however, one comment was left stating the first three novels were in fact just stage-setting for the fourth, God Emperor of Dune, and if I was to truly appreciate the series I needed to continue.  Continue I did, and though I still think Dune is slightly better, the fourth book is certainly a step above those between and does indeed seem a thematic pinnacle the first books were aiming at.

God Emperor of Dune is set roughly 3,500 years after the conclusion of events in Children of Dune.  Leto II, now with arms and legs useless appendages on a huge worm body, uses his prescience and hyper-senses to maintain supreme power over the known universe, not to mention his inhuman appearance.  Ruling from Arrakis where terraforming has nearly completed the change from inhospitable desert to verdant inhabited land, Leto’s Fish Speakers (an army of unfailingly loyal female soldiers) enforce his dominion: no technology, no interstellar travel, and complete obeisance to his rule, including its limited dispersal of the all-valuable spice.  Proclaiming himself god and starting his own religion, Leto maintains his dominion through belief and fear in holding to the Golden Path.

Review of "Children of Dune" by Frank Herbert

Based on the polar nature of the first two books in the Dune series, Paul’s ascension in Dune and his descent in Dune Messiah, not much would seem left to be told in the House Atreides saga.  Publishing Children of Dune in 1976, ten years after Dune, Frank Herbert proved there was still more to tell, telling a solid, not spectacular tale that has some big shoes to fill if it is to live up to the success of Dune.  

With Paul having been cast blind into the desert at the conclusion of Dune Messiah, Children of Dune opens roughly a decade later with Alia on the throne and caring for Paul and Chani’s twins, Leto II and Ghanima.  Fearing she is an abomination due to the ghost of Baron Harkonnen living inside of her, Alia’s psychological stability takes blow after blow, a fact not helped by the re-emergence of Paul’s mother, the Benne-Gesserit Lady Jessica, at court.  Arrakis terraforming continuing apace, the desert is being reclaimed, the planet greener by the day.  Leto, realizing the threat this represents to the sandworms, goes into the desert in an attempt to save the spice producing beasts, leaving his family behind in the process. Topping all of this, House Corinno once again plots to retake the throne, nobody knowing how the chaos in the works will turn out in the end.