God Emperor of Dune (Dune Chronicles)
by Frank Herbert
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Book Summary Information
Author: Frank HerbertEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-09-02
ISBN: 0441016316
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Ace Hardcover
Book Reviews of God Emperor of Dune (Dune Chronicles)
Book Review: Long Slow Reveal
Summary: 5 Stars
On my first reading of _God Emperor of Dune_, what stands out is the structure. The book begins with an action scene, and ends with an action scene. In between, there is conversation and soliloquy, with little action. Violent scenes occur off camera, as it were. We learn that the violence occurred, and who was involved. That's about it, until the last scene.
The novel takes place in a very circumscribed series of locations, all of them on Dune -- Arrakis -- no longer a place of desert, where water is insufficient to sustain most life. The desert has bloomed, Pardot and Liet Kynes's ecological dream of planetary ability to nurture the preservation of water has come true. The only desert is the Sareer, a demonstration of what Arrakis once was, complete with "museum Fremen." There are no more sandworms, no more sandtrout except those encasing the God Emperor, Leto II.
Leto II leads a circumscribed existence, avoiding water, free only on rare trips to his Sareer. What is it like to be him? The lack of action in this existence is nicely consistent with the lack of action in Leto's existence. The reader is invited by Herbert's sense of pacing and narrative into the unexciting world of a being, part sandtrout, part human, who has lived over 3500 years, and who, it appears at the beginning, will live another 500 years or more. The critical question is "Why does Herbert tell us about precisely *this* period in the life of Leto II?" That question in the reader's mind is a part of the way that Herbert artfully sets the reader up for a "reveal."
Herbert's long, slow, reveal brings us -- at last -- the answer to the question of what dreadful prophetic vision(s) showed Leto of the alternatives to his self-chosen role as God Emperor. That reveal is also the motivation for Moneo's steadiness and loyalty to someone/something so hard to like, against whom he once rebelled.
Herbert scattered philosophical gems throughout. I found his statements about religion worth marking; he also has some acute insights about leaders and followers. These statements come only from one source, the journals of the God Emperor, Leto II. That makes the oracular pronouncements seem tendentious; coupled with such little change or growth in the main character for most of the novel, this aspect of the book makes it tedious, boring, and insufferable. As tedious, boring, and insufferable as the existence of Leto II -- until love arrives.
The loss of love is also its fulfillment, love for Hwi Noree, love for the rebel Siona, and love, most of all, for humanity.
Summary of God Emperor of Dune (Dune Chronicles)
A beautiful new package with a new introduction?
Millennia have passed on Arrakis, and the oncedesert planet is green with life. Leto Atreides, the son of the world?s savior, the Emperor Paul Muad?Dib, is still alive but far from human. To preserve humanity?s future, he sacrificed his own by merging with a sandworm, granting him nearimmortality as God Emperor of Dune for the past 3,500 years.
Leto?s rule is not a benevolent one. His transformation has not only made his appearance inhuman, but his morality. A rebellion has risen to oppose the despot?s rule, led by Siona, a member of the Atreides family. But Siona is unaware that Leto?s vision of a Golden Path for humanity requires her to fulfill a destiny she never wanted?or could possibly conceive?
Millennia have passed on Arrakis, and the oncedesert planet is green with life. Leto Atreides, the son of the world?s savior, the Emperor Paul Muad?Dib, is still alive but far from human. To preserve humanity?s future, he sacrificed his own by merging with a sandworm, granting him nearimmortality as God Emperor of Dune for the past 3,500 years.
Leto?s rule is not a benevolent one. His transformation has not only made his appearance inhuman, but his morality. A rebellion has risen to oppose the despot?s rule, led by Siona, a member of the Atreides family. But Siona is unaware that Leto?s vision of a Golden Path for humanity requires her to fulfill a destiny she never wanted?or could possibly conceive?
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