God Emperor of Dune (Dune Chronicles, Book 4) by Frank Herbert
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.38 You Save: $3.61 (45%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of God Emperor of Dune (Dune Chronicles, Book 4)
Book Review: The Joys and Pains of Leto II
Summary: 5 Stars
I personally think Herbert could have ended his series here, as he manages to accomplish, with Leto Atreides II, all of the things he didn't manage with Paul. I'm going to reveal a ton of plot here, so bear with me. [Reading a review about what happens and reading the book are two different experiences, anyway, so you won't lose anything by reading what I type here.]At the end of Children of Dune, Paul's son Leto II had merged with the "sandtrout" (larval form of the Dune sandworms) to become a super-human monster who was very close to invincible. It is speculated at the end of that book that he could live for 4,000 years. As God Emperor of Dune opens, it is 3,508 years after the events of Children, and Leto's sandtrout have transformed him into a human-sandworm hybrid, the only such animal in existence. Arrakis is now totally terraformed, and Leto has a tyrant's grip on the empire's dwindling supplies of the spice, melange.
Leto is a more powerful telepath than his father, and has the memories of all his ancestors--male and female--upon which to draw. He has become sensitive to moisture, and mostly lives in a citadel near the desert portion of Arrakis. Around him, the Bene Gesserit, the technologists of Ix, and the genetic manipulators of Bene Tleilax continue to weave their schemes in an effort to find his "secret stash" of spice.
The God Emperor has transformed society on an unprecedented level. Every world reflects the same pattern of life, and has been frozen by a ban on space travel. Only Leto's "Fish Speakers," an army composed entirely of women, are allowed free travel, and they perform the roles of conquerers and "civilizers." The clever part of forcing humanity into this pattern (which I didn't catch until I had read the book later) is that all of humanity gets to experience what age after age of peace is like. That was a big part of Herbert's story, after all: to show what life would be like for a person dependent upon prescience. And the verdict of that life is boredom.
Thrown into this mixture, of course, is a rebel Atreides, Siona, and the continually-reborn Duncan Idaho. They are considered crucial to Leto's breeding program for humanity. There is also a new, female ambassador from Ix, who allows Leto to recall his human side. All in all, there's a lot happening here, but Herbert manages to tell his story briskly. The usual quotes at the beginning of each chapter are usually excerpts from Leto's Journal, and provide (as usual) interesting comments about society and politics. I really enjoyed this book. To get a better, simpler look at Frank Herbert's universe, this serves as a triumphant example.
Book Review: Governing is to plan one's end
Summary: 5 Stars
Frank Herbert in this novel reaches a height of vision that is incredible. Leto II, tranformed into some worm by his symbiosis with the sandtrout, has imposed a more than three thousand year long peace in the whole universe unified under his authority. Dune has been completely transformed and has lost practically all its deserts and its worms, hence its spice. It is Arrakis. Leto controls the world by controling the remaining spice and hence being able to ration it and give it to anyone who needs it, provided they obey. But a new phase in human history is coming. He has managed to produce, through birth planning, the perfect female Atreides, Siona. He has also used regenerated Duncans for all that time and the last one is supposed to be mated to this Siona. But new progress is coming from the planet Ix. It is a new project of traveling machines that will not need spice as the Guild needs right now. This will open space to free transportation. They have also produced, from a few cells of an old opponent, Malky, the perfect woman that can capture the love of Leto II. This trap does work, and it is during the process of going to the celebration of their wedding that the others attack them and destroy them. Leto has to give his world to womeone else, and that someone else has to accept this world, willy-nilly. There is no escape. But the book is far more interesting as a treatise on political and historical government. « A leader tries to perpetuate the conditions that demand his leadership. » This is one force that comes out of history : conservative perpetuation of a given political organization. But at the same time, such a leader is doomed in his own perpetuation if he is not able to understand that he needs the outsider as well, the rebel, the one who questions and even menaces his power. He is really doomed if he does not give a position to that outsider, so that his own power is both reinforced and justified by this challenge. The book is the whole story of this final challenger who will destroy the leader of three odd thousand years, but who will also inherit this world and hence be able to move it to some change. Frank Herbert is perfect as a story teller both in the thrills and suspense he is able to create and in the fabulously intricate psychology of his characters. Such a story, such a book, and even the whole series of Dune novels are essential for us to navigate in our modern world, though it requires a good knowledge of quite a lot of human history, and a certain dose of realistic pragmatism not to transfer all that into everyday life, though it is satanically tempting. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.Book Review: FANTASTIC BOOK!!! A SIMPLY MUST READ!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Storyline:Centuries have passed on Dune itself, and the planet is green with life. Leto II, the son of Dune's savior, is still alive but far from human. He has become a human-sandworm creature, ruling over his angry and frustrated empire with his vast legions of Fish Speaker soldiers, enforcing peace for dozens of generations to teach the universe a lesson, while also waiting for the right time to turn Dune back into a desert planet. The fate of all humanity hangs on Leto's awesome sacrifice.
Opinion:
To begin with, I expected this book to be a disappoitment after hearing opinions from people about it. But they were wrong. This book has brought back the excitment that has lacked since Dune. Children of Dune was a little confusing and it took me a several times more of reading it to understand it. God Emperor of Dune is a very deep book. It allows you to see a part of person who makes so much of sacrifices and sees everyhting yet still believes in suprises and wonder and awe. The God Emperor of Dune, Leto Atreides II, the son Paul Atreides who was the Kwiastz Haderach knows how he is being hated, abused and unapreciated by the population of then known universe yet he continues to have compassion for them and continues doing what he does. He has sympathy for people who insult him and criticise him in such way that no normal human can endure or tolerate for very long. But then he is no TRUE human. He is half worm, half human.
This book was so totally touching that it brought tears to my eyes. I have never seen a book touch me this way since Dune Messiah. It was so absolutely and completely captivating that when I read it, it had me at the edge of my seat until the very end. I think Dune is right now displacing Lord of the Rings as my favourite book. Though I'm still only a teenager, and have many more books to read in times to come, I find that no book can compare Dune what with its majestic grandeur and hidden meaning and message which makes you expand and extend your imagination to such depths and meaning that is very exciting. It makes you think and to understand. I like books who allow you room for your interpretations of your own rather than reveal all openly for you to read. There is no magic in books like that. That's why I LOVE Dune. I can't wait to read the next book.
And I hope that you will enjoy this book as much as I did even if the last part was a bit bittersweet and sad.So for any Dune lover this is a simply must read!!!
Book Review: Perhaps the single best Si-Fi book of all time.
Summary: 5 Stars
A text whose depth of religious, historical, philosophical and emotional insights touch at the very essence of what humanity is. As someone who has read the 6-books of the Dune series more than 7-times each, I find God Emperor to be a gifted presentation set within the perspective of a truly unique point-of-view. As with the entire Dune series, Herbert forces us to focus within ourselves to answer the deeper questions and issues raised so masterfully in his book. The relationship and dialogues between the God Emperor Leto, and Moneo, his Majordomo has to be some of the most insightful, honest theater in Si-Fi history. From the silent obeyance of the massive Nayla, or the fostered rebellious attitudes of Siona, the shimmering `Golden Path' that will finally and forever perpetuate humankind in the Universe has been set into place personally by Paul Atreides' son Leto. With Leto's selfless sacrifice of an unimaginable 3,500-years, his metamorphosis of worm and man; man and God, legend and religion with his logical-brilliance of the all-female "Women of the Imperial Guard", the Fish Speaker Army that holds an iron-grip on the human universe- Herbert creates the single most enjoyable, readable, profound, and meaningful book in his timeless collection. This book also ties the Paul Atreides side of the Dune series to the Bene Gesserit-led books in a singular, keystone fashion. The development of the Ixians, and the Tleilaxu; the downgrading of the Guild, and the Bene Gesserit and the extermination of CHOAM and the Great Houses add a great deal to both the overall and continuing plot lines of the Dune series. More so than the rest of the series, this book forces a closer examination of religious, social and interpersonal beliefs, and in a truly long-term thinking frame. This book also stands unique among the Dune-sequels as being the only one that can be easily read, understood and enjoyed without having read the other books. It would be interesting to have originally read this book first, then Dune second. I will never bore of Leto's character or his integrity. Please read this book, and when you finish it, read it again. -Scott Craig "Religious institutions perpetuate a mortal master-servant relationship, they create an arena which attracts the prideful human power-seekers with all of their nearsighted prejudices! Ultimately, we must realize that we are all servants unto God, not servants unto servants." -Frank Herbert 1981Book Review: Characters, not action.
Summary: 5 Stars
First, let me get this out of the way. If youwere annoyed by some of the abstruse and occasionally pretentious dialogue in the first three books (esoecially the third) then you won't like this book in all probability. If you love action and excitement and an intense plot, and thats what youre looking for, you won't like this book in all probabilty.That said, this book is easily the best book in the Dune series (only the first can compete; and that is because it sets up the world). The setting is a quantum leap from the first one; there is virtually no connection to the petty feuding world of Dune, with the intense Fremen and their intense culture.
This book revolves around 5 characters: Hwi Noree, Siona, Moneo, Leto II and Duncan Idaho, the ever present ghola. The idea of Duncan Idaho being constantly resurrected struck me as as an interesting conceit, and it played well into the story (Leto's psychological analysis of Duncan based on his resurrections is also interesting).
Of these five characters, Moneo and Leto are easily the most interesting. They form a perfect foil- Leto, so intelligent and so far beyond the normal human awareness that his thoughts cant help being nearly incomprehensible, and Moneo, the former rebel who was converted by his visions of the Golden Path and is now staid in his duty and unquestioning in his belief.
Figuring out what exactly the Golden Path is- the path that Maud'Dib could not bring himself to contemplate and that Leto took upon himself in place of Ghanima- is a tussle.
It is an immensely enjoyable tussle, however. Leto seems to be saying, by being the ultimate power-holder and despot of this universe, I accomplish too things. First, I am freeing humanity of the craving for authority and reinforcing free will and action- I am showing people that despotism, even peaceful despotism, automatically creates tension and disturbance. Secondly, I am showing people that enforced peace leads to degeneration of the soul.
God Emperor of Dune is a complex book, one that needs to be reread many times in order to draw the juices of interpretation and understanding from it. Its about government, power, love, humanity. It also has the most interesting and one of the most complex characters created in sciencefiction. And that alone justifies reading it.