Reviews

My friend warned me: it goes down after the first book. But I couldnt help myself and ordered this trilogy the day after finishing Dune. I was not interested as much in the plot, which can dawdle on forever like so many once-great sci-fi series, but rather in how Frank Herbert continued exploring the big ideas of Dune: the Middle East/Dune parallels, Church-State, climate change, the competing myth creations of Paul vs the BG...

Book II (Dune Messiah) is the fall of Paul and Book III (Children of Dune) focuses on the Atreides who were born on Dune (Paul's sister Alia, and Paul's twins). From a reading of other reviews, many people apparently lost interest at book II; however, I was drawn in by the new characters and intrigued by the big arc of Paul's willing self-destruction. The plot was not as compelling as Dune, but it also was not leaning on the the archetypal outline of the child-turned-hero myth. So as I began book II, I thought that my friend's judgment was off: while the trilogy was not equal parts greatness, it was building upon the masterpiece into something more.

Book III got off to a promising start, with new characters (Farad'n, the grandson of the former Shaddah Emperor, and his entourage) and a more abstract focus on the dangers inherent in all of the "children of Dune" as a result of their having been born with a multiplicity of personalities and memories. Leto emerges as the protagonist, who is seeking a path that will correct the errors of his father.

At this point, I was still hooked. "What does he see that Paul did not?" "How will this insight shift my understanding of the big issues?" But then, slowly, Leto's thoughts and philosophy became harder for me to follow. Is the Golden Path Leto's rule or Farad'n (who is described with plenty of gold imagery)? Is Leto prescient or has he avoided that temptation? By destroying the qanats, isnt Leto turning the planet back to dessert and thereby saving the worms, but if so, why will the worms die in 100 years? Harum??

It was this muddying of the big issues that left me dissatisfied, because if those had stayed coherent in my head (which may be the fault of my reading and not the writing), then I might not have found some of the plot twists so absurd (Leto becoming a worm) or the personality changes unconvincing (Paul to Preacher; Alia to Abomination).

So I wont be reading any more Dune books, but I could see myself coming back to this series again and giving the third book another chance. I'd love to find that I had missed subtleties and that Herbert's grand vision was simply too all-encompassing for me to take in at first try.

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