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hellsjerome's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Moderate: Genocide
Minor: Child death
isabellamarg's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
"Watching the mundane activities of everyday life filled him with profound envy."
Dune Messiah is a commentary on how power changes you as well as the lengths we are willing to go for this power and our loved ones. Paul is a complex character. His prescience and ability to see glimpses of the future is a blessing but also a curse. He cannot just be a regular person, nor can his sister Alia who was also given prescience through her birth. This is an important theme throughout the book especially towards the end when we see Paul make decisions that will impact the future of his Jihad and empire.
The beginning of this book was very slow and confusing for me with multiple new characters brought in in a very short time span. My favorite part of the book was probably the last 80 pages where everything comes to a head and we gain clarity into Paul's thought processes and actions. Without giving too much away Chani plays a large role in the path that Paul chooses to take to evade his conspirators and the ending of the novel is due in part to his fastidiousness in Fremen culture as well as his love for Chani.
"'We're here now!' she protested, fighting a dry sob. 'And...I feel we have so little...time.' 'We have eternity, beloved.' 'You may have eternity. I have only now.''But this is eternity.' He stroked her forehead."
Minor: Death, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Genocide
trvs49's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Paul's character development is impressive and genuinely satisfying, and it stays true to the character. However, where this book lacks is in the writing of the female characters, which is considerably weaker, although Alia does present as a really cool, complex character. The incest stuff and the age gap between her and some of the characters, as well as the stuff about her dad being her lover, are not necessary, in my opinion.
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, War, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Grief, Incest, Infertility, Murder, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence
dakizu's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Infertility
Minor: Addiction, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, Drug use, and Drug abuse
sarah_tani's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Moderate: Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Violence, Suicide, Grief, War, Genocide, Death, Drug use, Infertility, and Pregnancy
aileron's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Incest, Murder, Death, Grief, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Suicide
Minor: Ableism, Genocide, Child death, Religious bigotry, and War
roget's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
1.) Paul's on about trying to disengage the jihad all of Dune 1 and, to an extent, 2. There's this path of "discrediting himself" that he talks about, but at the end, the path he takes is one that doesn't discredit himself?? Duncan's literally reflecting on how Paul's final actions establish him as a religious figurehead for the Fremen people.
2.) There's clearly a theme here about Paul having no power over his power, and being mostly just aware of the flow of time but ultimately just as tossed about by it as everyone else. I get that. But also, he's so resistant to changing and stepping off the path in case one of the worse visions happen that he lets an incomprehensible genocide play out to avoid a somehow even worse incomprehensible genocide? Am I getting that right? There was no point at which he might've given an order to "no, leave that planet alone?" or "no, don't kill all those people?" That just...wouldn't have worked? What's Herbert trying to say, here? That certain pressures and rhetoric are unstoppably destructive?
3.) Chani and Irulan deserved better, but Chani deserved way, way better.
4.) The incest thing was extremely ick. As was Herbert sexualizing the crap out of a fourteen/fifteen year old girl's body. I don't give a fig about the acrobatics the story performs to make Alia a grown-up inside. This stuff isn't thought-up in a vacuum, and therefore it absolutely merits some major side eye. That alone knocked my enjoyment of this novel down multiple stars.
5.) Chani should've been given a voice to speak to Paul's decision making on her and their children's behalf. There was opportunity for good conflict there, and it floated out the window because Chani's reduced to an Ophelia, here.
And that's the center of the biggest issue for me--once again, we have all significant women characters ending up fridged or holding the short end of the stick. And Paul who I'd assumed would fall from power (based on how everyone talks about this book), ends up valorized by the very people he manipulated in the first book.
I'd find his fear of other futures more convincing if the text gave us more solidity and detail about those futures, but most of it is kept rather vague, and the only points that are expanded are the more personal, AU fates of Chani and their children. I'm just a little ?????
Like, what's the take, here? Poor Paul, he couldn't help but do an intergalactic genocide?
And to be clear--I was completely prepared and ready to witness some Shakespearean-level tragedy. I was not expecting a happy ending for anyone. But the sad ending I got was so disappointing, and there was no justice in it re: Paul, the empire, or the Fremen people. By the way this is talked about, I was expecting some fire post-colonial or anti-imperial commentary, and I was just underwhelmed on that front.
Duncan Idaho (Alia plot points WILDLY aside) was the main high point. That was interesting, and his coming back to himself was cool.
Graphic: Incest, Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Addiction, Colonisation, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Death, Pedophilia, Sexism, Genocide, Suicide, Infertility, Death of parent, and Violence
alterdd's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Minor: Incest, War, and Genocide
giuliana_ferrari's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
In the end, I think the overall desert aesthetic of the first book was more enjoyable, rich with ecological understandings, but the second one lost me a bit with all the talks of politics and an Emperor afflicted with the immutable position of his role.
Graphic: Addiction
Moderate: Incest, Religious bigotry, and Genocide
bettysbookishworld's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I like the ending and how the whole story from Dune until the ending of Dune Messiah turned out on the whole philosophical and religious level.
However, the only negative thing to say about the second book is how female characters were written and unfortunately, it affected my reading enjoyment. In Dune, Herbert wrote female characters as strong, independent with their own minds. Even though they had the more traditional roles in the story, they were still written well. However, I didn't like how the women were handled in Dune Messiah. Mainly Alia. I felt uncomfortable how sexualized her character was when you think about her age. Also, all of the female characters lacked their personalities from the first book and here they were just submissive and shallow, really.
I'll probably read the next book but will read it with caution and much lower expectations.
Graphic: Colonisation, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Gun violence, Death, and Genocide
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Pregnancy, Sexism, Incest, and Infertility