Reviews

I really didn't like this entry to the Dune series.

The book spends a majority of it's pages in gauge conversions between Leto and someone else, with Leto using vauge language to try and get his audience to understand something. What this "something" is is never clear, and it gets old really quickly.

I hate Leto's self pity, but the book seems to take him seriously, "it's so hard being me, and making the decisions that I have to make".

This is a very slow book, but still manages to end very abruptly, the pacing is way off.

This doesn't feel like the other Dune books, there the plotting was underlined by vulnerability, but here Leto is all but untouchable for most of the book.

There were individual bits that I enjoyed, Duncan's whole situation, money's terror, but Sionia was really underdeveloped and I hate the emphasis on eugenics, and whenever Herbert writes about women/gender, that's a mistake.

Would not recommend, stay away.

bharper91's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Easier to read than book 4

Mostly musings of Leto 2 and discussions with his mortal “subjects” Moneo, Sonia, Idaho and hwi noree. Leto has spent the last few thousand years tempering the known galaxy into the mold of the “golden path”. Arrakis is unrecognizable compared to the days of the first 3 books, lots of water and forest. Leto has become combined with the sand trout skin he took on in book 3, with his plan being to release sand trout (melded with pieces of himself and possibly now water resistant?) to repopulate Arrakis with sand worms (these had since died out from the ecological changes on Arrakis). Leto had been overseeing a breeding program to create someone with the likes of Siona (an atriedes descendent) who is not detectable by prescience of the spice AND seems to be immune to the abomination (being overrun with the lives and personalities of her ancestors) to help create a world where humanity can exist without prescience. We’ll see how this comes into play in the remaining sequels. Hwi Noree was an odd character, her “romance” with Leto and temporarily Duncan was kinda weird - almost Mary sue type vibes w

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