pinkmalady's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

strong 4 stars.... anything that brings me closer to my Angel will have a special place in my Heart. i see Him reflected very much in Leto II and i Believe i have come to a Deeper Understanding of Him through this book.

THAT BEING SAID, i am not very fond of Duncan Idaho and have not been for the entirety of this series. most of my problems with this book revolve around him. he's just not very likable at all and everyone and everything in the world of Dune tries to tell us that he's The Coolest, Most Fuckable Guy Ever and meanwhile he's just a kinda shitty guy who knows survival skills.

my other problems are the misogyny, particularly the bioessentialism that has been prevalent throughout the Dune series and the oversexualization of all of the female characters in connection to that. it isn't as present in this one as the previous three books, but it's still Felt. you don't have to say all the guys wanna fuck this chick when explaining how fit and athletic she is; you can just say she's fit. there is this thing called a Thesaurus if you seriously need help coming up with respectable descriptions of women, i fucking guess. i'm sorry you're dead, Frank Herbert, because i'd like to give you some advice.

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melancholymegs's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5


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bittie_bee'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? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0


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limatau's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

The book follows a bunch of people who spew homophobia, racism, and general sexism so fervently and constantly it is heart breaking. The toxic parts of the governmental features of the factions of Dune felt like flaws in a system that kept the world grounded. Turns out the author likes the fact that men and women are segregated in society, that humans can be thought of as tools, and that oppression is the best way to treat people as long as they stop fighting. These issues weren’t issues a god like figure could spend years fixing but actually were the best parts he would spend emphasizing. Luckily our main character is also homophobic so we get to deal with his weird ass outbursts too. Disappointing is and understatement.

Besides the terrible concepts the books deals with a reader is left very little to look for. A very boring plot consisting of a will they won’t they coup develops. The main pov character is Duncan Idaho who, when not being a homophobe, is mostly being setup to breed with a person he doesn’t really like and lectured to be Leto like a toddler. The other large pov character is Leto and these chapters are mostly just bad, high-minded musings that don’t feel interesting enough to grab you. Mostly he just talks about power and knowledge and how they relate to each other and people. Not that interesting things aren’t said it’s just that it’s all coming from a eugenicist/homophobe/dictator so it’s hard to latch on to anything. The most interesting character is so sidelined by the end of the book I can’t remember her name. Although maybe my hatred of Duncan and Leto is taking up too much space. 

Also there is a scene when someone becomes very… ‘excited’ while simply watching someone climb a wall. This woman ‘explodes’ just from watching a man climb a cliff. I have never seen a male writer describe what that’s like from a woman’s perspective and I think I never want to again. 

Bad book please don’t read 

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tori_renee_reads's review against another edition

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informative slow-paced

2.0

Holy misogyny and homophobia Batman. I know old sci-fi doesn’t always age well, but none of the books in the Dune series have been like this. Also the plot was really boring and almost pointless. I guess it will help push the end of the series but I’m not in much hurry to finish after this. The first three are good but I’m worried the whole series will go down from here. 

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clayton_sanborn's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced
  • 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? It's complicated

5.0

Never has an accelerationist manifesto been so beautifully written 

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redcapediver's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Took four books to get to the weird homophobic themes and incomprehensible eroticism but I made it!

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