Take a photo of a barcode or cover
gzapolnik 's review for:
God Emperor of Dune
by Frank Herbert
Weird.... But I like it.
This book felt like the quintessential Dune book. It has all these different threads that are being manipulated in the background, and so much commentary on religion, ecology, government and power, humanity, etc. What it lacked in giant worms (my favorite part of Dune 1) it made up for with Leto II being a weird, all powerful, worm God to the people.
My biggest gripe with this book is the weird way that women are talked about. Every significant female character is at one point or another described by her curves or sexuality, whether that be by another character's inner dialogue or just how she is described. The old, white guy author really shines through in those sections.
I found it very powerful how Duncan is this character known for his allegiance to the Atreidies, but every iteration of the ghola ends up trying to to kill Leto. It very clearly shows what kind of ruler Leto has been the 3500 years that we missed between books.
There were many parts that really stuck with me, but more than anything else I felt like the way that they talk about the rise of machines before the butlerian jihad felt very applicable to the current world. Multiple times it was mentioned how important the human mind is and how we can't let technology do the thinking for us. With the rise of AI and people using AI in their daily life for tasks that can be done without ChatGPT, it really made me think of how important the resistance to automating thinking is. It's such a privilege to get to think and use my brain and why would I want to let something take that away. I know that's not what the main focus of this book is and that in previous books it has been mentioned, but this was really the first time that it all clicked.
This book felt like the quintessential Dune book. It has all these different threads that are being manipulated in the background, and so much commentary on religion, ecology, government and power, humanity, etc. What it lacked in giant worms (my favorite part of Dune 1) it made up for with Leto II being a weird, all powerful, worm God to the people.
My biggest gripe with this book is the weird way that women are talked about. Every significant female character is at one point or another described by her curves or sexuality, whether that be by another character's inner dialogue or just how she is described. The old, white guy author really shines through in those sections.
I found it very powerful how Duncan is this character known for his allegiance to the Atreidies, but every iteration of the ghola ends up trying to to kill Leto. It very clearly shows what kind of ruler Leto has been the 3500 years that we missed between books.
There were many parts that really stuck with me, but more than anything else I felt like the way that they talk about the rise of machines before the butlerian jihad felt very applicable to the current world. Multiple times it was mentioned how important the human mind is and how we can't let technology do the thinking for us. With the rise of AI and people using AI in their daily life for tasks that can be done without ChatGPT, it really made me think of how important the resistance to automating thinking is. It's such a privilege to get to think and use my brain and why would I want to let something take that away. I know that's not what the main focus of this book is and that in previous books it has been mentioned, but this was really the first time that it all clicked.