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A review by thevampiremars
God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
“Tell me, old worm, is there a monster penis hidden in that monster body of yours?”
God, where do I begin...?
I really liked how Leto was characterised to begin with – his boredom, his dry humour, his internal monologue (meta in its transcription as journal entries/the text of this book). After Hwi’s introduction he’s a completely different character. I have mixed feelings about this. I understand that this shift in personality was deliberate on the author’s part and a key part of the story he was trying to tell, but I personally don’t care for the love makes you more human cliché, especially since Leto had been so compelling up to that point. As for Hwi’s characterisation, well, we’ve already seen that Herbert struggles to write women with as much depth as he writes men. Although... in this instance I don’t mind so much. Hwi is a plot device rather than a character, and the story is pretty upfront about that (again, in a slightly meta way); she literally exists to be Leto’s love interest.
I’m less forgiving when it comes to Siona’s inconsistent characterisation and disjointed arc. Like Irulan in Dune Messiah, the story revolves around her but she’s only actually present for maybe half a dozen scenes. She has the makings of a protagonist – rebellious attitude, charisma, nerve – and for a while I thought Leto was setting himself up as the villain to be defeated to make way for the new protagonist, similar to Paul walking out into the desert and ending his role in the narrative. I guess that’s kind of accurate? But Siona only gets to topple Leto right at the end, and even then she’s largely overshadowed by Duncan Idaho. I’ll get back to Duncan in a moment.
Leto and Siona’s dynamic is an interesting one. Sometimes they’re clearly a tyrant and a revolutionary, but at other times it feels like they’re supposed to be interpreted as something more akin to a parent and a child, or, more generally, an elder and a youth. Leto is firmly authoritarian (I mean, he calls himself God Emperor for a start) and he rationalises his violence as an act of love; it’s for humanity’s own good. Siona resists his authority and values freedom, but is she a principled anarchist or an unruly teen? The way she’s depicted as both stubbornly resolute and also quite fickle (plotting to kill Leto → sympathising and having intimate moments with Leto in the desert → suddenly back to revolution) makes me think of her as immature. But then again Leto is a tyrant.
The homophobia in this book is... a lot. There are multiple scenes in which Duncan is screaming crying throwing up because he saw a butch. “Perverts don’t perpetuate!” “It should be stamped out!” It sucks. He does have a man out of time thing going on, so maybe his bigotry is supposed to demonstrate that? There is a tepid defence of homosexuality from Moneo: “It’s perfectly natural for adolescent females as well as males to have feelings of physical attraction towards members of their own sex. Most of them will grow out of it.” Again this idea that young people can be disruptive but will ultimately see reason.
God Emperor of Dune is preoccupied with sexuality in general, not only homosexuality. It’s an obscenely horny book. There’s frequent talk of genitalia and orgasms and yet there’s a fade to black in place of an actual sex scene. Honestly, Herbert should have gone all in, not only with the “disgusting sexual habits” but in all aspects. It’s like the writer shies away from the story he chose to write.
I dunno. There’s a strong setup, then stagnation, then it ends explosively but not in a satisfying way.
CONTENT WARNINGS: homophobia, sexism, rape (mentioned on multiple occasions but not shown), violence, massacre, death, dictatorship, eugenics (human breeding programme), body horror, horny shit