A review by bookwormlukas
God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert

adventurous reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Well that was…different?

Truthfully, after the semi nosedive that the previous book in this series ‘Children of Dune’ took, I was a little hesitant about continuing on with what is known as ‘the second Dune sequence’. General opinion on the series as a whole seems to be that it goes downhill, but I will say, for me personally, this one was a bit of an uptick from the third entry, which is definitely promising going forward.

The trick for that is simply that the fourth ‘Dune’ is a relatively simple story that just sets up the ongoing battle of what is to come. Set 3000 years after the last one, this one follows one of the last royal Atreides as they slowly turn into an omniscient half human, half worm….God. Yes, you read that right. The main character here is literally a God who can know and experience everything, yet is stuck in the body of what resembles one of those brain worms from ‘Starship Troopers’.

Is it a little out there? Yes. Can it be a little silly? Also, yes. Overall though, Herbert manages to bring it all together with some strong writing - and dialogue that flows surprisingly well considering the topics of conversations at hand - and this really is a novel all about conversations. Not a lot of action happening here at all, with it mostly being about figuring out character motivations and who is going to double cross who.

Overall, a surprisingly enjoyable entry to a series that had lost a bit of its lustre, there’s definitely a few problems (Herberts outdated views on certain things popping up every now and again for instance) but I’m more excited to start book 5 now than I assumed I would be, which is always a good sign.