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God Emperor of Dune
by Frank Herbert
Frank Herbert has an incredible ability to really make you think. This novel contains profound themes surrounding the meaning of humanity, the limits of established civilization, and what it means to sacrifice for the greater good.
In Children of Dune, Leto II saw his Golden Path as the only way that humanity can survive from its given course. (Think Dr. Strange at the beginning of Infinity War: “I went forward in time. To see the alternate futures. Our chances are 14,000,605/1.”) After viewing what is to come, Leto made the decision to become part-sandworm and exchange his own humanity for an inhuman perspective on the world—one that allows him to hold humanity on a leash as a “benevolent” tyrant. He regulates every facet of every life and though he fosters peace, stagnancy and joylessness are festering amongst the population. Rebel groups are starting to form, and the leader of one such group is Siona Atreides, a long descendant of Leto II’s sister Ghanima. Once she gets her hands on the God Emperor’s Journals, she sets into motion plans to overthrow the God Emperor and free civilization from the grasps of The Worm.
Herbert was truly able to set the stage for what I thought would be a grand adventure of the mind. The idea of re-emerging into the world of Dune 3,500 years in the future excited me, but there was always something lacking. It was hard to feel any connection to the characters and none of them are particularly likeable. I do not think that Herbert had any real semblance of how to write women in his novels. I wish I could say that it was ineptitude, but I venture that the honest answer lies between him being a product of his time and something more sinister. The book has an all-too-familiar conjunction of Freudian concepts and eugenics, and while Herbert does not outright endorse these concepts, he does not seem to condemn them as strongly as I would like either.
With that said, this book was able to talk about huge themes that truly do make you think, but I could not say that there were any big shocks or twists that kept me engaged. I think the only reason I finished the book was to find out how it ended.
In Children of Dune, Leto II saw his Golden Path as the only way that humanity can survive from its given course. (Think Dr. Strange at the beginning of Infinity War: “I went forward in time. To see the alternate futures. Our chances are 14,000,605/1.”) After viewing what is to come, Leto made the decision to become part-sandworm and exchange his own humanity for an inhuman perspective on the world—one that allows him to hold humanity on a leash as a “benevolent” tyrant. He regulates every facet of every life and though he fosters peace, stagnancy and joylessness are festering amongst the population. Rebel groups are starting to form, and the leader of one such group is Siona Atreides, a long descendant of Leto II’s sister Ghanima. Once she gets her hands on the God Emperor’s Journals, she sets into motion plans to overthrow the God Emperor and free civilization from the grasps of The Worm.
Herbert was truly able to set the stage for what I thought would be a grand adventure of the mind. The idea of re-emerging into the world of Dune 3,500 years in the future excited me, but there was always something lacking. It was hard to feel any connection to the characters and none of them are particularly likeable. I do not think that Herbert had any real semblance of how to write women in his novels. I wish I could say that it was ineptitude, but I venture that the honest answer lies between him being a product of his time and something more sinister. The book has an all-too-familiar conjunction of Freudian concepts and eugenics, and while Herbert does not outright endorse these concepts, he does not seem to condemn them as strongly as I would like either.
With that said, this book was able to talk about huge themes that truly do make you think, but I could not say that there were any big shocks or twists that kept me engaged. I think the only reason I finished the book was to find out how it ended.