God Emperor of Dune (School & Library Binding)

My Opinion: this book was designed to be heady and challenging science fiction, not an official work of hard philosophy. To read this as a hard philosophical work is to miss the point, Mr. Chow. You can run back to Nietzsche, thank you very much, while I enjoy this book. Mr. Chow is one of those men who frowns on ALL creativity because of his supposed "higher acedemic standards" (i.e. he wants to be "better" than all of us) which are really just a mask for his own childish motives of inner craving and jealousy. Creativity is the means by which things are created, both good and bad. To frown upon all creativity is to render one a nihilist. So please go back to reading Nietzsche, please, because it seems like that is all you will enjoy. Granted, I have my own motives at work here in my defense of creativity and intelligent science fiction. However, my motives support the arts and I am in favor of supporting and helping the "unwashed masses" as you call them instead of frowning upon them / taking advantage of their fear of anything intelligent to maintain their lack of intelligence all the time. You are a "closet aristocrat" as Leto II would say. Consider my review a revolt against your aristocracy.

If you are in search of heady, engaging science fiction full of mystery and excitement, look no further. My one complaint with this book is the terrible cover art. I very much wish they had removed completely the old, phallic cover painting used with the old editions. It is rather disgusting, and is a terrible way to present this novel to the public. It is due to this artwork that I give this edition 4 out of 5 stars! Bravo, Frank Herbert!

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At the end of Children of Dune, Paul's son Leto II had merged with the "sandtrout" (larval form of the Dune sandworms) to become a super-human monster who was very close to invincible. It is speculated at the end of that book that he could live for 4,000 years. As God Emperor of Dune opens, it is 3,508 years after the events of Children, and Leto's sandtrout have transformed him into a human-sandworm hybrid, the only such animal in existence. Arrakis is now totally terraformed, and Leto has a tyrant's grip on the empire's dwindling supplies of the spice, melange.

Leto is a more powerful telepath than his father, and has the memories of all his ancestors--male and female--upon which to draw. He has become sensitive to moisture, and mostly lives in a citadel near the desert portion of Arrakis. Around him, the Bene Gesserit, the technologists of Ix, and the genetic manipulators of Bene Tleilax continue to weave their schemes in an effort to find his "secret stash" of spice.

The God Emperor has transformed society on an unprecedented level. Every world reflects the same pattern of life, and has been frozen by a ban on space travel. Only Leto's "Fish Speakers," an army composed entirely of women, are allowed free travel, and they perform the roles of conquerers and "civilizers." The clever part of forcing humanity into this pattern (which I didn't catch until I had read the book later) is that all of humanity gets to experience what age after age of peace is like. That was a big part of Herbert's story, after all: to show what life would be like for a person dependent upon prescience. And the verdict of that life is boredom.

Thrown into this mixture, of course, is a rebel Atreides, Siona, and the continually-reborn Duncan Idaho. They are considered crucial to Leto's breeding program for humanity. There is also a new, female ambassador from Ix, who allows Leto to recall his human side. All in all, there's a lot happening here, but Herbert manages to tell his story briskly. The usual quotes at the beginning of each chapter are usually excerpts from Leto's Journal, and provide (as usual) interesting comments about society and politics. I really enjoyed this book. To get a better, simpler look at Frank Herbert's universe, this serves as a triumphant example.

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I really believe that Herbert himself found his voice in the second in the series & had cemented, by the time he penned this book, his worldview & personal religious beliefs. As a result, there is a good deal less "self-excorcism through writing" going on in this book, but a more forceful, commanding tone to it than the previous.

If a book is measured by how many perfect sentences are in it (the average book has one if you are lucky), this one is well above average. I have noted 4 or 5 truly magnificent sentences in this book (and I am only 3/4 of the way through).

His commentaries on bureaucracies & bureacrats, for example, are brilliant.

I would recommend giving this series a 600 page grace period... the payoff is huge. By the time you hit this book, you will be completely consumed.

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