Customer Reviews

Children of Dune

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I first read DUNE close to 40 years ago. When my son asked about it, I got him this 3 volume set for Christmas. A sweeping science fiction adventure that will keep you turning the pages. Truly memorable, even 40 years later. Highly recommended.

I can see how someone can get confused reading some of the reviews here. Some people love the politics and discussion of religion that dominates this book. Others are simply galled at the trudgingly slow plotline. I'll admit that after watching the plot grind slower and slower in the last book, Dune Messiah, I was looking for something that resembled Dune (book 1) in pacing. I didn't find it. After a few hundred pages I was so disgusted with the book that I put it down and shelved it.

But wait, there's more. After more than a year, I picked the book up again and resumed reading it. At first, I was a little lost in all the names and foreign sounding words I hadn't bothered to remember. After a while, without the expectation of the action from the first book, I came to appreciate that this is a richly written, if slow at times, great story.
My advice is to read this book even if you get bored with it. It has a great ending that segues nicely into the next books. This is the main reason I am glad I finished Children of Dune, the next installments of the Dune series were fantastic (good action too), more than rivalling the original one. Read Children of Dune (even if you don't like it) for the rest of the series which you will like no matter whether you like this or not.

This book is way better than the second book, but it still does not fulfill the expectations left from the first book. Leto and his sister "spoils of war" are growing up and dealing with all the political intrigue and double crossing that Dune readers are familiar with. I really liked Alia befor this book, but Herbert ruined her here. This whole book screams "man strong, woman weak!" It almost seems as if Herbert writes himself into a hole and has to dig himself out. This book like the second lacks the vision of the original. It was interesting though and is not a waste of time. Recommended to those whom really want more Dune.

This one was alright...By this time, you must be a fan to sit through Dune Messiah as it was kinda slow.

If you're used to the science fiction pumped out by no-name hacks today, feast you eyes upon the Dune series. It is a blend of sci-fi and fantasy that is almost unique in its field (the only other of such caliber being Piers Anthony's Apprentice Adept series). A must read series.

This the third book in the Dune series I felt was kind of a depressing end to the story line of Paul and his imediate family. The first book in the series really does outshine the next two in its scope and thoroughness. You can really tell Frank Herbert was trying to extend his Arrakis roots with the way he hints to previous events before the time of the first novel and so forth.
All in all, its an ok read. It is worth it just to finish out the plotline established in the first book.

This series is the best in all scifi. It puts Tolkien to shame a hundred times over. The plots are complicated, but actually MAKE SENSE!!!!!! Tolkien on the other hand seemed convinced to only write one series, so he wrote LOTR, but put in mindless information about everyones lineage that should have been turned into a prequel, and not included. But this tells us what we need to know, and that's it.

I can see how someone can get confused reading some of the reviews here. Some people love the politics and discussion of religion that dominates this book. Others are simply galled at the trudgingly slow plotline. I'll admit that after watching the plot grind slower and slower in the last book, Dune Messiah, I was looking for something that resembled Dune (book 1) in pacing. I didn't find it. After a few hundred pages I was so disenheartened with the book that I put it down and stopped reading it.
But wait, there's more. After more than a year, I picked the book up again and resumed reading it. At first, I was a little lost in all the names and foreign sounding words I hadn't bothered to remember. After a while, without the expectation of the action from the first book, I came to appreciate that this is a richly written, if slow at times, great story.
My advice is to read this book even if you get bored with it. It has a great ending that segues nicely into the next books. This is the main reason I am glad I finished Children of Dune, the next installments of the Dune series were fantastic (good action too), more than rivalling the original one. Read Children of Dune (even if you don't like it) for the rest of the series which you will like no matter whether you like this or not.

'cause this book is a 'slammer.' Small font on over 400 pages, with plenty of Herbert's amazing writing and philosophical wanderings. More over, it advances the story much further than Messiah did. Many people who've read this and have reviewed it claim that the end of this book is either confusing or too weird. But they fail to see Herbert's use of symbolism with t he Golden Path and the philosophical journey that path represents. Herbert is more of a prophet than a lunatic, in my opinion.

Yours,
R. R.

As other reviewers have mentioned, this book just gets weirder and weirder until the end. Oh how I wish Herbert had not written this book, for it gives me a lesser opinion of his work. Dune was such an amazingly great book, but the sequels, Dune Messiah (and to a greater extent) this book are very disatisfactory.
I have vowed to myself not to read any more Dune books because, after reading this book, I am convinced Herbert's universe will get more and more convoluted and bizarre until finally a stuffed donkey will possess Maud'Dib's dead body to set in motion a chain of events eventually leading to a three-way marriage between the Lady Jessica, Stilgar, and a 200-meter sandworm.