God Emperor of Dune

 Last year I decided that I was going to read as much of a few classic sci-fi series as I could. In that time, I have been working my way through Frank Herbert's Dune series, Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, Arthur C. Clarke's Rama series, and the not-yet-classic series The Expanse by James S.A. Corey. So far, I have found Asimov's and Corey's series to be the most enjoyable. I quit Rama after Rama II, and I am officially throwing in the towel on Dune. I just finished God Emperor of Dune and I have taken as much as I care to from this series of novels.

I know that there is much more to go and there is at least one more book written by Herbert himself in the series before his son took over, but I have had enough of them. I won't say that I didn't enjoy the books, but they definitely become a slog. Actually, they are sort of always a slog. The narratives are not straight-forward and Herbert leaves the reader to figure out a lot of the details of backstory. I didn't intend to sit down to write about the whole series, so I will skip to this book.

God Emperor picks up several thousand years after the events of Children of Dune. For those who may not remember or who never intend to read these books, Leto II, Paul Atreides' son has turned a sandtrout skin into a still suit at the end of Children. The worm skin bonds with his own and in the intervening years Leto has pretty much turned into a giant worm with a human face. He retains his powers of prescience that were detailed in Children. Basically, all the cool stuff that made Paul Atriedes a bad ass in Dune are multiplied in Leto and combined with immortality and being a worm.

So it is now the next day and I am working on finishing this review. I just read the phrase, “Paul Atreides' son has turned a sandtrout skin into a still suit,” and realize now how bonkers that sounds. Here is what I find disheartening about this book – please forgive me, I am about to editorialize and probably will not make my way back to the actual plot – for all of the crazy stuff going on, this book is incredibly boring. Like Children, there is a lot of talking and plotting but very little action. At least in Dune there were knife fights and traps. Here, not so much. Leto talks a lot to a guy who keeps coming back as a clone from the first book. There are Fish Speakers and Face Dancers, and all kinds of other ill-defined groups.

Basically, I had to push my way through to the end of this. I think that for the right kind of reader, there is a way to immerse in this world and to invest in these characters. I didn't find them that compelling. It seems to me more that this book was an opportunity to write a divergent narrative in the same universe as Dune.

This, then, is the end of my attempts to read the Dune series and I am likewise bailing on this post.