Children of Dune

So many political power plays, definitely rereading.

wild

Dang this shit went downhill fast

Third part of the sci fi saga and the first to deviate from following Paul Atriedes as the primary character while expanding the universe to his twin children and beyond. Following multiple story lines but focused on Paul's "pre born" twins and sister, we're faced with plots to maintain and/or seize the throne. Destiny, morality, fate, religion, power and politics dominate leaving prose and sometime plot in its dust. Hit and miss space adventure that is just weird enough to keep you engaged until the quick paced conclusion.

"Children of Dune" struggles with its ambitious premise of a character who knows everything. The plot is incoherent, presenting confusing vignettes instead of a coherent story. Leto, the main character, is particularly problematic, with his vague visions and inexplicable decisions.

The book is hard to follow, with unclear character motivations and unexplained concepts. The Preacher subplot feels predictable and unnecessary. While the world remains interesting, the constant use of Arabic and Islamic references can be tiresome.

Despite Herbert's good writing style, the book is disappointing. It's necessary to read for series continuity, but it's not enjoyable.

this one took years…… but it was good!! My attention went in and out a lot during this one even though so much was happening all the time I couldn’t get super invested!!! There are some kick ass moments though and the this-skin-is-not-my-skin thing is probably one of the most insane sells I’ve ever seen attempted and I know it’s about to carry on for at leastttttt another 400 pages in the next book and I can’t wait

Imagine reading this book in 1976, reading THAT ending, and then hearing the title of the next book in the series. What the fuck Frank

Het blijft een erwarrende goede serie. Ik heb ondertussen het idee dat de boeken voor mij hetzelfde lezen. Aan het begin is het allemaal vaag met allemaal geplot( a feint within a feint within a feint) wat allemaal moeilijk te volgen is soms. Om vervolgens heel snel te gaan, en heel open te eindigen. Ik ben nu wel benieuwd naar het vierde boek dus ik ga snel door.

Parts of this book make me so upset it’ll never make it into the movies. Other parts make me so relieved it won’t

Doesn't have the same mysterious allure of the first one, but solid intrigue and characters. Sounds like this is where shit starts to get weird.

I would have liked to give this a 4.5 but it certainly isn't as strong as Dune and Dune Messiah. While it is an almost perfect third book to round off this trilogy, I struggled with the insane amount of internal monologue in this book. I'm not sure if it was just me, but I found myself struggling at times. Additionally, it was rough getting past the first 20 pages. I admittedly had to restart after a hiatus when I couldn't make it past page 20 or so. As the book progressed, I found myself caught in Herbert's world. And by the time I made it to the end, I was excited to read God Emperor of Dune while ordering it online.

wild, bizarre, ruthless. familial and planetary drama, the best kind. a philosophical mind fuck. what a ride. i’m intrigued to see how the coming political changes unfold and affect the whole.

also (slight spoiler?) not that she’s the most critical character but i just realized there was zero mention of what happens to irulan in the final chapters lol. i assume she’s doing just fine.

Family drama, but it's really, really sad.

This was really though to get through. Where I really enjoyed the first book (despite it’s issues), and still quite enjoyed the second, here things just got weird en complex to the point where the characters needed to be way more engaging then they actually were. There is so much stilted dialogue that I progressively lost more and more interest until I fully gave up. It’s a real pity, but this is the end of the series for me in terms of attempting to read it 🙈

Children of Dune was published in 1976, ten years after Dune and just six after Dune Messiah. By publishing Children of Dune Frank Herbert proved there was still more to tell regarding the House Atreides saga. I am not quite sure the story ever succeeds the original tale but Herbert does pick up the pieces left by Dune Messiah and creates a tale of inter-generational drama and ecological strife. With our hero Paul having been cast blind into the desert at the conclusion of Dune Messiah, Children of Dune opens roughly a decade later with Paul's sister Alia on the throne and caring for Paul and Chani’s twins, Leto II and Ghanima. Fearing she is an abomination due to the ghost of Baron Harkonnen living inside of her, Alia’s psychological stability takes blow after blow, a fact not helped by the re-emergence of Paul’s mother, the Benne-Gesserit Lady Jessica, at court. Meanwhile, Arrakis terraforming continues rapidly, and the desert is being reclaimed, the planet greener by the day. Leto, realizing the threat this represents to the sandworms, goes into the desert in an attempt to save the spice producing beasts, leaving his family behind in the process. Topping all of this, House Corinno once again plots to retake the throne, nobody knowing how the chaos in the works will turn out in the end. And there is man in the desert they call the Preacher, who might just be Paul. Can Leto save the house of Atreides? Is the preacher his father? The initial trilogy of novels (Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune) showcases Paul's rise of power and his failures and philosophical paradoxes. In Children of Dune the failures are reflected in the politics on Arrakis. Much of Children of Dune’s plot centers on Leto II and Ghanima and their struggles to survive in the politically and religiously tumultuous situation on Arrakis as a result of the actions of their father and aunt and the novel is better for it. I especially found Leto II to be an interesting character as he was burdened with the task of trying to bring peace and account for the sins of his ancestors. Many reviewers have claimed they didn't care for the fantasy aspects of this novel but I disagree. Prescience, soul-reading, pre-destination, shapeshifting, spice, possession (as in, by spirits) make the story mythical and fascinating. I'm not as interested in shifting alliances and a history lesson per se. For example, while I enjoy the politics and world-building of Star Wars, that isn't primarily what I'm interested in. It's the Force that compels me. The same holds true for the universe of Dune. And while it might seem convenient to have Leto gain superhuman strength and near-invulnerability similar to the way his father once had, I personally enjoyed it. I'm down with being able to see the future by fusing with sandtrout! So why just 3 starts? Children of Dune is a more compelling story than Dune Messiah. I just can't get pass the plot holes and the jagged dialogue on politics and religion. Better than Dune Messiah, but only in that it is more ambitious, with a more cohesive plot, and some interesting passages.

no. no no. i wanted to push through this and be done with it, but i could only reach the 60% mark. i prefer to eat bricks than force myself to finish this. the pacing is terrible. the plot... what's the plot? seriously. this might be one of the most tedious books i've ever (tried to) read. every event gets so twisted and ridiculously complex, for no reason at all, that i can't tell what's going on anymore or what the characters are talking about. i know some people make this very same criticism of dune, but i truly didn't felt it there nor in dune messiah. those two are genuinely great books for me, and i think the first one is a masterpiece. a story was being told, there was a purpose, a reason why those books existed. but children of dune lacks even that... god it's awful. i don't know if the author ever made a comment about this, but i refuse to believe this was a book planned from the beginning. children of dune is a clumsy attempt to keep the series going. the book is unnecessarily long. frank herbert should've stopped writing. why did no one tell him to just stop writing. why wasn't this book more edited. did no one notice how repetitive the prose was, how absurdly empty some chapters were? readers don't need to be reminded of basic concepts concerning the world when it has been set up and assimilated for 2 books already. if i have to read again why the melange is fundamental for the commerce and power in this universe i'm going to scream. this book is made of unnatural and over the top dialogues and philosophical, weird monologues. these and the pretentious writing already existed in the previous books, but paul's psyche, personality and overall his character arc made it interesting enough for me. which takes me to my next point. paul atreides had personality, inner conflicts, and numerous flaws. he was what a main character should be, the backbone and essence of dune. he still is even if he's "not present" anymore and the main cast is now different; paul is present in every element that makes up this universe. paul was so good, and that's why it's so obvious how poorly constructed and developed are almost all characters in this book. leto and ghanima atreides can't be more bland. they don't have personalities when, funnily enough, their main conflict is to fight against the thousands of inner voices and personalities of ancestors that are inside them and want to take control of their bodies. good look to them trying to be dominant when they're so inconsistent and have 0 charisma. dune not only declines quality-wise regarding the plot and storytelling, it suffers in the character work section as well. to add the cherry on top, the concept of 'abomination' was applied to the twins, leto and ghanima, in ways that i felt very uncomfortable with. i already had my issues when this was first presented with alia in dune messiah when she was a teenager, but here it was something else. i just think that the concept of a full-adult mind on a child's body is weird WHEN you insist so much on them having sexual thoughts and conversations focused on this kind of intimacy. leto and ghanima are, physically, 9 years-old; mentally, they say they're always the oldest people in the room. they have vivid memories of past lives and events that took place thousands of years ago. they are incredibly smart, well-spoken, and have better abstract-thinking skills than many of the adults. but somehow... this element always gets a weird turn when they talk to adults (or between them) about sex, about how they might have the appearence of children but they know everything about sexual intercourse. they even say this to their own grandmother, and that there is no secret in what she did with their grandfather when they were alone... what the FUCK. i can't be the only one creeped out by this. even the characters i already loved (alia, jessica, duncan, stilgar, halleck) couldn't save this for me and some of them were done very dirty, especially alia atreides. she was the main reason i wanted to continue dune even if paul wasn't the focus of the story anymore. i'm so disappointed at how she was written here. i felt disconnected from all of them, i didn't feel anything. this is why i'm dropping this series. i should have been happy after finishing dune messiah, but i was curious enough to want to see what was going to happen next. what a mistake. i will treasure my good memories of the first two books (which i still love, with all their flaws) and i'll pretend this one never got published. (view spoiler)[i decided to go on and spoil myself the end of the book and the twins get married. leto and ghanima get MARRIED to preserve the atreides line. but don't worry, they don't have kids. ghanima's consort is farad'n and he is the actual father of the kids, not her twin. i'm literally screaming at this. also i don't know what the hell does it mean that leto turns into a fucking worm-like creature with superpowers and supernatural longevity and i don't want to know good luck to you all. (hide spoiler)]

Eventful family drama continues. There wasn't a moment that I might call boring. Lots of annotations have been made and I can't wait to pick up the next s̶e̶a̶s̶o̶n̶ book.

I’m tapping out. These books have gotten worse and worse. I’d like to retain good memories of Dune.

Although Dune Messiah (Dune #2) wasn't one of my favorites, this one was much more interesting. The way the Atreides family evolves and works its way into the Dune planet went in some unexpected and interesting ways. The interesting parts for this one though, took a while to come out.

Bapbalaca boyları var... "Dune" seriyasının universitetlərdə tədris edilməli olduğunu düşünürəm. Seriyanın bu kitabı bol adrenalinli, bol fəlsəfəli və kifayət qədər axıcı olması ilə diqqət çəkir. Kitabı oxuduqdan sonra ağlınızda bir sual yaranacaq: "Görəsən, dördüncü kitabda nələr baş verəcək?!"

Plotting, counterplotting, scheming, conspiring, political maneuvering, tigers!

”I’m Leto, the child of Paul Muad’Dib. If you slay me, you and your people will sink into the sand. If you spare me, I’ll lead you to greatness.” This book cements my love for Dune. Truly a well-deserved classic. Atreides drama is my new obsession and I am an absolute sucker for following the rise and fall of a hero. And Leto. My god Leto. I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about this series, but it’s a difficult one to do a proper review for if it were my habit to do proper reviews. You can read and appreciate this series on multiple layers. Character, environment, philosophy — it’s all here. I truly believe Dune offers something for everyone and rewards in ways not many series can from rereads.

Children of Dune is perhaps my most anticipated read in the Dune series, as I really loved the Children of Dune TV mini series adaptation. And honestly, there is something about reading the source materials, nuances and layers that an adaptation cannot convey. I think I fell even more in love with the twin-relationship between Leto II and Ghanima here, and I really liked in the adapation (view spoiler)[though I definitely prefer how Alia played out in the TV mini series compared with the book (hide spoiler)].