Frank Herbert

Leto II, God Emperor of Dune, trades his humanity for immortality and, as the magnificent sandworm of Dune, desperately attempts to save humankind

God Emperor of Dune

The Fourth Dune Novel

Stavros Kosmas

The insect has no more freedom from its hive than we have freedom from our past

I died defending Paul and his mother in a cave sietch beneath the sands of Dune. I have been returned to that planet but Dune is no more. Now it is only Arrakis.

Book Four in the Magnificent Dune Chronicles--the Bestselling Science Fiction Adventure of All Time Millennia have passed on Arrakis, and the once-desert planet is green with life. Leto Atreides, the son of the world's savior, the Emperor Paul Muad'Dib, is still alive but far from human. To preserve humanity's future, he sacrificed his own by merging with a sandworm, granting him near immortality as God Emperor of Dune for the past thirty-five hundred years. Leto's rule is not a benevolent one. His transformation has made not only his appearance but his morality inhuman. A rebellion, led by Siona, a member of the Atreides family, has risen to oppose the despot's rule. But Siona is unaware that Leto's vision of a Golden Path for humanity requires her to fulfill a destiny she never wanted--or could possibly conceive....

Holly 

this is where the series fell off, it's so far removed from all the other books by being set thousands of years later. 

Lukas

Really appreciate Duncan's character development and how he questioned everything.

Susan

I stalled out in the middle a bit bc it’s heavy and almost entirely abt faith, but I liked that it was a thinker!!! The end made me piss and die why did all that happen I was white knuckling the book by that point

Bailee Strong

Eindelijk uit! Het boek voelt anders aan dan de vorige drie maar nogsteeds heel goed.  En meer ga ik er ook niet over zeggen ivm spoilers.

Bart Veldhuijsen 

ai meu deus do céu sabe???!!! o que foi esse livro??!! meio que não consegue manter o nível que é o primeiro livro de duna — mas também né! aquilo é uma obra prima! —, mas biruta de um jeito bem birutado. é até tranquilo de seguir a história depois de termos lido três livros inteiros de maluquice.

mas, para quem (assim como eu) tem MUITO apego com os personagens da primeira trilogia, esse livro é sentir saudades do que éramos antes toda vez que viramos uma página :( :(

voltem para mim paul, chani, alia 3

Quinn Tenorio

I am only now writing the review of this a couple months after reading and I am curious as to my original star rating of 4. I believe its closer to 4.5 out of 5 but not entirely a 5. Or maybe it should be a 5? That is my struggle with this book. In essence, this book so heavily leans into philosophy and very abstract concepts which is a departure from the previous three. Despite my lack of excitement for philosophy and abstraction, I truly enjoyed this almost as much as I did with the original Dune. At times it is certainly slow and it's easy to lose sight of where the story goes, but something about it just feels right after the previous three; it's almost like a reprieve.

So, the star rating will stay at 4 today, but ask me on other days and I would likely tell you it is a 4.5 or a 5 depending on my mood. It's certainly a favorite and something I will have to return to after a second read.

crg bsly

Not as intriguing as the previous books in the series (especially the first), but still a fascinating read

Felicia Souza

Chock full of profundity. Unconditional love for the Dune series.

This is a longer review than I would normally write, but I do think I will reread this book in the future and I am curious how well my thoughts will hold up after a slower reread. 

I'm glad I read God Emperor. I think it's a must read if you read Children of Dune, but at least in this moment, I think it is my least favorite of the Dune books so far. 

- Worldbuilding. The jump 3000 years into the future made me nervous, but I thought it was done very well. I really enjoyed getting to learn about all of the complex and nuanced changes that had happened in Herbert's world in that time. You don't often get to look at sci-fi or fantasy worlds across such a broad span of time, and it was fascinating. 

[I particularly enjoyed that I got to experience the world alongside Duncan, who like the reader has just come from the Arrakis of the past] 

- As everyone else says, this book is jam packed with philisophic gems; it's not Dune without it. In particular, it inspired a lot of complex reflections on humanity. 

- I really enjoyed the format that Herbert used to tell this story. It is very dialogue heavy, which may disappoint people looking for more action, but I think it worked really well for the story. I always felt like the book had an identifiable plot and progression, even without a ton of action scenes. 

- Getting to learn more about the Ixians and just generally getting a broader look at the politics of this world beyond Arrakis was really cool. 

- Lots of really weird/bad takes on gender and sexuality, and female characters that just weren't written that well. Dune was always a little problematic in this arena, but this was the first time that it actively interfered with my enjoyment of the story. 

- Herbert's characters have always been very complex and morally gray, but in past books I found the characters compelling anyway. I wanted to root for them even when I shouldn't; I did not feel that same connection to the characters in this book. This was the most disappointing difference for me. 

- I've seen other people say that Herbert tends to "tell" the readers things instead of "showing" them. I disagreed in past books, but several times while reading this book I felt like I was expected to accept things explicitly because Herbert said that they were that way. 

particularly with the relationship between Hwi and Leto and Hwi and Duncan, like oh this bond is so deep because she was made to "please Atreides" idk, I wasn't convinced

I will eventually read the last two Dune books written by Frank Herbert, but I do feel like I need a break after this one. 

Bethany Jenkins

This is a longer review than I would normally write, but I do think I will reread this book in the future and I am curious how well my thoughts will hold up after a slower reread. 

I'm glad I read God Emperor. I think it's a must read if you read Children of Dune, but at least in this moment, I think it is my least favorite of the Dune books so far. 

These are my thoughts for now:

The Good:
- Worldbuilding. The jump 3000 years into the future made me nervous, but I thought it was done very well. I really enjoyed getting to learn about all of the complex and nuanced changes that had happened in Herbert's world in that time. You don't often get to look at sci-fi or fantasy worlds across such a broad span of time, and it was fascinating. SPOILER [I particularly enjoyed that I got to experience the world alongside Duncan, who like the reader has just come from the Arrakis of the past] 
- As everyone else says, this book is jam packed with philisophic gems; it's not Dune without it. In particular, it inspired a lot of complex reflections on humanity. 
- I really enjoyed the format that Herbert used to tell this story. It is very dialogue heavy, which may disappoint people looking for more action, but I think it worked really well for the story. I always felt like the book had an identifiable plot and progression, even without a ton of action scenes. 
- Getting to learn more about the Ixians and just generally getting a broader look at the politics of this world beyond Arrakis was really cool. 

The Bad:
- Lots of really weird/bad takes on gender and sexuality, and female characters that just weren't written that well. Dune was always a little problematic in this arena, but this was the first time that it actively interfered with my enjoyment of the story. 
- Herbert's characters have always been very complex and morally gray, but in past books I found the characters compelling anyway. I wanted to root for them even when I shouldn't; I did not feel that same connection to the characters in this book. This was the most disappointing difference for me. 
- I've seen other people say that Herbert tends to "tell" the readers things instead of "showing" them. I disagreed in past books, but several times while reading this book I felt like I was expected to accept things explicitly because Herbert said that they were that way. SPOILER [particularly with the relationship between Hwi and Leto and Hwi and Duncan, like oh this bond is so deep because she was made to "please Atreides" idk, I wasn't convinced]
- I just wanted more from the ending. 

I will eventually read the last two Dune books written by Frank Herbert, but I do feel like I need a break after this one. 

It's certainly more "philosophical" than the previous books. It reminded me of Citadele (The Wisdom of the Sands) that i've read ages ago. It's full of quotable ideas of a tyrant about how to rule.

It's also highly cautionary tale and it puts previous books into a perspective. At beginning of Dune house Atreides might almost seem like the good guys in world full of tyrants. But when you get to this book you will see things very differently.

iskrisis

It's certainly more "philosophical" than the previous books. It reminded me of Citadele (The Wisdom of the Sands) that i've read ages ago. It's full of quotable ideas of a tyrant about how to rule.

It's also highly cautionary tale and it puts previous books into a perspective. At beginning of Dune house Atreides might almost seem like the good guys in world full of tyrants. But when you get to this book you will see things very differently.

Brianna

edit: 4.5 stars instead of 3.5. (I need to stop lowballing my initial ratings for Dune books, they always linger in my mind and change my world. The continuations also consistently make the previous better.)
• • •
“It is difficult to live in the present, pointless to live in the future and impossible to live in the past.”
• • •
“Enemies strengthen you. Allies weaken.” 

The weirdest and hardest Dune book to rate for me to date. It focuses on my favorite character, God Emperor and creepy ass sandworm hybrid Leto II, but it’s also my least favorite of the books so far. It feels like a bridge novel for the second part of the series and the heaviest of the philosophical musings one comes to expect from Herbert. It’s also the slowest up until the end with a predictable (albeit satisfying) climax. While I don’t dislike it by any means I also did not click with it the same as the previous installments and the outdated thoughts on some things was kinda disappointing if I’m being honest.

For use in schools and libraries only. Leto II, God Emperor of Dune, trades his humanity for immortality and, as the magnificent sandworm of Dune, desperately attempts to save mankind.

Fraser Simons

Once again a straight forward plot with an interesting idea that makes up the equivalent of a twist, kind of? Philosophical components and some dialogue interactions are the most interesting elements. The actual plot is deceptively simple for the page length. Not that much actually happens. It’s there to further the things being explored. But so far the second book did both much more masterfully than any of the others, in my opinion.

The problem with these notions being explored is that, while very interesting, their foundation shows distress in modern times. So many sociological components are outdated and when it demonstrates this, one wonders what else is prone to collapse. An army of bi/lesbian warriors without a voice. 

Queerness as a cultural component is completely misunderstood and miscontextualized. It doesn’t feel like this could possibly be the future in any real sense because the only firm things it holds in its grasp is philosophy. Meanwhile for thousands of years people take drugs and have orgies and the most powerful weapon is a lasgun. And they display no awareness whatever of gender roles beyond the role ascribed by the empire. 

As people, they lack compelling aspects. As cogs working to propel the plot and the exploration, they’re nearly perfect. But how much value is that when without this withholding of selfhood? Something great always deters this fiction from complete enjoyment, immersion, and ‘greatness’, for lack of a better term.

Iris

The epic that began with the HUGO and NEBULA Award-winning classic DUNE continues ... More than three thousand years have passed since the first events recorded in DUNE. Only one link survives with those tumultuous times: the grotesque figure of Leto Atreides, son of the prophet Paul Muad'Dib, and now the virtually immortal God Emperor of Dune. He alone understands the future, and he knows with a terrible certainty that the evolution of his race is at an end unless he can breed new qualities into his species. But to achieve his final victory, Leto Atreides must also bring about his own downfall ...

Adam

The 4th book in the Dune series was my 2nd favorite so far. The 3rd book build on House Atreides in an unexpected way, veering away from Maud Dib to another darker path. This book takes that darker path and runs with it.

God Emperor of Dune

Reviews

Highlights