God Emperor of Dune

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

★★★★★

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.