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Max McKinnon's Reviews > God Emperor of Dune
God Emperor of Dune (Dune #4)
by
by
** spoiler alert **
2024 May review: 3 stars
I liked it more than the first time. Definitely not as strong as the first few books but having lowered expectations as well as more reading for details and enjoyment the second time around I could more or less instantly get past many of dumb scenes and better appreciate the strong parts of the story.
One thing I didn’t pick up on the first time was the irony of how Leto II actually followed the golden path and people hated him in contrast with Paul who refused to follow that path giving up instead and people loved him. Especially ironic that the very people he created a guaranteed future for killed him.
One thing I also didn’t catch last time which confused me even more was how did Duncan so quickly turn from a forgettable older model into the lead protagonist. I may have missed something, but I assumed the difference between this Duncan and the others was what Hwi and Siona brought out in him?
Overall 3 stars in relative comparison to the originals as a standalone, however probably a necessary part of the epic.
The ending of learning the tour guides from the beginning were the descendants of Duncan and Siona was great, along with several cliffhangers: Ixian navigation machines now outclass Guild spice travel. Tleilaxu vats are more important than melange (I didn’t quite follow this one sentence cliff hanger, maybe related to something I missed earlier, are they producing a similar substance synthetically?)
———-
2022 May Review: 2 stars
I didn’t like this book.
Spoilers:
Unlike the first Dune which made some brilliant and subtle social commentary on religion and humans while being an incredible book, this book made some awfully dull armchair philosophy about females and homosexuals while being a book completely devoid of conflict, character development, and character motivations.
I mean, what the hell is “every soldier is a homosexual at heart”? I could read it as satire, but it isn’t well crafted satire like Dune and Dune Messiah’s satire on religion was. Yet another nagging issue is I don’t think it’s satire, especially considering the homosexual Baron and the implied connection to evil. This and other fucked up worldviews belabored about on and on really left a bad taste in my mouth for this side of Frank Herbert.
The first Dune’s social commentary was brilliant and subtle. God Emperor of Dune however made me feel concern for the author’s mental wellbeing.
Every other chapter having a dialogue about whether the giant worm has a giant penis was one of the more interesting deeper philosphical questions raised in this book. Hahahaha. At this point, the book can be read ironically as satire. A homophobic author can’t help but comment that the giant worm definitely doesn’t have a giant penis every other chapter. The psychological projection is palpable!!
Oh well, I guess the first Dune will always be absolutely incredible.
I’m assuming this book can be skipped. Hopefully the next one is better. All that happened was Leto bred humans to be unpredictable, he couldn’t predict they would kill him, and they killed him. Biblical! Except worse somehow.
The one redeeming scene was Leto killing Duncan in a rage then ordering yet another ghola of him to be made 🤣🤣
I liked it more than the first time. Definitely not as strong as the first few books but having lowered expectations as well as more reading for details and enjoyment the second time around I could more or less instantly get past many of dumb scenes and better appreciate the strong parts of the story.
One thing I didn’t pick up on the first time was the irony of how Leto II actually followed the golden path and people hated him in contrast with Paul who refused to follow that path giving up instead and people loved him. Especially ironic that the very people he created a guaranteed future for killed him.
One thing I also didn’t catch last time which confused me even more was how did Duncan so quickly turn from a forgettable older model into the lead protagonist. I may have missed something, but I assumed the difference between this Duncan and the others was what Hwi and Siona brought out in him?
Overall 3 stars in relative comparison to the originals as a standalone, however probably a necessary part of the epic.
The ending of learning the tour guides from the beginning were the descendants of Duncan and Siona was great, along with several cliffhangers: Ixian navigation machines now outclass Guild spice travel. Tleilaxu vats are more important than melange (I didn’t quite follow this one sentence cliff hanger, maybe related to something I missed earlier, are they producing a similar substance synthetically?)
———-
2022 May Review: 2 stars
I didn’t like this book.
Spoilers:
Unlike the first Dune which made some brilliant and subtle social commentary on religion and humans while being an incredible book, this book made some awfully dull armchair philosophy about females and homosexuals while being a book completely devoid of conflict, character development, and character motivations.
I mean, what the hell is “every soldier is a homosexual at heart”? I could read it as satire, but it isn’t well crafted satire like Dune and Dune Messiah’s satire on religion was. Yet another nagging issue is I don’t think it’s satire, especially considering the homosexual Baron and the implied connection to evil. This and other fucked up worldviews belabored about on and on really left a bad taste in my mouth for this side of Frank Herbert.
The first Dune’s social commentary was brilliant and subtle. God Emperor of Dune however made me feel concern for the author’s mental wellbeing.
Every other chapter having a dialogue about whether the giant worm has a giant penis was one of the more interesting deeper philosphical questions raised in this book. Hahahaha. At this point, the book can be read ironically as satire. A homophobic author can’t help but comment that the giant worm definitely doesn’t have a giant penis every other chapter. The psychological projection is palpable!!
Oh well, I guess the first Dune will always be absolutely incredible.
I’m assuming this book can be skipped. Hopefully the next one is better. All that happened was Leto bred humans to be unpredictable, he couldn’t predict they would kill him, and they killed him. Biblical! Except worse somehow.
The one redeeming scene was Leto killing Duncan in a rage then ordering yet another ghola of him to be made 🤣🤣
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Reading Progress
May 17, 2022
– Shelved as:
to-read
May 17, 2022
– Shelved
March 19, 2024
–
Started Reading
May 7, 2024
–
Finished Reading
