Author: Frank Herbert
Genre: Science Fiction
Age: Upper high school and up.
Topics for discussion: forms of government, abuse of power
Summary: This is second book in the
Dune
saga. Paul is now Emperor. His jihad has raged over the
entire universe, but now, even the Fremin are tired of fighting his
war, leading to unrest on Arakis yet again. On top of this, the
Spacing Guild, the Bene Gezerit, and the former emperor's daughter
(Paul's political wife) have joined forces in a plot against Paul.
Review: The first time I started reading this, I had to put it
down. The beginning was a disappointment after the high drama at
the end of the first book. The second time I read it, I realized
that this one also begins with a plot against Paul, which gives a sense
of unity and continuity that I didn't notice when I read less
critically. However, when I finally sat down and read the whole
thing, I was still kind of glad that I hadn't read it when I was
younger. Paul had been the perfect hero in my mind as I read the
first book, but none of his idealism has survived into his reign as
emperor. We see Paul as a flawed man now, one who has been a
victim of his fate rather than master of it. Instead of being
able to use his position of power to accomplish the idealistic goals of
his youth, it has boxed him in, forcing him to consider and reconsider
political ramifications before acting. While this is all very
realistic, it is a bit of a disappointment, and it wasn't until I
understood what all this was leading to that I was able to accept it;
Paul must fall in order to regain control, and he can only fall if he
has a tragic flaw. (Okay, so I'm getting a bit literary on you,
but that's how these things work if they are well written.)
Multimedia: After the success of the first film, the Scifi channel
ventured to make a sequel, but in doing it, they chose to combine the
second and third volumes of the Dune series. As in the case of
the other book, I saw this film before reading Dune Messiah, and I can
now confidently say that I think they made the right choice.
Sequel books seem to suffer from the same curse as second movies--they
are either poorly written in a hurry or contain such a grand plot that
it can't be covered in just one book/movie. The latter is true in
this case. Herbert obviously was pretty confident with his
characters and story line at this point and quite apparently had a lot
more to write about them. This second book ends just at the point
where you want to keep reading, suffering from the
end-that-leaves-you-hanging syndrome. (If you have ever read The
Two Towers, you know what I'm talking about.) Fortunately, the
Scifi movie does not end there, continuing on with The Children of Dune
to give the viewer a better sense of closure. (Note: the movie is
simply called The Children of Dune, but it really does contain the full
two novels.)
Christian Perspective: The issues here are pretty similar to those in
Dune.
Religion plays a greater role in this book, but I don't feel it is
portrayed in a very positive light. Paul's following has become a
religious one rather than a military one and has also managed to take
on a life of its own. It might be an interesting study to see how
religions begin to stray from their original teachings. Again, I
don't feel that there is anything particularly objectionable about this
book, but at the same time, I would expect only mature, advanced
readers to even attempt it.