CJ's Reviews > Children of Dune

I never expected to like this nearly as much as I did. Everyone who has read this series says it just gets crazier and crazier, and it totally does. But because of how much time we have spent in this world leading up to this third installment, I found even the most wild details fairly digestible. Sure, there were moments that I had to re-read because it was daunting, but it wasn’t nearly as intimidating as I expected.

In fact, I would argue that if you read Dune Messiah, then you need to read Children of Dune. Not only is it a story that calls back to the original in absolutely brilliant ways, but it also offers an ending that feels very cathartic for these first three books.

I loved how personal the conflicts were, and watching the world of Arrakis respond to a divide in the Atreides family. I did find the pacing to be rather slow in the first half, it essentially felt like more of what we had in Messiah. But once we got back to the desert in the second half, the dunes of Dune brought this story to life.