Vanessa's Reviews > Children of Dune

There are two schools of thought on the Dune series. One is that they are epic, revelatory scifi all the way through, one is that after the glorious first book you traverse a lonely, winding path of diminishing returns in the sequels. I'm going to throw in with the latter group. Herbert created a fascinating, fully realized universe with Dune, and it was a joy to dive back into it: the Fremen, the litany against fear, the melange, the Atreides Battle Language. The point of Herbert's whole series is the inevitable corruption of power in the institutions of government and faith. There's never a happy ending, or never one that lasts from one book to the next.

While I loved the immersive nature of Herbert's world, and appreciated the thoughts behind it, this book is a bit of a grind. There are chapters full of conversations that are so difficult to follow. The two main characters are Paul Atreides' deeply weird young twins who are pre-born, thus they have the memories of hundreds or thousands of ancestors (one accepts a large amount of mystical shenanigans when reading Dune.) They are not very likable, or dislikable. They are just. There. Talking. So. Much. Many characters from the first book show up, and I was glad to see them as a reader, but I just wasn't invested in much of anything. I loved the atmosphere, but if a giant sandworm would have eaten the Atreides twins 100 pages in, I would have been very much not sad.

The plot picks up a few years after the last book. Paul's sister Alia is running a corrupted version of the cult of Muad'Dib on Arrakis. She's also been possessed by the inner ghost of Baron Harkonnen (there's those mystical shenanigans again!), and as a result is also in the only storyline I found very interesting. Jessica has been living off-world for some time, but returns to Arrakis on a mysterious mission from the Bene Gesserit. The twins are weird and make everyone uncomfortable, and Leto II has this plan for the future called The Golden Path which he will simultaneously not shut up about while never explaining what in the Hell it is. And there is a plot by the Corrino's to get back in power. So much plotting in this book, and so many conversations about plotting and thinking about plotting and counter-plotting. It was hard at times to figure out exactly what the purpose of some of the schemes were, other than to exist. Honestly, it probably didn't help that I would occasionally find myself zoned out mid-paragraph.

Am I too stupid to get this book? Yes, that is completely possible. The philosophical ideas are sometimes interesting and Herbert's world is so immersive I don't feel right giving this less than 3 stars. In between the inner and outer monologues, I really enjoyed the further world-building. I can't even say whether I recommend it or not. If you can't get enough Dune (and I wouldn't blame you if you couldn't), you can continue with this book, but you may not feel the magic of the original.

Having read a synopsis of God Emperor, I'm not sure I'll ever tackle that one. Leto babbling about his stupid Golden Path for several millenia. I think the point of this series' later volumes may be that Gods are boring af.

ETA: Got a shouty complaint that there were spoilers in this review with no specifics. I don't see any except a throwaway comment about book #4 and anyone who is trifling gets deleted. Come correct or don't bother.