Tim's Reviews > Dune Messiah

I said in my review of Dune that one of the things I really appreciated was that it could be “viewed on so many different levels, from political, philosophical, scientific, or simply as a fantastic adventure novel... and it works so well, no matter which angle you look at it from, because Herbert treats each of them as equally important.” While writing the sequel, I think Herbert must have considered it and said something along the lines of, “Yeah, that was great… now let’s pretty much ignore everything that wasn’t philosophy.”

I exaggerate of course. Elements of those other aspects are still in place, but the story this time around is from people sitting at tables and discussing the existence of fate and ways to avoid prophesy rather than overthrowing evil barons. In fact, there are times where I felt that it hardly seems like a full novel, and more like a series of short scenes Herbert wrote, pat himself on the back over how clever they were and then decided to try to tie them all together.

Now some of you may be sitting there going, oh, I guess that means you didn’t like it then Tim? HA I say! The philosophy was what appealed to me the most of those aspects mentioned in Dune! I can read about people sitting at tables and talking for hours!

…

But yeah, I’d be lying if I said there weren’t a few parts where it got a bit old, and I wished for the descriptions of the desert, the plots within plots within plots… but by the end, I was satisfied as they were there all along, you just have to look closer to see them in play. In fact, by the end I realized that it was an extremely well developed novel, and that it was I who was at fault for not seeing the intricacies at play. Herbert demands your full attention to see what’s going on all around.

Which brings me to the thing Herbert does best in this novel; one of the big aspects of the Dune series thus far is that he gives you every main character’ thought process. There is no main POV character in each chapter, he will give you the thoughts of everyone, thus showing who thinks they are fooling who and who is actually fooled. He does this and he plays it fair the entire time, yet still manages to hide plot points in plain sight, and it is extremely well played.

The first book was a masterpiece in terms of world building, here that takes a backseat to prophesies and philosophy, but Herbert does manage to introduce at least one fascinating new aspect to his universe. The Face Dancers are introduced as assassins and shape shifters. One can walk into the room a pudgy male guard and leave as a small servant girl. They take contracts, but with a sense of honor and a condition; they must always leave the would be victim with an opportunity to escape. They need to know they are in danger and must be presented with an out. I find this new aspect fascinating and would have loved to see a bit more of a focus on them.

I want to close this review by briefly describing my favorite scene in the entire book; it is one of the scenes where people sit and talk at tables. An older Fremen discusses why he joined up in Paul’s campaign. It wasn’t glory or the spoils of war… it was because some of his friends described the sea, and he couldn’t believe it. He felt it must be a prank. He then goes on to describe it to a character who has been to many worlds and obviously seen the sea many times, but the character finds himself absorbed in the Fremen’s words and realizes that he’s experiencing this description in an unusual way, lost in the story and seeing it with new eyes… I couldn’t help but smile, as Herbert made me feel the same way. For a brief moment I forgot I was reading, and could hear this old voice telling me about the sea…

A well earned 4/5 stars, but with the notation for those who fell in love with the first novel that this is not a sweeping epic. This is a small chamber piece… just, you know, with giant sand worms.