PG16- "Dune" series (v,slight x,b)
Known for his multiple award-winning series "Dune", Herbert has a way with epics and political intrigue. His strengths lie heavily in the direction of settings and balances of power, though he can sometimes create powerful main characters to hold your interest. His intricate plots help to hold the reader's attention when characters fail. On the whole, he is a pretty good writer in the style of the old scientist-masters but with a focus on politics and the behavior of humans on both the individual and aggregate levels. He also has a strong fascination with genetics as destiny.
Specifically, Herbert loves to present layers of meaning and understanding in his characters, such that each book should probably be read at least twice to get to any of its true depths. Also, the power struggles require concentration to follow, though they are incredibly rewarding. Whatever you do, read Dune before you watch the movie, or you will never keep up with the plot.
The most universally admired novel of Herbert's series is the first, Dune, which also contains some of the best philosophy and characterization. Paul Atreides is the only son of Duke Leto Atreides, Duke of the planet Calladan. Then Leto receives a high honor from the Emporer- to become Duke of Arrakis, also known as Dune, on which all spice was manufactured. The position is both infinitely dangerous and potentially rewarding. But treachery awaits on all sides, and the Baron Harkonnen, former controller of the planet, has an ancient enmity with the Atreides. He will not give up his source of power easily. And then there are the Fremen, the blue-eyed, secretive people of the deep desert on Dune. And the Bene Gesserit, the powerful order of women to whom Paul's mother Jessica belongs, who have plans of their own. Can Paul find a path through all of these plots to fulfill his destiny?
The story continues in the less powerful Dune Messiah. Paul marries the Emporer's surviving daughter, but Chani remains his concubine, like Jessica before her. The Fremen prepare the Jihad they are to unleash on the universe, and Paul consolidates his power as the prophet Maud'Dib. The only truly important part of this book is the beginning of the plot Paul and his heirs will have to face time and again: to be Kwisatz Haderach, one must be trapped in a future of one's own prescience, and one's own creation.
The Children of Dune follows the exploits of Paul's children, Leto II and Ghanima, twins born to Chani. Because Paul could not fulfill his destiny completely before he went into the desert, Leto and Ghanima must together work through the plots surrounding them to create the Golden Path, the future that will free mankind from prescience and some of its own destructive tendencies. This novel shifts disconcertingly between the perspectives of Leto, Ghanima, and their Aunt, the abomination Alia. Alia herself is slowly falling prey to what abomination really means, creating a new threat to the children. On top of that, a blind preacher appears from the desert, overturning much of Alia's work in the priesthood. Could he be Paul, back from the dead?
My personal favorite remains God Emporer of Dune. 4000 years after his great transformation, Leto is not only no longer human, he has become a god to the rest of the universe, especially the militant Fremen. But Arrakis is no longer desert, and the great worms have mostly died. The shortage of spice increases Leto's power until he controls almost everything- but not quite. The Ixians have a new invention, known as a no-room, in which things can be hidden from even Leto's omniscient sight. And they have a plan for the end of the world.... Also includes the new Duncan Idaho, cloned for the last 4000 years at Leto's request.
With the strange not-death of Emporer Leto, humanity burst from its artificial shell and spread all over the galaxy, far beyond anyone's ability to control them. In doing so, they have become strangers to the people of the old Empire, with customs and symbols all their own, including a new sisterhood to rival the Bene Gesserit, known as the Honoured Matres. The Matres have found a substitute for spice, and they control the men around them through sex.
Into this setting bursts Heretics of Dune, possibly the most complicated book in the series. Once again, there is a cloned Duncan Idaho under the conrol of the Bene Gesserit, but this one is a time bomb waiting to explode, while the old divisions within the Empire battle not only each other but also the new forces from the lost ones, the ones who left when Leto died. At the same time, a girl is found on Rakis who can talk to the Great Sandworms, the children of Leto. And Rakis itself becomes the center of a power struggle once again as it has returned to desert and produces spice for the Bene Gesserits. The Honoured Matres are fighting this upsurgence of power in their own way, more directly than the people of the Empire would. Plots within plots, wheels within wheels, this is a great book. My favorite character is the Bashar Miles Teg. Charged with the safety of a Bene Gesserit and the Idaho clone, he finds that the sudden demands of survival bring out the Atreides genes in him, creating some of the best scenes in the book.
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Last Updated: August 4, 1999
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