Grațian
TL;DR
This book is better than Dune Messiah, still not as good as Dune but far more interesing that the last. It's more action packed. There's no point reading this one if you haven't read the last two and if you did you already know if you want to keep reading the series or not. If you finished Dune Messiah and are on the fence about continuing I'd say give this one a go because you will enjoy it more.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
X - Main Story: A lot more happens here than in the previous entry so that's a nice change, more action with Alia and Paul's children. But it's not as interesting as the first book either.
✓ - Side Stories (if it applies): There are quite a lot of side stories, the main one with Leto II is probably the worse and most boring which is sad. The best one is Alia's by far. Every chapter with Alia was great.
✓ - Characters: Thankfully Jessica returns here, doesn't have a super important role but she is my favorite character so it's nice to see her again. The stars of the show are Paul's children, specially Ghanima. Sad she didn't get more time and her brother took up the majority of the book. The rest are great as always, Harrah, Stilgar...but of course the black sheep Duncan Idaho is still here...sigh.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: Arrakis is always a nice place to be in, the desert planet is just amazing.
✓ - Ending: Not a spectacular ending but I think this concludes Paul's story along with the rest of the characters in the Dune series quite nicely, for me this is where the story stops. I don't have any intention of going forward after reading God Emperor of Dune. To me Dune is about Paul, Jessica, Stilgar and the Fremen battling againsts the Harkonens to free Arrakis. What happens in the next books doesn't interest me.
Extensive Review
We're focused on the children of Paul and they're great, specially Ghanima. I don't like that Leto II gets so much of the story instead of her sister who is in my opinion more interesting than him. Jessica and Gourney make a return which was a great addition so just because of that this book is way more interesting than Dune Messiah.
Having read the fourth book is just so baffling to me how little importance every character and story up to this point will be going forth. This isn't a spoiler but the fourth book happens three-thousand and five hundred years in the future so everything up until now won't matter at all. In my opinion you should stop reading after this book because it gets a nice conclusion and it has a satisfying ending.
Tangent aside, I think this was a well written book and I enjoyed it. The story of Alia and her dark passenger let's call it was amazing, definitely the highlight of this book. I loved every chapter that had Alia in it. And as much as I love Jessica, the fact that she abandoned Alia during Dune Messiah is just horrible, stuff could have gotten so much better but I guess it wasn't meant to be.
TL;DR
This book is better than Dune Messiah, still not as good as Dune but far more interesing that the last. It's more action packed. There's no point reading this one if you haven't read the last two and if you did you already know if you want to keep reading the series or not. If you finished Dune Messiah and are on the fence about continuing I'd say give this one a go because you will enjoy it more.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
X - Main Story: A lot more happens here than in the previous entry so that's a nice change, more action with Alia and Paul's children. But it's not as interesting as the first book either.
✓ - Side Stories (if it applies): There are quite a lot of side stories, the main one with Leto II is probably the worse and most boring which is sad. The best one is Alia's by far. Every chapter with Alia was great.
✓ - Characters: Thankfully Jessica returns here, doesn't have a super important role but she is my favorite character so it's nice to see her again. The stars of the show are Paul's children, specially Ghanima. Sad she didn't get more time and her brother took up the majority of the book. The rest are great as always, Harrah, Stilgar...but of course the black sheep Duncan Idaho is still here...sigh.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: Arrakis is always a nice place to be in, the desert planet is just amazing.
✓ - Ending: Not a spectacular ending but I think this concludes Paul's story along with the rest of the characters in the Dune series quite nicely, for me this is where the story stops. I don't have any intention of going forward after reading God Emperor of Dune. To me Dune is about Paul, Jessica, Stilgar and the Fremen battling againsts the Harkonens to free Arrakis. What happens in the next books doesn't interest me.
Extensive Review
We're focused on the children of Paul and they're great, specially Ghanima. I don't like that Leto II gets so much of the story instead of her sister who is in my opinion more interesting than him. Jessica and Gourney make a return which was a great addition so just because of that this book is way more interesting than Dune Messiah.
Having read the fourth book is just so baffling to me how little importance every character and story up to this point will be going forth. This isn't a spoiler but the fourth book happens three-thousand and five hundred years in the future so everything up until now won't matter at all. In my opinion you should stop reading after this book because it gets a nice conclusion and it has a satisfying ending.
Tangent aside, I think this was a well written book and I enjoyed it. The story of Alia and her dark passenger let's call it was amazing, definitely the highlight of this book. I loved every chapter that had Alia in it. And as much as I love Jessica, the fact that she abandoned Alia during Dune Messiah is just horrible, stuff could have gotten so much better but I guess it wasn't meant to be.