Dune Messiah

Many say that anyone who likes Dune must read Dune Messiah, because it completes the story. I respectfully disagree. I enjoyed this book quite a lot, but after finishing it, I think I would have been completely satisfied leaving the original Dune story as it was.
The writing has a magic quality in that Herbert creates very complex and strange types of characters. Some are living computers, some have prescient senses, some have the consciousness of other people, there's body manipulation, gene manipulation and all manner of other weirdness, but it all makes intuitive sense somehow. This is evident in Dune, and he doubles down on that in Messiah.
But I did find some of that combersome on the plot. The Ghola Hayt is a perfect example of that: a type of robot mind programmed to think like a Mentat and given knowledge of a Philosopher, but the genes of Duncan Idaho and secret coding to override his brain. The character was a walking personality disorder, and though I liked his development, it felt like a bit much.
To me the plot itself was quite thin. When all was said and done, I felt that not much happened. Of course, I'd argue that similar can be said about the second half of Dune. The focus is more on the exploration of characters' minds and the world and people they interact with. And I thoroughly enjoyed that. I think I'm just too jaded on Great Man narratives to fall in love with Dune the way so many do. Maybe if I were younger.

One thing I did feel was much more evident in Messiah was the allusions to the birth of Islam and the role of Mohammed in Middle Eastern history. I'm sure many academic essays have been written on the topic, but that was very fun to think about while progressing through the story. Probably that was my favourite part of this book: meditating on what it means to form and run a government founded on a newly created religion; the leader both Prophet and Head of State. I think that stuff was brilliantly told.

In the end, I'd say Dune is a ground breaking coming of age story, emulated and retold countless times, while Messiah basically gears up the world for a large epic series. There are new characters, new systems of mental and technological wizardry, and an ending that feels less like a conclusion, and more like a preface for a much bigger story. If you liked Dune for what it was, you can stop there, but if you want to go all-in with Moadib and find out what comes of this universe, dive right in and enjoy!