Dune Messiah

It was little dull compared to the first novel; not a lot of action but felt like more of a backstory for what's to come next. Or at least I hope so!

It was generally a good book, but honestly, I don't think I would've found this book as interesting if I wasn't already invested in Paul Muad'Dib and the rest of the Dune universe.

This book amazed me to the core. I read it and started to understand those unsatisfied reviews as the pace and action are different comparing to Dune. But than... I had a feeling that something on the back of my mind grasped the meaning of it all, but me as a whole is still in dark. It filled me up and left empty at the same time. Amazing.

J'ai eu beaucoup de mal à rentrer dans ce livre qui est très différent du premier et qui sert surtout à introduire le troisième tome. Une lecture nécessaire mais difficile.
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I had a lot of trouble getting into this book which is very different from the first one and which serves above all to introduce the third volume. A necessary but difficult reading.

Douze ans après les événements relatés dans le premier épisode du cycle de Dune, Paul “Muad'Dib” Atreides règne sur l'Imperium après un jihad qui a vu ses fidèles Fremens répandre sa religion à travers l'univers et abattre ses ennemis. Mais la fin approche pour le fils du duc Leto, une fin qu'il va précipiter. Ce deuxième épisode de la saga traite principalement deux thèmes : d'une part le pouvoir de prescience de Paul, ses limites et ses dangers ; d'autre part la religion comme pilier et outil d'un gouvernement. “Prenez garde au chaos de la démocratie”, s'exclame Alia, la propre soeur de l'Empereur !

Dune Messiah is the sequel of Frank Herbert's masterpiece, Dune. It takes place 12 years after the events of the first book.
Paul “Muad'Dib” Atreides is now the Emperor of the universe and religious figure to many. After taking this position, a Jihad in his name occur that claims the lives of billions of people. This leads Paul to question his role in all of this, after vision of the future presented to him.

Frank Herbet utilize this premise to develop one of the most important themes in all of Dune, distrust of power figures. During most of the book, Herbert deconstructs the image of Paul as the Messiah (something that was already tackled in the first book, but is given for more emphasis in this one), achieving an interesting development of his protagonist, which the reader can appreciate thanks to the omniscient prose of the author, giving us the chance of seeing the point of view of several characters in the same scene.

This makes the dialogue between them fundamental to appreciate these aspects. At the same time, it generates that the reader can follow the decisions of the characters being aware of their future consequences. This is helpful considering Dune Messiah focuses most of his time on conspiracies and different political and religious factions. Thanks to this, the already interesting universe of Dune is expanded even further, without mentioning the introduction of new concepts and characters.
Like the first novel, Dune Messiah develops its characters depending on what the story needs, which can make some secondary characters feel flat and even give them no closure in their arc. This is not always the case, but it's something that the first book also have. But Messiah still manages to develop interesting main characters with internal conflicts that are tied to the main themes of the novel even with this.

This is achieved with an excellent pacing in the first ¾ of the book, giving us time to observe and understand the different situations, while allowing the characters to reflect on their actions. But Dune Messiah betrays itself in the last stretch of the novel. The pacing in this portion of the book is accelerated, without allowing us to digest what is happening or giving time to scenes that should be far more important, both for the plot and for the characters. I think it could have benefited if this section had taken up more time, even if it caused it to extended the book.

In conclusion, Dune Messiah is a good sequel to Frank Herbert's first novel in this universe, although at times it feels more like a transition to the third book. With a very good development for its main characters such as Paul and others but that suffers in its secondary ones, without giving them time to shine. Messiah manages to immerse us in this interesting universe of political and religious conflicts.
As I said with the first one, I can't wait to read the next instalment (Children of Dune) in this great saga.

“Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague ritual."

This was by no means a bad book, and I give Dune Messiah credit for attempting to maintain its own identity, but perhaps it suffers from being a follow-up to the truly epic Dune.

Right off the bat I was intrigued at Herbert openly laying out the conspiracy against Emperor Paul, again giving readers multiple perspectives on both sides as individuals began to politically manoeuvre themselves amongst and against each other. This was in addition to a lot of discussion on philosophy, and pondering of leadership, governments and their costs. This was where I wish the book was actually longer, and made some more concrete statements or raised interesting discussions, as I instead watched the story go in an interesting but rather straight line.

"Eternity takes back its own. Our bodies stirred these waters briefly, danced with a certain intoxication before the love of life and self, dealt with a few strange ideas, then submitted to the instruments of Time."

Moreover, the lengthy conversations and Herbert's third-person omniscient writing style that constantly changes character viewpoint sometimes made events difficult to follow, and I was left wondering what true outcomes were achieved in individual scenes. I did enjoy some of the descriptive sections, and the varying epigraphs worked well in terms of framing, but most of all I found myself rocked by the ending. Keenly moving on to Children of Dune soon!

8/10 Loved it. Great conclusions and building the world. More like an extended epilogue for Dune. Onto Children of dune

A worthy sequel to the timeless Dune.

Brilliant story, but at times the mental calculations the characters were doing was difficult to follow. A great book, leaves me hungry for the third in the series.

Krajši, manj epski, in za mnoge slabši kot prvi del osnovne trilogije. A nedvomno ključno delo, ki odklepa pot do sklepnega dela in vpogled v vizijo Herbertovega vesolja s Peščenim planetov s središču.

I had tried reading this years ago and had a hard time with it - this time I read it in three days :) This sequel to Dune takes place not long after that seminal work, with Paul and Alia at the head of the new Imperium. I was surprised when reading this how tight Herbert's writing was. It was a quick read because Herbert didn't waste time on details that weren't germaine to the moment, which might put off some readers. If Kyle MacLachlan pops in your head when you think Paul Atreides, approach with caution. This Maud'Dib is a ruler, stuck with all of the problems and dilemmas a super powered emperor with a wife, mistress, and a back from the dead friend would expect to face.

I love Dune. According to Goodreads, I've read it five times - the last in 2013. After finishing its audiobook a few days ago, I couldn't figure out why I hadn't read the the rest of the series, and so picked up the audiobook for Dune Messiah - the second in the series.

I realized that I remembered the initial portions of the book, so I must have started it sometime in the past; but it quickly became clear why I had never finished this book, and hence never touched the rest of the series.

This book is pretentious, filled with flowery language for no reason other than to be decorative, and bogged down by a plot device that smothers all sense of excitement - the vision of the future that the protagonists possess. It's shocking how, towards the end of the book when Paul lets go of his future sense willingly, the book seems to come alive.

What this book lacks is everything that made the original great - world-building, real tension & conflict, a sense for the fantastical.

What a disappointment. :-(

Loved it.

Fantastic sequal.

No cabe duda que, en general, el universo de Dune es una obra extraordinaria; sin embargo, “El mesías de Dune” se queda un poco corta al compararlo con su magistral predecesora, sigue siendo muy buena a pesar de que en realidad no pasan muchas cosas.

La historia transcurre 12 años después, el inevitable Jihad de Muad'dib ha cobrado millones de vidas a lo largo del universo. Ahora los enemigos conspiran contra el Imperio conducidos por intereses económicos, políticos y religiosos.


Picture by Darkdux

That was an awesome sequel. The last time I enjoyed book 2 as much as this was the Ender series.

This one seems to more set the stage for the 3rd book than to be a great 2nd book in a trilogy. As much as I loved the first one, this one left me thinking it was half a book – and not the better half.

This one seems to more set the stage for the 3rd book than to be a great 2nd book in a trilogy. As much as I loved the first one, this one left me thinking it was half a book – and not the better half.

I don't have the best track record with this Dune universe, but I keep pressing on. Prior to this novel, my average rating for the series has been 2.75. (Granted this includes the Brian Herbert/Kevin J. Anderson Prelude to Dune which greatly drags this rating down.) Nevertheless, I'm not overly impressed with Dune, yet I keep going. My goal when I started was to make it to the fourth book of the original series, God Emperor of Dune. Why? For starters, four books should give me an adequate overview of the series. Primarily, I was told God Emperor... was likely to be my favorite. We'll see...

Dune reminds me a little too much of Star Wars. And get this, I hate Star Wars. Good versus evil in space, sword fights, patriarchal societies, blah blah blah—it's Dune, no it's Star Wars. I can't help but wonder if time is cyclical, if the future is Dune, the past is Star Wars and the two meet, making a never-ending loop. But Dune is better, right? I mean, for starters, Dune came first. In fact, George Lucas must've greatly borrowed from Dune, right? Secondly, Dune spends more time philosophizing and less time fighting. And third, sand worms! Jabba the Hut would be an appetizer for the sandworms of Dune.

But in this book there are no sandworms. Sorry to disappoint you, but Dune Messiah is disappointing. It reads more like an epilogue or supplement to the first novel. Not much happens until the end and even that didn't impress me. And did I mention there were no sandworms? What's the point?

I'm not sure when I'll get around to Children of Dune, but I do still intend to read it. You have two books with which to impress me, Mr. Herbert; at that point, if I'm still not impressed, I'm moving on. Now, show me what you've got.

Just like Matrix, the first one was great, and I could not see nothing that was lacking or could be improved in a continuation.

The writing is still great and the characters remain faithful to their personality. I stopped reading this book because I started to see some elements I don't like in stories, mostly VILLAIN recycling. If Paul defeated his enemies in the first book, why ALL of them (somewhat even the dead ones) are still a threat? For me this invalidates his greatness of the first book.

Maybe I'll be back to finish reading it (read just about 1/4), if I get some reassurance that it gets better, because I know by others opinions that the next book is awful.

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Continued to read the book. Very lame monotonous story, without a climax. You keep expecting something interesting to happen... it never does. The same prose is kept from the beginning to the end

Dune Messiah earns three stars today. However, I have a feeling that when I read it again (as I already plan to do), it will score much higher, as this book is the true denouement of the story of Paul Atreides, the first Kwisatz Hadarach.

I liked this a lot better on the third reading.