This book is interesting, but it’s also pretty weird
Frank Herbert basically throws out everything that made the earlier books feel like traditional sci-fi and replaces it with philosophy lectures, power monologues, and a giant immortal worm-god who will not shut up. Leto II is fascinating,terrifying, intelligent, tragic, but also exhausting. Whole chapters feel like you’re trapped in a room with someone who’s read every book ever written and desperately wants you to know it. That said, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The ideas stick. The scale is insane. Herbert is clearly playing a long game here, and even when I was confused or mildly annoyed, I was still impressed.
This is the point in the series where Dune stops being about politics and war and fully commits to being about time, stagnation, control, and humanity’s self-destructive tendencies. Sometimes it works brilliantly. Sometimes it feels indulgent. There were moments I missed the tension and character dynamics of the earlier books, but I also get why this book exists. It’s bold. It’s uncomfortable. It’s doing something very few sci-fi novels even attempt.
Overall: I’m glad I read it. I didn’t love it, but I respect it. Definitely the strangest entry so far, but not in a way that feels pointless. I’m pushing through to finish the series. I’ve got too many other books on my list calling my name, and I’m ready to move on to new worlds.
If you need encouragement, the next two books return a bit to normal (still some unhinged things here and there, but narratively get closer to pre-god emperor), and they are back to back without a full change of characters nor time jumps between the last 2
The next 2 books are also (and I mean this in a good way) HORNY AS HELL
Futar, kiss chin.
*pulls up my chair dog* is this what you meant?
That's a good summary.
I read this 50 years ago, so I had to look up her name- but my teenaged self found the relationship between Leto II and Hwi Noree moving.
I love God Emperor of Dune. The next two books are great, as well.
I loved GEoD because it contains the line "We will be worm and wife!" Having also recently finished it for the first time it's probably my second favourite of the series so far with Dune as my top pick
God Emperor is the first Dune book that I loved. The first has excellent worldbuilding, and the series is conceptually great in its subversion of power fantasy and messiah stories, but the fourth book is the first time that Herbert’s writing craft felt up to the job of conveying those ideas.
I absolutely loved God Emperor, I’d say it’s my favorite other than the first. I hated Heretics and Chapterhouse personally, so I wouldn’t recommend. I think God Emperor is the perfect bookend of the series, being the end of the Golden Path set up in the first book.
The book in my opinion is the most emotional of all the Dunes (though still far from a tearjerker). I love the discussions of power, politics, religion, myth, humanity, etc. Personally I thought it was a breeze, it’s one of the shorter books in the series and I powered through it pretty quick just based on the strength of the premise alone.
If you think it’s weird in God Emperor, just wait until the last two. It’s not weird in a good way. I love weird. The last two books are just wacky and incredibly horny. So many eye rolling lines like “36 orgasmic interstices” or whatever, I can’t even remember but it just got dumb. I’ve been a huge fan of Dune since I was 12 and I’ve read the first book multiple times, but only read the whole series through once. I would recommend stopping now if you don’t have a high tolerance for extremely bizarre world building and a very obviously horny old man writing about mind sex.
Interesting, though, how the impact of the worm emperor isn't really explored until the next two books. Forgot the exact context, but there is a moving scene where of the main characters--Miles Teg, probably--sees a humble village, remarks on how quaint it is, then asks if there are many places like that, then is shocked to learn that is all there is--nearly all of the god emperor's domain is exactly like that.
For sure the next two books explore the impact but I also feel like the hypothetical impact could be intuited from God Emperor as well. I’m more than fine with exploring the impact as long as it’s done well but in my opinion it wasn’t. Not every part of a universe needs to be thoroughly explored. I enjoy leaving some mystery. There’s some cool concepts for sure in the last two books but overall they were a massive slog.
Thematically I felt that God Emperor was the perfect ending, it had a harmony that I enjoyed - the inhuman monster is undone by his last shred of humanity, the Golden Path is completed and the human race has evolved a genetic hatred of tyrants, the myth of the messiah and the pitfalls of authoritarianism have been thoroughly explored…what else is there to say? The last two books don’t really evolve a message like the first four. It’s just kind of like space adventures and political maneuvering in the Dune setting. I feel like a well written epilogue attached to God Emperor could’ve achieved a similar result.
The golden path isn't finished though, thats actually a huge theme in Heretics. Despite Leto being dead for thousands of years he is still manipulating events through prophecy. Its why mother superior Taraza tricks the Honored Matres into nuking Arrakis
Yeah that reminded me of Cambodia, pretty chilling.
I accidentally read the goddamn emperor book 1st, and then that made me wanna go back and read the other ones. I thought that it was better written because he had gotten to be a better writer overtime.
It’s a uniquely long view of history. I hope we get a movie someday.
GEoD is probably my least enjoyable, along with Messiah. I was drawn to Dune for its frenetic plot pacing along with the subtext, whereas the 2 I mentioned really slow down a bit much for my liking. Not to say they don't have incredible merit.
Maybe step back from the series before finishing it, OP. Going into Heretics and Chapterhouse with a renewed interest will serve you. Heretics is my favorite!
Agree with you here. GEOD is probably the most "important" book in the series, in that it establishes a clear "before" and "after" for humankind. Looking back it's evident the first 3 books are all building up to the events in GEOD, and the story of the remaining 2 books play out in the shadow of Leto II reign (albeit thousands of years later). However the pacing of the book is very slow and its quite dense, I had to reread several chapters to make sure I fully comprehended some of the dialogue
Heritics is also my favorite FYI. So much action, so many new concepts, everything dialed up to 10. Miles Teg
Hell yeah ... Heretics
Taking a breather between books was the best decision i made with this series - came back to Heretics with fresh eyes and actually enjoyed the shift in tone way more than I would've if I'd powered through.
Yeah, this is the book where Dune gets WEIRD. You either embrace the madness or stop, haha. It’s a helluva last 3 books.
A word of warning: don't, under any circumstances, read any books not authored by Frank Herbert himself.
The books that Brian Herbert and Keith Anderson wrote are really bad. Especially the ones that "extend" the story past Chapterhouse Dune. Wherever Frank Herbert had in mind to take the story, I can't believe it was anything like that.
🫡
Maybe it's just me, but I lost interest after Dune. I felt the whole story had been told, or at least what I wanted to be told. And the last line ties up things nicely.
"History will call us wives."
What is your interpretation of that line? It always struck me but I never felt I had a good grasp of it.
That time and history are the real judges of people and their relationship with the world, not the current thoughts of the day.
Also that Chani and Jessica truly loved Paul, not Irulan. For Paul, it was a marriage of political convenience, nothing more.
I wish that line was in the movie!
It was in one of the deleted scenes.
I was rather proud of this post and I hope it sparks joy for you https://www.reddit.com/r/dunememes/comments/1mpo14t/scoring_the_main_characters_of_god_emperor_of/
Side note: the dune memes subreddit is mostly God Emperor jokes lol
Couldn’t finish it. Maybe someday I will, but not in the near future
This is where you stop. It’s a great ending.
The other 2 are weird as fuck and ends on a cliffhanger.
I read that book 40 years ago, and still remember that it's hundreds of boring pages about 3 days in the life of the god emperor.
I think GEoD will stall the film franchise . It's a good book but I don't see how they'd film it. The next two would make great films, though.
God emp is i think my favorate book. Its a kind if utopian apolocalypse l. Its clockwork leading the eminveitible conclusion but its not a conclusion its the bwginning of it all
This one was weird and completely different in feel to the previous books, but that was what I enjoyed about it. I should read it again as an old man and see if I get more out of it.
The fact that it's so weird is why it's such a memorable book. I appreciate Frank for going all in on this idea, weird as it is. Definitely a slog, but so is Messiah. It's the true end of the series, the rest is tacked on.
To me God Emperor is the towering best entry in the series. I did not find it exhausting, but I did think it made the other books look like junkfood for 20-somethings in contrast.
To me it's a Top 3 SciFi work of all time, and the book that follows it is a waste of time. Dropped the series 250pgs into Heretics. God Emperor was the payoff. All that follows is a return to convention.
Probably the most frequently reread on my list. Herbert really nailed a character that truly exists outside time and space, good and Evil. He is both Hitler and Ghandi, alpha and omega.
Messiah headed a bit in this direction too.
My condolences.
This is where I stopped reading the series. Loved Dune, Dune Messiah has always been my favorite of the books, Children of Dune I liked a lot when I was in my early teens but later found I liked less and less, and God: emperor of Dune I just found to be tedious. Stopped reading the series at that point.
That was something like 40 years ago though, so maybe I should give it another chance.
You literally stopped right before the payoff books. Frank Herbert put all the hard stuff in the first four books and then he has a lot of fun with it in the last two.
Builds the universe, creates a long history, sets the stakes and has a play with it.
And then the characters escape.
I'm not mad I pushed through the series up to God Emperor, but it was a grind.
I don't think Leto II came off as intelligent. He had one point to make and bludgeoned everyone to death with it. The only way to appreciate the rambling, repetitive speeches that made up almost the entirety of the book is with the knowledge that Leto's lost his mind to obsession - but it makes for a dull read. Especially when it's all been done before, and better, in the original.
All the sequels, including this one, left me with the feeling that Herbert said everything interesting he had to say in the first book.
Well, after the first book, he ran out of real world history to crib from:
https://bookblast.org/blog/the-sabres-of-paradise-the-book-that-inspired-frank-herberts-dune-spotlight/
I didn't make it to God Emperor because of how increasingly boring each book after the first was becoming. I loved the first so much because it was adventurous and action packed, and in all the sequels that's basically all out the window. It's, as you said, just being locked in rooms with people talking.
the ending wall climbing scene and the sexist army repulsed me and broke any feeling that this empire was built on logic and not just accidental power by being the first to fulfill the “terrible purpose”
That's kind of the point. Leto II is a monster and clearly emotionally stunted. We are not suppose to like him and even support him. We are meant to come away questioning authority, especially religions authorities or those who claim to be fulfilling a greater purpose.
beyond the worm, the portrayal of a woman’s reaction to a man climbing a wall is a weird climax in many senses of the word
More importantly, rhe Worm doesn't care what we care about. Boring, humans, simply boring.