Holy hell what a strangely compelling but verbose and nonsense filled book. This guy writes in a way that makes you feel like you're reading some philosophical and human truths but at the same time you're questioning whether these characters are just speaking nonsense. I think that's the allure though. These internal musings and monologues spark profound introspection, you don't get too bogged down in them having to make perfect sense, they are imprinting on you anyway.
Very frustrating characters, very contrived personal conflict in many ways. You're jumping up and down screaming at these fuckers to just talk to each other. But he does a decent job having everyone believably wall each other off due to the immense stakes of the massive, galaxy wide implications of the mind games and political manoeuvrings going on in this book.
We once again get characters who are wise beyond their years due to some spice magic fuckery. While it felt like you were on the journey to grapple with this with Paul in Dune, Ghanima and Leto feel alien, they were born this way, you haven't been with them long enough to empathise like you could with Paul. You watch their plan unfold as a largely uninformed observer. I suppose this puts you somewhat in the position of everyone else who is manipulated by Leto and Ghanima. As the reader, you get infinitely more detail about what they're up to than those in universe and you still can't make heads or tails of it.
I was a little disappointed with Leto and Pauls reunion. You build up in your head that this will be the clash between their philosophies. They they'll have some sort of satisfying war of words and one will be convinced or won over. Leto doesn't seem to give Paul the respect necessary for this to be a thing though. It's like Paul is just another pawn to use on his golden path. I guess Herbert had already so reduced Paul by this point it wouldn't make sense for his input to have too much bearing on Leto's actions.
Alia was moustache twirling evil in this book. Irrational, emotional, rage filled. Very frustrating to read her make every situation worse for both her and the empire. You can believably chalk it up to her condition though. Herbert's focus clearly wasn't on fleshing her out maybe up until her final scene where some of her true self may have fought through.
I'm left wondering why I'm agreeing with Leto's actions. He's seen the Golden Path, anything is justified to avoid the alternatives, we're told. He certainly believes it, but then again, so do most megalomaniacal despots. If we had a figure like this, would we trust he knew the way? I suppose it might help if he had worm armour, could toss busses around and run really fast.
All in all, loved the book. It had me fully captured almost the whole time. I was one of those who was satisfied with Dune and who was put off reading on by the mixed reviews you see online. I picked up Messiah eventually and then Children of Dune years later. I'm glad I did, i'll read on.
by coolurjetz