Review: God Emperor of Dune

The God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert is the fourth novel in the Dune series. It follows on from Children of Dune, in which Paul Atreides' son Leto II, takes up the responsibility of the Golden Path. A prescient vision of the future, in which great sacrifices and decisions must be made over the span of thousands of years so that humanity can be saved from extinction. This novel reveals the latter period of Leto II's reign as the tyrannical God Emperor, whose long life is made possible because of his binding with the sand trout at the end of the preceding book. 

I made two attempts to read this novel. The first was nearly a year ago, at which time I only read about a third of the story. I honestly found it boring and tedious to read. But a few weeks ago I decided to continue from where I left off. This time I found the story easier to engage with. By the time I had read approximately half of the book I was hooked. 

The further into the story I went, the more I appreciated the various journal entries between chapters, and the philosophical insights from Leto II during his many conversations. The insights were crafted by Frank Herbert decades ago, but they seem relevant for today. For a work of fiction it sometimes seems prophetic. 

One of my favourite quotes is, "What do such machines really do? They increase the number of things we can do without thinking. Things we do without thinking - there's the real danger." 

It's easy to extrude something pithy sounding from that quote and project it onto the technological struggles of today. With a little imagination I can see how our careless and reflexive use of the internet might seem related. As useful as the internet can be, it's when we use it without thought, intent or focus that we run into problems. 

Eventually this novel became a real page-turner, but it took a long time getting there. It is not as accessible as the first two books in the series. Instead it feels a little more challenging, similar to Children of Dune. But if you made it through the preceding books in the series and you want to see how things continue, then I would recommend reading God Emperor of Dune. Just be patient with it. 

Final score: 3.5 / 5