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Michael Finocchiaro's Reviews > God Emperor of Dune
God Emperor of Dune (Dune #4)
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Michael Finocchiaro's review
bookshelves: sci-fi, fiction, american-20th-c, novels, series
Apr 24, 2018
bookshelves: sci-fi, fiction, american-20th-c, novels, series
[SPOILER ALERT: if you never read Children of Dune STOP NOW!]
Leto II is now the God Emperor after merging with the sandtrout and becoming a monstrous worm-man powered by melange. He rules the known universe with an iron fist - not unlike his Aunt Alya did actually - but this is of course because he is SAVING the human race from itself. He has an army of woman, the Fish Speakers, that carry out his bidding spreading terror and, still, peace across his vast domain. He has reigned for 3000+ years and sees the end nearing.
There is a lot of philosophy here and it is interesting. perhaps it gets a little slow. I know several people that get fed up with the Tleilaxu ghola of Duncan Idaho's appearance (and, yes, he is back in Heretics of Dune as well). But overall, it was a good read.
One thing I still don't understand - and perhaps someone more versant in the Dune universe will enlighten me - is what was the threat to humanity that the Golden Path was initiated to alleviate? Was it just infighting that he thought would exterminate the human race? If so, just enforcing a brutal 3500 year peace was just postponing the inevitable? Perhaps this will be revealed in Heretics or Chapterhouse.
Another puzzling thing was the tolerance of Ix. Apparently, in the distant past before Dune, the Butlerian Jihad was raged against "thinking" machines which resulted in a world with human computers (Mentats and Guild Navigators) and a formal universal proscription of computers. However, Leto II apparently allows Ix to wind up production again as he purchases machines for transcribing his thoughts among other things. I found it a bit frustrating not to understand more how the Ixians themselves.
I really love this series although I probably will not read the apocryphal 7 and 8 written after Frank died.
[UPDATE] I am looking forward to Denis Villeneuve's Dune in October 2021. The previews I have seen so far seem to be quite coherent with respect to the book. I was a fan of Lynch's Dune and am curious to see what Villeneuve does with this one. Feel free to comment below.
Fino's Dune Reviews
Dune
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
God Emperor of Dune
Heretics of Dune
Chapterhouse: Dune
Leto II is now the God Emperor after merging with the sandtrout and becoming a monstrous worm-man powered by melange. He rules the known universe with an iron fist - not unlike his Aunt Alya did actually - but this is of course because he is SAVING the human race from itself. He has an army of woman, the Fish Speakers, that carry out his bidding spreading terror and, still, peace across his vast domain. He has reigned for 3000+ years and sees the end nearing.
There is a lot of philosophy here and it is interesting. perhaps it gets a little slow. I know several people that get fed up with the Tleilaxu ghola of Duncan Idaho's appearance (and, yes, he is back in Heretics of Dune as well). But overall, it was a good read.
One thing I still don't understand - and perhaps someone more versant in the Dune universe will enlighten me - is what was the threat to humanity that the Golden Path was initiated to alleviate? Was it just infighting that he thought would exterminate the human race? If so, just enforcing a brutal 3500 year peace was just postponing the inevitable? Perhaps this will be revealed in Heretics or Chapterhouse.
Another puzzling thing was the tolerance of Ix. Apparently, in the distant past before Dune, the Butlerian Jihad was raged against "thinking" machines which resulted in a world with human computers (Mentats and Guild Navigators) and a formal universal proscription of computers. However, Leto II apparently allows Ix to wind up production again as he purchases machines for transcribing his thoughts among other things. I found it a bit frustrating not to understand more how the Ixians themselves.
I really love this series although I probably will not read the apocryphal 7 and 8 written after Frank died.
[UPDATE] I am looking forward to Denis Villeneuve's Dune in October 2021. The previews I have seen so far seem to be quite coherent with respect to the book. I was a fan of Lynch's Dune and am curious to see what Villeneuve does with this one. Feel free to comment below.
Fino's Dune Reviews
Dune
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
God Emperor of Dune
Heretics of Dune
Chapterhouse: Dune
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Reading Progress
November 28, 2016
– Shelved as:
to-read
November 28, 2016
– Shelved
April 20, 2018
–
Started Reading
April 25, 2018
– Shelved as:
sci-fi
April 25, 2018
– Shelved as:
fiction
April 25, 2018
– Shelved as:
american-20th-c
April 25, 2018
– Shelved as:
novels
April 25, 2018
– Shelved as:
series
April 25, 2018
–
Finished Reading
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There is just the homophobic stuff (in the book - the Harkonnens and the lack of any other sexuality in the Dune universe - and in his personal life
Hm. There is sex. It's just treated anthropologically and politically.And more in the 5th and 6th books (the weakest ones, alas).
I meant that the only sexuality that is presented in that universe (and the only “true� love) is strictly heterosexual.
It first the history of American sf pretty well, though.
Mid-century American sf was pretty deeply focused on heterosexuality. That started to crack with the New Wave of the 60s and 70s, but Herbert predates that movement.
Frank Herbert had a gay son, whom he never accepted.
Exactly, which was a totally d*ck thing to do and which scarred his other son (the writer) for life
Didn't know that about Herbert's personal life.
I just leaned that recently myself!
I believe the threat to humanity came from thinking machines that had survived the Jihad. and isolated on a remote world been developing, apparently they start a new persicution of humanity almost destroying mankind. the Golden path had allowed humanity to genetically diversify, to a point where some people were not visable to the thinking machines which allowed them to survive... its in this way basically that the golden path allowed mankind to survive as I have understood it anyway
[SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST THREE BOOKS]"Similarly, we are introduced to the Tleilaxu and their Face Dancers (Arya would have loved them!) and axlotl tanks (kind of gross as we learn in Heretics), but had they been there in the background during Dune and Dune Messiah? That isn't clear to me."
Have you actually read the first three books? The Tleilaxu are the source of twisted Mentats (Piter in Dune), are pivotal in the plot to bring down Paul via the Face Dancer Scytale and the Duncan Ghola in Dune Messiah, and Duncan is then a major part of Children of Dune!
Actually, yes I did and each was reviewed on GR. I stand corrected, I had forgotten these details I think once I delved deeper in the Dune universe with God Emperor and beyond. There is so much depth to all the books and there was not, to my recollection, a detailed description of the Tleilaxu early on compared to late in the series. I thought Scytale sounded familiar and now do recall him taking a large role in Dune Messiah.
You asked what was the threat.... It's basically the Terminator plot. Humans improve the "hunter-seeker" technology, those floating things that Harkonens used to attempt to assassinate Paul in the first book, Dune. The improved hunter-seekers do not need a human operator, and they are built to be self-improving both their form and programming. Eventually they become so good that their mission shifts to kill ALL humans. Leto (and Siona) saw this future of humanity, that they are being hunted and there is no place to run. And the last human is killed. The Golden Path is simply an alternative in which humanity never dies out. But it does not promise peace, prosperity, or anything like that. It is merely survival vs. becoming extinct.
Thanks Sanjay. But this threat is stated explicitly somewhere in the First 6? I suppose we can infer from the last book that something awful drove the Revered Matres back to the Old Empire (and kicked their beehive while doing so), but humanity in the First 6 doesn’t seem threatened by anything besides its own selfishness amd lust for power.
@Cyrus As for the spoiler comment, I assume that spoilers are what is to come and not what has already transpired
I think I have read or listened to all of them. I read the original series in my 30's and "re-read" them via audio CD. (The movie of Dune was pretty dreadful.) Then I started listening to the subsequent ones and also read how Herbert's son and colleague came to collaborate on reading the subsequent ones from Frank Herbert's massive notes and files.
I think it's more than that, Sanjay. The God Emperor tells Siona about his vision in the desert. The threat wasn't just technology. Unchallenged, too dependence on spice and a central authority (the imperium), humans would become complacent and cease developing. The resulting civilization would become vulnerable and die. Hence Leto's schemes: his position as apex predator, the creation of people invisible to prophecy, driving the development of methods and technologies independent of melange, etc.This theme of challenge and response is crucial to Herbert's vision. It occurs throughout the Dune books, but also in Dosadi and elsewhere.
My books are in storage now (grrrrr), so I can't retrieve a copy to tell more.
In one of the books by Herbert's son and co-author, some of the beni gesserits have stored "thinking machines" in a great hidden space and bring them out (to solve some problem--don't remember). There is a pretty good review of Dune in the New Yorker a few years back.
I think the threat was radiating from a) deeply unstable political system, b)a society too depended on spice c)overpopulation d) outside treat (other species & possibly also the treat of surviving thinking machines). The God emperor saw the scattering as the only solution to salvation of human race. As the series progresses, thing start to make more sense but I think we were left without a book that would explain it all nicely.
Great review and Nice to see another 5 star review of this, somewhat despised novel. I feel a reread of the series is overdue
@ivana I'd argue that Heretics of Dune actually does a good job of explaining more of the universe in Dune.
For one, I admire Herbert's willingness to experiment. He sets aside the action theme of previous books and allows time for a philosophical discussion.
For another, the Golden Path is revealed, which haunts all six books, really.