Dune Messiah & Children Of Dune
Dune Chronicles #3-4
by Frank Herbert
SF
Dtb, 592 Pages
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Dune Messiah:
Paul Atreides’ downfall. The Jihad has been conveniently all wrapped up and the bureaucracy is starting it’s inevitable creep.
Paul has trapped himself by prescience and knowing the future destroys him.
He gives up, but I can’t blame him.
Children of Dune:
Leto and Ghanima are the main characters. Alia takes the predetermined path of the preborn. Leto takes the path of vision instead of prescience and sets up humanity for the Golden Path, whatever that is.
Fantastic! Instead of a simple messianic action story like Dune, we get a full fledged galactic spanning empire intrigue underpinned by arguments of free will and what it means to be human.
There were lots of monologues and dialogues that Herbert threw in that bored me to tears, or went completely over my head, or appeared to delve into completely pointless ethereal world views,
BUT, it was great nonetheless! I feel like I can learn a lot of what is going on inside Herberts head, and I always like a psychological twist to my reads.
Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road 
Thanks for doing the heavy lifting, BookStooge. These would have been too much for me, though I am still interested in the story.
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These reviews pale in comparison to my re-reads of recently. But I am firmly of the mind that Dune should be considered a standalone by all except the most ardent fans of Herbert.
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