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Journal FortKnox's Journal: Children of Dune (Spoilers) 13

Journal by FortKnox
I finished reading "Children of Dune" last weekend. I am going to explain it complete with spoilers. If you haven't read it, its good, so stop reading this and go read it.

Honestly, I thought Dune was superb, Dune Messiah was dull and boring, but Children of Dune went back to the winning formula. I loved it!
It goes back into politics and corruption and everything. He took my favorite character (Alia), and successfully and believably made her evil. The brought back the evil Baron again, who is just as wicked as I remember through her. They gave the whole 'abomination fear' the Bene Geserits have real meaning.

The only thing I found a bit fruity was the 'sand trout stillsuite.' I may not read the next one, because I hear it gets a bit weird with Leto transforming slowy into whatever he is going to become and such. I have a few other books I want to read, but eventually I will go back and read the rest of the Dunes.

I just wanted to say I really enjoyed Children of Dune... about as much as I enjoyed the original Dune. So if anyone got bored with Dune Messiah, it is worth getting through so you can read Children.
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Children of Dune (Spoilers)

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  • #4 is very different. My view is that the first three are a trilogy, the fourth a singleton, and the fifth and sixth another series. If you go into the fourth with low expectations of continuity, it is enjoyable enough. Five and six are pretty good, but the first four books are fairly remote history by that point (as are the first three in the fourth book).
  • Seriously!

    In my opinion it's the best of the six (I refuse to even consider the abominations that got released after Frank Herbert's death). It has a deep philosophical analysis of the model of the Saviour, an analysis that was only hinted to in the past three books.

    The only annoying thing might be that Frank Herbert does not explicitly explain what "the golden path" is, I think there's probably a very simple explanation spanning a sentence, and it is essential to understand what is happening.

    I agree

    • My understanding is that the Golden Path is the scattering of humanity into all the parallel universes to escape the God Emperor. This ensures that humanity can never diappear.
      • :-) This is exactly what I mean... This is one way of seeing things but I'd rather not spoil it for our friends who have not read the book. Your assessment is valid, however, but if you read the book from the point of view of Leto, whose father locked humanity in a messiah-led path, you might reach another conclusion...
      • Not so much "parallel universes", but certainly the "Golden Path" involved scattering humanity to ensure its survival in some unnamed coming conflict or invasion.

        (Spoiler-ish stuff follows...)

        Chapterhouse Dune hinted repeatedly that the Honoured Matres were fleeing some even more dangerous foe; the Scattering was meant to strengthen humanity to face this foe. The Scattering was thus a major part of the Golden Path.

        For that matter, in God-Emperor of Dune, Leto II also says that he doesn't like havin

        • Aaargh. Brainfart:

          Not so much "parallel universes", but certainly...

          I meant to say "...but certainly 'distant galaxies'. The Golden Path...".

          Cheers,

          Ethelred

        • I read all of the ones written by his son, and while they were not Frank Herbert quality, he did try to somewhat stay in the same ballpark with plots and stuff. The "House" trilogy was ok, gave you a little insight to some things, like Vladimir Harkonen's physical condition, and why Duncan was the way he was. The main thing I hated with the Machine Crusades series was he would tell the various main character's stories for 3-4 chapters, and then go "Now 1 year later..." and tell a few chapters, and then ju
  • First off, you're 20 years late, n00b =)

    God Emperor (GEOD) is a good book on its own. You'll need to read it if you want to go on to Heretics and Chapterhouse, otherwise you won't understand half of the stuff in there. Specifically the importance of the Golden Path, the role the Tleilaxu have in future developments and the Duncan ghola thing.

    Seriously, this is good reading. You know what they say - give it 50 pages at least before you make a decision not to follow through with a book. If you enjoyed Ch

  • I may not read the next one, because I hear it gets a bit weird

    My advice is to read on. I enjoyed God Emperor, as much as I enjoyed Children. Chapterhouse is just plain strange, and was hugely disappointing. If you stop reading after the first five, you won't be missing much. But God Emperor and Heretics are both worth reading.

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