Children of Dune: A Review.

Having read Dune and Dune Messiah, books that challenged my imagination, I thought that this novel, a sequel of the two books, will be easier to understand. To my surprise, it was harder. The reason is that in this third installment of the Great Dune Series, Herbert not only recreated the world of Dune, but he also turned Dune's already profound system to a bewildering world of religion, politics and desert ecology.

At the end of Dune Messiah, the book which precedes this novel, Muad'Dib - the blind emperor left his palace and ventured into the vast desert bled. By doing this, he was considered dead according to Fremen tradition. His children, the twins Leto II and Ghanima, were then left under the care of Alia, his power-hungry sister, an abomination who is flogged by different personas in her memory... Arrakis, the dry desert planet, is now already becoming lucious and green with plants... Farad'n, the sole successor of House Corrino, is eager to regain their place in the universe... the religion Muad'Dib had created and left.. the Fremen... Melange. All these are key ingredients to the ever-evolving story of Dune which was presented in this magnificient work of Herbert's imagination.

Compared to other books that I have read, I was not able to easily turn its pages, this novel took a lot of my time and attention. It was very hard to fathom that there were times where I just had to put it down and read another book simply because I cannot understand the story anymore. So if you plan to read this book, I suggest that you do not, unless you have read the first two books of the Dune series.

And once again, what Frank had built in the beginning of the story, he destroyed at the end. Probably to pave a path for a new story line. Nonetheless, whatever the intentions of the author were, more of Dune's mysteries await to be unfold in the next novel, "God Emperor of Dune."

As for this novel's rating, I will just give it four stars out of five. Truth is, this book is a real keeper. In fact, I plan to read it again someday. So why not five? Because, I had a really hard time finishing the novel because of its twists and plots (but I wonder if its just me and my bad comprehension).

*As for the books of Frank's son, they are not as deep as the novels in the Dune Series. Moreover, there are a lot of incongruence in these "new novels." Despite of this, I still believe that they are entertaining though not as good as the books in the original series.

Dune Messiah: A Review.

According to the official website of Dune, the next book in the chronology, after the novel "Dune," is "Paul of Dune." However, unlike the original Dune novels that were written by Frank Herbert, "Paul of Dune" is a product of the minds of Brian Herbert (Frank's son) and Kevin Anderson. It was written and added to the Dune novels as an interquel between Dune and its original sequel, Dune Messiah. Consequentially, after reading Dune, I grabbed a copy of "Paul of Dune" right away. Still feeling the effects of Dune on me, I was so excited to flip the pages of the interquel and know the aftermath of Muad'dib's take over.

I was able to finish "Paul of Dune," however, I did not enjoy it. It was not good as it failed to meet my expectations. Being the "direct sequel" to a Sci-Fi masterpiece, I expected a lot from it. "Paul of Dune" is a bad continuation for it delved on the childhood of Paul instead of focusing on the aftermath of the Arrakeen War that brought Muad'dib to the pinnacle of his existence. The greater universe was also ignored, as well as the complexity of Muad'dib's rule and the intricacies of intergalactic politics. Moreover, it was nowhere near Frank's novels that are rich with information (I was able to read Children of Dune before writing this review). In my opinion, Paul of Dune is just a narrative of unnecessary events. It was that bad it made me skeptical to read Dune Messiah.

Going back to the review, Dune Messiah is about how Paul, now Padishah Emperor of the universe, dealt with the undercurrents and complexities of his intergalactic rule (which "Paul of Dune" was not able to portray). Like the first Dune book, I felt that a lot of things were happening at the same time so it was hard for me to follow the story line. However, since I plan not to skip any Dune Novel, I pushed myself to finish the book. Reading a Dune novel is like standing by the shore, each wave of events are so rich. And just like the waves, they go back to the sea to give you time to ponder and think about what had happened. Certainly, a tsunami of information, Dune books are always filled with jargon and Mesopotamian themed words and phrases; and these qualities had always given me a hard time. Yes, I do not understand what I read at first, but for the love of the book, I would read a chapter again if I have to. So by relying on context clues and re-reading, I eventually got a hold of what was happening.

"Dune Messiah" is not a thick book but it is as profound as "Dune." If you have not read the novel, prepare to wander Arrakis. A lot of things happened in this book - Fremen rebellion, plots against Muad'dib's life, religion, as well as important developments on the planet Arrakis.