| Author: | Frank Herbert |
| Copyright: | 1981 |
| Date Reviewed: | 2/22/86 |
| Rating: | 6.0 |
Synopsis: It's been 3,000 years since Leto II and Ghanima, children of Paul Maud'dib Atreides, took control of Arrakis and the empire. Leto II chose the Golden Path which assures humankind's survive. But the choice was made at a terrible sacrifice. To ensure humanity, he had to give up his human form. Leto still lives but is more worm than man. He's 7 feet long and weighs several tons. Where his father was a prophet of God, Leto is God - or at least that's how he has set up his religion. With his prescient vision, enhanced seeing and hearing and a cache of illegal Ixian devices, Leto's powers are almost limitless. He rules the empire with a mighty force. There are no wars under his rule. The known galaxies are at peace but it's a very uneasy peace. The army Leto uses to maintain order is made of women called the Fish Speakers.
There have also been many changes to Arrakis - it can no longer be called Dune. The worms have all died out along with the desert. There is rain and vegetation all over the planet, except for a small area called the Sareer, which is home for Leto. As a pre-worm, the slightest moisture is painful to him. With no worms, there is no spice production. Leto has a great hoard (and virtually the only hoard) and he partials it out miserly every ten years. All come begging, especially Bene Gesserits who need the spice for their visions and the Spacing Guild who need is for their navigation.
Every few decades Leto has a new Duncan Idaho made for himself by the Bene Tleilax. The dirty Tleilaxu Face Dancers are adept at making human clones in their axlotl tanks. They can also change their creations but the one time they tried that, with a Duncan, they were severely punished. The Duncans are always put in command of the Fish Speakers and they usually end their life in a feeble attempt to assassinate Leto. Leto's new D1mcan seems more dissatisfied with the new way than the previous ones. Another close aid is Moneo, an Atreides descended from Ghanima and her Corinno husband Harq Farad'n. Moneo is the high court official - responsible for all court functions. His daughter, Siona, is a rebel. Siona would like to destroy the Worm.
In the course of the novel there are two plots against Leto. The first is by the Tleilaxu which takes the form of a blatant attack against Leto's convoy on their way to Onn, the festival city for the decennial celebrations. The attack is a failure and in retaliation the Tleilaxu ambassador is flogged. The second rebellion is more subtle. It's by the Ixians, the machine makers. Using Tleilaxian technology and a no-room that protects against Leto's prescient vision, they create a woman, Hwi Noree, bred for the sole purpose of charming an Atreides. It works on Leto who intends to make her his wife, and on Duncan who has an affair with her. But she does not destroy either one of them. The Ixians made their product better than they new.
In a test similar to the Gom Jabbar, Leto takes Siona out into the desert. For three days she travels without fastening the face mask on her stiltsuit until finally she's near death from thirst. Just before the end, Leto offers her water from his body, rich in the spice essence. The effect is not unlike the ritual of a new Bene Gesserit Mother and Siona sees the Golden Path. Unlike her father, the realization does not lessen her hatred for Leto.
Since coming to Arrakis, Leto has been trying to mate Duncan with Siona. After 3,000 years the Atreides is a very powerful line and the mating of this pair at this time will re-enforce it even more. Leto sends them to Tuono Village but neither intends to mate. All they wish is to destroy the God Emperor. They get their chance when Leto decides to hold the wedding in Tuono. While the precession is crossing a bridge, Siona and Duncan trick a loyal Fish Speaker into destroying the bridge with a laser gun. Hwi and Moneo are killed. Leto falls into the river and experiences the greatest agony ever known. He crawls up to an embankment but his sand trout skin is gone. Duncan and Siona watch as he dies.
Review: The first hundred pages or so of "God Emperor of Dune" was fantastic. It took this long to set up the story. The possibilities of a 3,000 year old worm God and a planet changed from desert to forest made me hope for some good reading. In the beginning I couldn't put the book down. Tired after several hours of reading I would read to the end of each chapter, peak at the next one and then recursively finish that. However around the third day of the festival the book ran out of plot. No more.
For the next 300 pages I suffered through chapter after chapter of religious philosophical thought. For the most part this took the form of Leto explaining to Duncan what it's like to be a God and why he set himself up as one. Then he would explain this to Moneo, to Hwi Noree, to Siona and back to Duncan. Boring does not begin to explain this well enough. It went beyond boring. I gave such a high rating only because the first quarter was so good and it took until the end of the second quarter to realize how bad it had become.
The real shame is that there could have been so much done with the story. We learn of the two plots against the emperor but these are hardly important to the main plot. It would have been interesting to learn the condition of the rest of the galaxy, the House Majors, CHOAM and the Guild but these were all glossed over. We also never learn about the history of Arrakis, since the Dune times. The transformation of the planet, the death of the worms, and the halting of spice production should all have been catastrophic events. The only purpose of the book seems to be to set the stage for Leto's death and that could have been predicted from the very beginning - he kept telling people what it would be like when he was gone (although the book ended with his death so we never see this). Once I started this campaign I will have to finish it. I will read the last book in the series "Chapter House: Dune" but I can almost plan on not enjoying it.