Jake Bishop's Reviews > God Emperor of Dune

I'm going to write two reviews for this book, they are both true.

God Emperor of Dune is a rambling mess and a waste of time. About half this book is people talking with Leto, and him just interrupting them with cryptic vaguely related questions which they don't really answer, so he interrupts them with yet another cryptic vaguely related open-ended question. The idea of the Golden Path is inherently compelling, and sometimes caused it to be page turning as I kept reading to try and find out more about it, but like it just kept feeling like it was spinning it's wheels as a concept, and the novel and Leto kept promising me answers and not delivering, which made it feel like it was thin, a veneer pretending at greater understanding. Also, Frank Herbert had some weird things going on in his head about gay people, everytime anything related to homosexuality comes up I prepare myself to absolutely cringe, and I needed that preperation every time. Aside from just being icky, it breaks the illusion that this is the words of some ancient being, or some author who really has humanity figured out and makes you wonder how much of this is just the nonsensical shower thought of some dude while he was high.

2.5/10


Second review:
God Emperor of Dune is the first Dune sequel that feels like it has truly escaped from under the shadow of Dune. Incredibly ambitious in scope, and worldbuilding, this is an extremely idea's-based novel that drops fire conversation after fire conversation. The Golden Path is presented in such an engaging way, giving us very little information without earning it, causing me to be constantly investigating, trying to put pieces together, which lead to a really engaging, nearly addicting read at time despite the very very slow plot. There are some weird lines that didn't age well, but that is overshadowed by a towering achievement of a novel that only Frank Herbert could have written.

9.1/10



I guess I will average them out and write 3 stars