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Summary: In service to Secher Nibw (the Golden Path).....
Review: ....one must be willing to give up one's humanity: that is the God Emperor Leto's path as well, and we are left wondering about the multi-levelled brutality of his choice.Herbert worked as a reporter, and it shows in the precision and compactness of his diction. He wrote dozens of novels and stories, and that shows up in the depth of his characterizations and the almost Shakespearian neatness of each scene. On that level the book is entertaining, witty, clever, alluring, and thoughtful. It is also a novel of poignant moments. As Leto reviews his lost humanity and thrashes about, his fanatical Fish Speaker guards overhear him. "The Lord is troubled tonight," one comments. The other replies, "The problems of this universe would trouble anyone." Leto overhears them, and weeps. His justifications for an all-female army to the macho Duncan are priceless, if rather biological, and the scene with the Tleilaxu ambassador priceless. Previous readers (and reviewers) have wondered: what exactly is the Golden Path? I won't spoil the mystery, but I will mention this: its outcome is Siona, and what she leaves to her descendants. Leto's tyranny is troubling. Like all tyrants, he insists on its necessity for the good of the people. That it does in fact open up the Secher Nibw still leaves us with the dilemma of a being formerly human but mutated into something else, and dominated by a past personality (Harum) known as a ruthless autocrat. But one we pity for his isolation and aloneness and the lost humanity that comes with every predatory occupation. "Your failure" (he accuses the Bene Gesserrit in a later book) "condemned me, the 'God Emperor,' to millennia of personal despair." Yet even he has his moments of kindness and even love--and gratitude, as when he replies to a question about whether his Golden Path might fail: "Anyone and anything can fail, but good brave friends help."
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Summary: Probably the best book outside the first Dune
Review: This is where you first really get that the main character has changed from an Atreides to Duncan. It is a hard sell at first for Dune fans, but it pays off for Herbert in the end because it proves that it is not the character that his readers love, but Herbert's world.
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Summary: A refreshing read
Review: The fourth book in the Dune series picks up several thousand years in the future where the third book left off. I found this book to be a refreshing and compelling read after the bordom of the second and third volumes in the series. The plot builds and builds and builds until the final climax at the very end. The reader is definately left wondering throughout the novel where the story will go next. It seems as if there is no clear cut enemy presence in the novel. This book is a great addition to the Dune series and leaves the reader knawing to get at the fifth volume.
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Summary: FANTASTIC BOOK!!! A SIMPLY MUST READ!!
Review: Storyline:
Centuries have passed on Dune itself, and the planet is green with life. Leto II, the son of Dune's savior, is still alive but far from human. He has become a human-sandworm creature, ruling over his angry and frustrated empire with his vast legions of Fish Speaker soldiers, enforcing peace for dozens of generations to teach the universe a lesson, while also waiting for the right time to turn Dune back into a desert planet. The fate of all humanity hangs on Leto's awesome sacrifice. Opinion:
To begin with, I expected this book to be a disappoitment after hearing opinions from people about it. But they were wrong. This book has brought back the excitment that has lacked since Dune. Children of Dune was a little confusing and it took me a several times more of reading it to understand it. God Emperor of Dune is a very deep book. It allows you to see a part of person who makes so much of sacrifices and sees everyhting yet still believes in suprises and wonder and awe. The God Emperor of Dune, Leto Atreides II, the son Paul Atreides who was the Kwiastz Haderach knows how he is being hated, abused and unapreciated by the population of then known universe yet he continues to have compassion for them and continues doing what he does. He has sympathy for people who insult him and criticise him in such way that no normal human can endure or tolerate for very long. But then he is no TRUE human. He is half worm, half human. This book was so totally touching that it brought tears to my eyes. I have never seen a book touch me this way since Dune Messiah. It was so absolutely and completely captivating that when I read it, it had me at the edge of my seat until the very end. I think Dune is right now displacing Lord of the Rings as my favourite book. Though I'm still only a teenager, and have many more books to read in times to come, I find that no book can compare Dune what with its majestic grandeur and hidden meaning and message which makes you expand and extend your imagination to such depths and meaning that is very exciting. It makes you think and to understand. I like books who allow you room for your interpretations of your own rather than reveal all openly for you to read. There is no magic in books like that. That's why I LOVE Dune. I can't wait to read the next book. And I hope that you will enjoy this book as much as I did even if the last part was a bit bittersweet and sad.So for any Dune lover this is a simply must read!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Ehhhh....o.k. I guess
Review: If you've seen the "Matrix: Revolutions" you know about Neo's origin, and how the Machines created him to get rid of troublesome humans who wouldn't accept the Matrix, and the architect looked on Neo as being unfortunate, but neccessary. That's how I feel about this book. It tells of an important period in the Duniverse, but it rather tedious. It's a good book, but not up to Frank Herbert's par by any means.
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Summary: POWERFUL!!!
Review: Where it lacks in ACTION it excells in PHILOSOPHY. I can say no more- A must read!
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Summary: 4th in the Dune saga
Review: The fourth book in the Dune saga is perhaps the best written of the 1st four. This makes it a more enjoyable to read. However, as usual in the Dune series much is left unsaid by Herbert. Just what is the Golden Path? What is the terrible fate that Leto is saving humanity from? (subservience to machines is my best guess).
What is Siona that Leto, with his ability to see into the future, cannot predict her actions? Is it part of the Ixian conspiracy against him or something different?
Although I enjoy the Dune series, Herbert can be a frustrating writer. I'm not asking him to spell it out for me... well ok I am asking him to spell it out for me.
Maybe in the next book.
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Summary: Bridge Between Two Worlds
Review: While God Emperor of Dune (GOD) is no easy read, it acts as a bridge for the first three Dune novels and the last two novels: Heretics & Chapterhouse. We are given a glimpse of a ruler who purposely combines politics, economics, and religion under his reign to ensure the survival of the human race. It is a somewhat slow read and focuses more on dialogue than action but plays a pivotal role in the Dune Chronicles. This book creates a lot of questions. Taking place 3,000 years after Children of Dune, there is hardly any connection left with the Dune we were introduced to in the first three novels. All our beloved characters are long dead and instead we are presented with the descendants of the Atreides Family. Leto II is the only one who survived though as an amalgam of man and worm. He who controls the spice, controls the universe. Control the worms and you control the spice. Become the worm and you become the spice. Like his father, Muad'Dib, both see the future and while one cannot accept the fate laid out for him, the other selflessly accepts it and propels humanity into 3,500 years of enforced peace. The writing is cryptic at times and like Moneo and Duncan Idaho, we were left pondering what Leto II means in his rantings. Does he create a renaissance to make humans understand the pitfalls of complacency? Is he saying that chaos is necessary for our survival? Is it possible that his Golden Path is an exercise to prepare humanity for what is to come, how to prepare for it, and more importantly how to overcome the threat and evolve? What is the threat? We are cast allusions that very soon, spice will no longer be needed for interstellar space travel (space fold) thus breaking the Spacing Guild's monopoly. It all points to the end of his empire of which he has always been aware. What has become of humanity after so many years of the spice's influence? How has humanity evolved? The crux of his Golden Path is not he himself but what arises from his death and years of tyrannical control. We know that he has been selectively breeding Atreides genes with the long successions of Duncan Idaho gholas for thousands of years but for what purpose? The world of Dune in books 5 & 6 are so different from what was introduced to us in the first three books, that without GOD, we would be more lost that we already are. Well, some of these questions are answered in books 5 & 6, and others are left to our imagination or until the release of Dune 7 by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson who will rely on notes left behind by Frank Herbert. Let's hope that they use an approach similar to GOD than their recent slew of Dune House and Butlerian Jihad books have demonstrated. They could use a splash of the metaphysical instead of the graphic.
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Summary: A Grand Opus
Review: In this book, Frank Herbert returns to what he is best at - Theogenesis - the origin of gods. Here, for the first time since his masterpiece Dune, he dares to attack the foundations of our psyche yet again. And the assault is brutal. What was only subtext in Dune, now becomes explicit. And, he has created a powerful manifestation - capable of doing such a job - the half worm Leto! Surely no human character - could, or would, even dare to think of such unspeakable, unhuman-like thoughts. What I like best about this book, is that it allows the reader freedom to disagree. There is less embedded dogma, and far more casual persuasion. In this, God Emperor of Dune distinguishes itself from its original predecessor. We, the reader, become very much involved in the arguments. We participate. Unlike in Dune, we are not there merely to observe. This is a great work of fiction. But it must not be judged in comparison with the original, because it stands on its own merits. And yet I am certain, that the fans of the original book will find this sequel as compelling as I did.
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Summary: The best character study in science fiction
Review: One of the marks of a great writing is timelesness, and Frank Herberts "God Emperor of Dune" is a truely timeless work of science fiction. When held in comparison to the rest of the series of Dune books, it is eclipsed only by the original "Dune" for it's complexity, it's depth and emotional pull. The centerpiece of this novel is Leto II, the God Emperor. Due to several complicated circumstance of his heritage, Leto has the power of prophecy and concious access to the memories of his ancestors. These powers led him to see the eventual extinction of mankind, short of dramaitic intervention. In an act of awsome courage and terrible sacrifice, Leto accepted sybiosis with the native sandworms of the planet Dune. The reward was a lifespan of more than four thousand years, but the cost is gradual transformation into a sandwork and the loss of his humanity. The novel picks up roughly 3,500 years into Leto's reign. Leto is revered as a god, complete with religious administrators of his empire, and has enforced a 3000 year peace on mankind. Leto is also nearing the final stages of his monsterous transformation and has achieved the final outcome of a project meant to preserve humanity. That project is to produce a person who can not be seen by prophecy, the very power by which Leto rules. However, to create something is not neccesarily to control it. Can Leto persuade his creation to follow the "golden path" he has sacrificed so much to build? The character of Leto II is probably the most fully realized character is science fiction. Where the original Dune excelled in illustrating the byzantine complexities of intergalactic power politics, this book is about the complexities of the inner self. One feels sadness for Leto's obvious loneliness, pain, sacrifice; and admiration for his courage. On the other hand, we see the vanity, arrogance and casual cruelty which comes from being a living god. Like a real person, the character of Leto has to be understood for his totality. The supporting cast of charcaters are also well drawn and believable. But like planets, they all appear smaller and more distant as they orbit around Leto II's solar presence. Another quality that marks fine writting is that subsequent reading reveals greater depth and nuance. This book delivers a large dose of historical, philosophical and creative musings which don't usually overwhelm the story and can therefore be easily missed. The central messages of personal responsibility and the dangers of blindly following leaders are well communicated. This review only gives four stars because there are a couple of moments where the philosophy becomes a little too self reffering and pedantic. It's not clear whether this is the authors intent in terms of characterization or the book just getting too involved in itself. Science fiction often creates it's own universes and context, but it only works if that conceit has something to do with the real world. On balance this is a deep, thoughtful, meaty and very entertaining book. It is one of the high points of the Dune series and a genuine classic in it's own right.
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