Children of Dune

paperback, 624 pages

Published June 4, 2019 by Ace.

ISBN:
978-0-593-09824-0
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4 stars (2 reviews)

1 edition

Review of 'Children of Dune' on 'GoodReads'

4 stars

I'm surprised by how well the story has held up, considering that it was written in the 70s.



I need to reread the part about the transformation in the desert, because I'm not sure how or if that really fit into the story's world. It felt more like magic than science or evolution.



The author describes patterns of human activity that repeat over eons. He approaches the idea that people need to stay connected to the immediacy of life and human nature. Somehow, the story strikes me as being anti-technology and a call for people to be spiritual but not religious.



The end of the story gave me some ideas about Shai-Hulud. Unless I really misread things, the goal of the Dune story is to describe replacing the big worm or driving force below the desert, which makes me wonder if this is a repeating cycle that has happened before. …

Review of 'Children of Dune' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

So...I'm gradually working through the Dune books, and this was the first one that really felt like a slog. All of the books require a certain amount of faith, that this prophecy you've never heard of until now will somehow become important later, or that these six characters referenced in this conversation will make an appearance later, or whatever, but this was the first one where it just felt like chapters and chapters went by in which I had little sense of what anyone's actual aims or motivations were. Leto II refers to the "Golden Path" throughout the book as his primary driving motivation, but exactly what that was remained unclear until the closing pages. The book retains the incredible scope and mythology of the previous installments, but that scope feels like it's starting to weigh the whole enterprise down.