L'Empereur-Dieu de Dune

As always, I like Herbert’s descriptions of worlds… but this book was claustrophobic and odd. Some explanation, any explanation, of the golden path as being anything other than avoiding some other unnamed “big bad” would have made it more tolerable. Usually Herbert pulls off some plot twist at the end that renders the whole thing as masterful but when one of the female characters had an orgasm when Duncan threw the rope down towards her from the top of a wall… I knew then I wasn’t going to get anything that made any sense. I liked the concept of Duncans as time travellers of a sort, and of having a community as a mind, and what 3500 years of time might look like; but the approach to women, and sex, and horrors homosexuality was so odd. Not sure about approaching the next in the series… could it get any weirder???

Aside from a handful of moments and dialogues that were somewhat intriguing, this entire novel was a major disappointment. Much of this is due to its relation to the Dune series. If this fourth book is an indication of what comes next, I would abandon reading the Dune series altogether.

I felt that this style and this storyline deviated from the previous books and all expectations so much that I wish it just wasn't in the series at all. Some have said that the book's defining moment is its ending. And as I approached it, I had a strong suspicion what would happen, and I was right. Not even its conclusion really made anything more worthwhile.

As this is my first time reading Dune I can't say this accurately but I will anyway: skip this book entirely.