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| God Emperor of Dune (Dune Chronicles, Book 4) | 
| Author: Frank Herbert
Publisher: Ace Books
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy Used: $0.72
You Save: $7.27 (91%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  155 reviews
Sales Rank: 10385
Media: Paperback
Edition: Ace
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 423
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 0441294677
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780441294671
ASIN: 0441294677
Publication Date: June 15, 1987
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Thanks for choosing the Atlanta Book Company!
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Book Description
4th in Dune Chronicles Series With more than ten million copies sold, Frank Herbert's magnificent DUNE books stand among the major achievements of the imagination. Of them all, GOD EMPEROR OF DUNE, the fourth, is the greatest and the grandest. 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. "GOD EMPEROR OF DUNE seizes the glittering loose ends of empire, ecology and mysticism and weaves them together into a seamless, brilliant tapestry of a human ecology evolving to transcend worlds and time." (Baltimore Sun)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 150 more reviews...
 A chance to see for yourself! August 27, 2008
The masters of myth-making are those who are not only removed in time and place from their respective subjects but who are also removed in spirit. In the Dune series, this book gets straight to the heart of the matter and bypasses the myths and allows you to grasp the spirit of what Frank Herbert discovered in his own life.
I think that most people can accept that the great novels are reflections of their authors and of the realisations attained in their lives. The truly great novels are replete with insights into life, death and all of the rest, but what happens when such insights are coated in the guise of science-fiction? I think then, that with this in mind, there needs to be an element of trust in the author and there also needs to be some kind of capacity on behalf of the reader to be able to recognise the value of what the author has discovered.
When compared to the other novels in the Dune series, God Emperor comes across as very different. There is little action to speak of and the plot (such that it is) is held together purely by the strength of insights provided by the novel's main character Leto II. To my eyes, this speaks volumes on the nature of storytelling and on the nature of direct experience.
The truth of this can not only be seen in the following two novels in the series where for many in the Dune universe, the cult of myth worship has taken precedence over the 'facts' behind the myth, but also in the fact that many characters in this novel - even in the presence of the fact - remain blind to the value of direct experience. In this case, God Emperor is the record that the character Leto II is that fact and that, more importantly, his insights and discoveries are the insights and discoveries of Frank Herbert.
This 'fact' is what ties this book so elegantly with all of the other Frank Herbert Dune novels.
This is the setup for all the rest. August 15, 2008
God Emperor of Dune is my second favorite of the whole series after the first Dune. In retrospect, I could have skipped Dune Messiah, and skimmed Children.
I'll skip the plot recap as this is covered in a many of the other reviews and give my explanations of why I feel this book is not to be missed.
First, it returns to the grand a sweeping scale of narrative that Herbert used in the original Dune. We are placed at the exact cusp of history where a 3500 year plan is reaching its dramatic finish. Familiar forces, are plotting. Ixian's, Spacing Guild, Bene Gesserit, Tleilaxu.
Second, Herbert gives us some of the most finely drawn characters to date. I particularly liked Moneo and Hwi Noree. Hwi is the daughter of an Ixian spy who was one of Leto's favorite's. (You have to love an all powerfull, all seeing Emperor who can become fast friends with someone who makes no secret of their desire to cause his downfall.) and she was created as the ultimate trap for Leto, someone with whom he could not help but fall in love with. And Moneo is Leo's majordomo, the human face of the emperor, the loyal servant. He's an Atredies, how can be be anything but!?
I think here is the true appeal of Herbert. He takes us on a grand sweep of interstellar intrigue, dives deeply into the philosophy and dangers of being all seeing-all knowing, yet, at the very end, what truly makes the difference is the deepest and most ingrained human traits of love, loyalty and desire for freedom. We are presented Leto, the 3500 year old God Emperor who has turned himself into a sandworm. He is reviled through the known universe because he is a total despot. But layer by layer we are allowed to see exactly what Leto is doing. Simply saying - Leto see's a 'Golden Path', and he is leading humanity to brighter future - is nothing to letting us see the pain he feels as having lost all connection with humanity because of his transformation. Seeing the ultimate boredom of having perfect prescience, and being unable to be surprised by anything for millennium as we are given tiny glimpses of the catastrophe Leto has foreseen and the sacrifice required to avert it Eventually we realize the lesson Leto is trying to teach is that if HE was created, then something like him will be created again, and again and the end result of this will be the extinction of all humanity because if you can find and predict what every human will do, and where they will be and when, then you can destroy all of them, and if you can destroy all of them, eventually, it will happen.
Then there is Duncan Idaho. From the first Dune, we recall Duncan Idaho as an intensely loyal bodyguard to Paul Atredies. Duncan dies in the original Dune, but the Tleilaxu have preserved his cells and keep sending ghola's to Leto to serve him. Of course the Tleilaxu (the Dirty Tleilaxu!) have their own agenda but Herbert, who takes the long view of things, leaves that for another day (and novel). The idea of an unbroken line of Duncan Idaho's serving Leto for three thousand years is explored to excellent effect and Herbert only teases us with a some hints as to what Leto is up to. There is something he prizes in those ancient genes.
Through the whole novel we have had repeated references to Leto's Golden Path. The short explanation given is that this is the path that will guarantee the survival of humanity, but the down deeper its Leto's solution to the trap of the perfect Oracle. But at the end, we discover that it was never a path at all. It is a person, and that person being Siona, the daughter of Moneo Atredies. The ultimate creation of the breeding program he took away from the Bene Gesserit (Yes, they are still around and kicking, Leto clearly has plans for them.) She will save humanity because she is invisible to Leto and to prescience and she will spread those precious genes throughout the universe.
As for Siona. Although she is Moneo's daughter and an Atredies, she is presented as a rebel who works with factions that seek to destroy Leto. One of my favorite chapters is when Siona is sent out to the desert with Leto and made to take the spice essence and, being a true Atredies, it awakens her own dormant prescience. It is a delicious chapter showing how Leto uses this punishment to force Siona to see what he sees. Afterward, she hates him even more, because he has made her see the enormity of what is at stake.
Finally, my recommendation for reading order of the whole series and which books you can skip.
Dune
You can just read plot summaries of Dune Messiah and Children of Dune.
God Emperor of Dune
Heretics of Dune (Miles Teg, favorite Dune character ever!)
Chapterhouse Dune
Then read Machine Crusade and Butlerian Jihad
Then the final two Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune.
I will avoid further spoilers, but only say what then you get to the very end you will look back to God Emperor of Dune and say....Herbert, you son of a gun.
God Emperor of Dune July 29, 2008
I generally reread the entire series every two years or so. The God King is one of my favorites. The personna of Leo is extremely interesting, an inexplicable transformation of the desert worm, with human attributes. Listening to the audio version is a treat that conjures even more intensed vivid images of the evolved Arakis, the politics, and social aspects of its' people.
God Emperor of Dune (Unabridged)
Frank Herbert continues his trend of excellence... July 26, 2008
Leto II, the son of Paul Atreides, is now the God Emperor of Dune. Leto II is close to becoming a sandworm and is about 300 years away from going into the sand when the book starts. God Emperor of Dune, takes place some 3500 years after Children of Dune. Leto II has done what his father could not and turned himself into a sandworm, sacrificing his humanity in order to provide Leto's Golden Peace, which will ideally save humanity and keep them along The Golden Path in Leto's vision.
During his long reign, Leto II has enforced a state of peace throughout his empire spanning several galaxies with his strict monopoly of spice melange and through the military wherewithal of his Fish Speaker (an all-woman) army. The Old Imperium is essentially gone and the Houses of Landsraad have ceased to exist. Only a few Great Houses have survived at all in their previous power dominant power structures.
The old Imperium is basically non-existent; the Landsraad has ceased to exist and only a few remnants of the Great Houses survive. The Bene Gesserit and Spacing Guild have endured, although both have been forced to adapt to Leto's absolute control over melange and his powerful prescience, and CHOAM has been reduced to a shadow of its former self. His reign is considered by many to be depraved and despotic, but he is confident that his actions will ensure the survival of the human race.
The "Duncans" are still around thanks to the Tleilaxu cloning tanks and are loyal servants to the Atreides line, which along with Leto's faithful servant Moneo help Leto quite a great deal throughout the book. In the end, the question at the end of the book remains was Leto II's sacrifice end up causing humanity to destroy itself at the end of his reign or saving humanity with everyone thriving?
Herbert does the job once again of living up to one hell of a series so far. I definitely look forward to blazing through Heretics of Dune, the fifth book in this series!
-Travis
3 millenia later and it's still a beautiful book July 8, 2008
Leto II, the God Emperor of Dune, has lived for 3000 odd years and undergone monsterous changes into a sandworm for the sake of mankind. However, dispite the decendants of his twin Ghanima that surround him and the ghola Duncan Idahos that the Telexiu have created for him for millenia, no one has ever loved him.
But, at the end of the Tyrant's reign, all that is about to change. Plots and plans centuries laid are comming to conclusion. The great sandworms of Dune are about to return and the Atredies are at the fulcrum once again.
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