*As always,
there are spoilers ahead, so read on at your own risk.*
There are a
lot of problems with Frank Herbert’s original Dune. The gender politics and white savior
narrative alone could sink the novel.
But in spite of being put off by those aspects, I really enjoyed the
novel overall. The writing itself is
decent, and a handful of the characters are fascinating, but most of all, the world
of Arrakis and the universe of the novel are so beautifully and completely
imagined that it’s easy to forgive the other flaws.
What I found
when reading Dune Messiah, the second book in Herbert’s series, is that
it is plagued with the same problems as the first book without providing the
same fascinatingly depicted world. The
big contribution to the universe is the Tleilaxu and their technological
abilities, such as facedancing and the creation of ghola. The moments at which the book soared were
when Herbert explored and developed everything associated with the
Tleilaxu.
When it
wasn’t showing us the marvels of Tleilaxu technology, the novel progressed
ponderously, bemoaning Paul’s undesirable fate as a godhead, feeling bad for
Paul that millions in the universe were dying from the Jihad started in his
name, and making me feel grossed out by Herbert’s fascination with Alia’s newly
sexualized body (not by Alia’s sexuality, mind
you, but by Herbert’s overly-fond descriptions) as well as the
unmotivated romance between Alia and Hayt/Duncan Idaho, a man her father’s age
(and about the age of Frank Herbert himself when he was writing the novel).
The novel
posed an interesting challenge to the author.
How do you write about Paul’s reign 12 years after he became Emperor and
not write a novel about trying to run a city, state, world, and universe of
worlds? How do you write about him and
not have the reader hate him for standing idly by as millions are slaughtered
by his followers in his name. This
latter concern is addressed by reassuring us that the slaughtering will happen
no matter what Paul does or doesn’t do, so we should take comfort in the fact
that he is walking the best path possible.
How much comfort you take in that is up to you. The former concern is addressed by creating a
plot to kill and undo Paul. That was a
clever approach, I think, although many of the conspirators were given short
shrift, and personally, I would have liked to have seen more of Edric and the
Reverend Mother. Actually, I would like
to have seen more of Irulan as well. Scytale
was clearly the focus of the conspiracy plot, and as much as I liked the
character, I would have liked to have spent more time with the others, who had,
I believe, far more interesting motives and personal interest in the fate of
Paul Muad’dib.
The
revelation of the Tleilaxu plot to break new ground with ghola technology
through Hayt and Paul’s relationship was good, and the attempt to manipulate
Paul by offering to bring Chani back as a ghola was fine. Unfortunately, I never believed Paul was
truly tempted by the offer, so there was no real drama present. Having the dwarf, Bijaz, provide the same
narrative beat by making the same offer after Scytale is killed didn’t
contribute anything noteworthy to the tale.
All in, it was . . . okay.
We’re
reading on into Children of Dune to see if Dune Messiah or Dune
itself is the fluke. I will report back
with my findings.
