DATE: Tue 16 Nov 2021 18:55 By: HexDSL@Posteo.net
Book: Dune - Messiah Series: Dune (Series 2) Written by: Frank Herbert
I enjoyed Dune. The first one was excellent. It was a little long in places but overall it was cohesive and enjoyable. It put forward interesting ideas and was a verbose but carefully told story. While not totally to my tastes I basked in it's verbosity and left thinking it was a master piece; though I not quiet convinced that it actually was a science fiction novel.
The follow up however was a damned slog. It was almost entirely monologues and musings with very little in the way of actual substance to balance it all. The first one was monologues and thoughts that was then bounced off of the opposing idea. It worked well, somehow.
I felt a little like I was reading Dune fan fiction by the end.
The book follows on from the events of the previous story twelve years later. It has a now adult(ish) little sister and a stable post holy-war empire for Paul to rule. Jessica who played such a large role in the first one makes no appearance in this one (save for a letter that someone reads) and all the sand based intrigue of the original has been replaced with Paul's musings about a version of reality he 'sees' without ever actually telling the reader about directly.
I know its considered to be a classic but I didn't enjoy it at all. Not even a little bit. Okay, so there were some setups with Alia (the sister) that felt like they were going to be pretty cool I enjoyed the setups but nothing pays off and it ended in a sort of literary huff.
I actually think that the original book was made somehow worse for me by reading this.
I like philosophy and carefully considered ideas but this reads like the writer didn't quite know what he wanted to say and was really hoping no one noticed.
I can't help but wonder if I missed the point of it somewhere in there. I don't think I'll bother reading the next one for a while at least.
A hard don't recommend from me. And that makes me a little sad. I really did want to love it.