Dune at 50: Don’t Fear the Sequels

Dune: Messiah
Messiah picks up a few years after the events of Dune, placing Paul in the big bad emperor’s chair as leader of just about everything in the galaxy. He’s not the little boy we met in Dune, but he’s also not the powerful, confident leader we want him to be. Instead, Paul is troubled, distant, and vulnerable. Everyone’s plotting to kill him, his best friend/mentor was raised from the dead, and his visions of the future show nothing but pain and suffering for all of humanity. No victory champagne for Muad’dib.

Messiah frustrates some readers because of its stark departure from Dune’s grand storytelling style. By comparison, it’s a short, claustrophobic book, focusing on just a few characters and their (largely internal) struggles. The change of pace is staggering coming off that glorious Dune high, but the shift mimics Paul’s state of mind and sets things up for the following books to get epic once again. As is the case with many things in the series, Messiah makes much more sense on your second read. That’s right, start planning for round two.

Children of Dune
Children of Dune kicks off about a decade after Dune: Messiah with Paul’s rugrats learning the ins and outs of having the blood of an almighty prescient emperor flowing in their veins. The scope of storytelling starts to widen, hinting at the immense changes that are about to unfold. It’s the darkest, most political novel in the series, and to make proper sense of all that’s going on, you’ll need to have paid close attention during the first two books. Hope you know your Dune trivia!

After the emotional downer that was Dune: Messiah, Children of Dune is a fantastic change of pace. The plot is lively, the characters energetic, and the struggles more…struggly. Children of Dune is often cited as the second-best book in the series, largely because of its accessibility and wide appeal. Just a little reward for getting through Paul’s post-victory ennui.

God Emperor of Dune
God Emperor of Dune serves as a temporal and stylistic divider between the opening trilogy and the final entries in the series. Ask fans what they think of the book and you’ll get one of two opinions: “I hated God Emperor,” or “God Emperor is my favorite Dune book.” It’s polarizing, but when you serve as a pivot point for a cause and effect story on this grand of a scale, you’ve gotta be a little different.

God Emperor takes place thousands of years after the events of Children of Dune. Just about everyone you know is dead, the notable exceptions being Duncan Idaho’s gholas and the half-worm, half-human, super-prescient and semi-immortal emperor of mankind, Leto II, a.k.a. the Tyrant. Worm-Leto has a plan for the future of our species, one that involves 3,500 years of oppression, hardship, and pain. Everything will be all right in the end, he promises. Trust the giant worm guy and all will be fine.

The Tyrant is a complex and intriguing character designed to be simultaneously loathed and pitied. He’s not an easy protagonist to get along with. Most of Leto’s dialogue consists of ramblings about past or future events, almost as if he’s not really paying attention to the present. When he’s not lamenting his loss of humanity, Leto wanders into deep philosophical territory and doesn’t bother to slow down to make sure we’re along for the ride. There’s a disconnect between us and the text, something that serves the story well but makes for dry reading.

(For the record, God Emperor is my favorite book in the series. Do us a favor and read it.)

Heretics of Dune
Heretics and Chapterhouse stand at the end of the Dune series as their own little duology. They take place 1,500 years after God Emperor with a new cast of characters (plus Duncan!) inhabiting a changed universe in the post-God Emperor era. Humanity scattered to all corners of the galaxy, sat around for awhile, then came back with some messed up stories to tell. What happens when they meet up with “classic” Dune factions? Let’s find out!

Heretics curves back on itself to focus on the core tenants of the eries. Sandworms, spice monopolies, class struggles, and ecology are hot topics once again, along with gholas, Bene Gesserit plans, and crazy Tleilaxu experiments. Heretics shows the outcome of the Tyrant’s master plan in motion, and in typical Frank Herbert fashion, it asks more questions than it answers. If you made it through God Emperor with your sanity intact, don’t hesitate to move on to Heretics.

Chapterhouse: Dune
Chapterhouse continues the Heretics story without skipping a beat. No more thousand year time jumps, no more appendices of new characters, just space travel, no-ships, and Honored Matre hijinks. Speaking of those crazy Matres, they’re turning into a real pain in the Bene Gesserit’s side. For the first time in the series, the Bene Gesserit have a worthy foil. They have to go on the offensive if they’re to survive, and the fun part is, they might be the last link to humanity’s non-Scattering past. Bene Gesserit, savior of mankind.

But that’s not what stands out about Chapterhouse: Dune. The real discussion point is the ending. Oh, the ending! Chapterhouse concludes the six -book series with a massive cliffhanger, and Herbert died before he could wrap it up. A lot of readers are put off by that statement, wondering if they should even bother if they’re going to be left in the lurch. When you first cross the finish line and encounter that famous last phrase, you’ll be shocked, heartbroken, and dismayed. Over time, though, the ending makes more sense. Eventually you’ll see it as the only possible way Dune could have ended: not with a bang, not with all of the loose ends tied up, but with the biggest unanswered question yet.
We’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of Dune throughout 2015. View the complete article series here.