Book Review: Children of Dune

The third volume in Frank Herbert’s incredible Dune Saga. Here’s where it gets weird.

It took me a while to get through Children of Dune, not because it’s not good - because it is, very much so - but because November and December are heavy months for me, and I didn’t find the time nor the inclination to read very often. So it took a lot longer than I would have liked, and in fact, I finished it just before Christmas. There’s a lot about Frank Herbert’s writing that’s really grown on me as I’ve continued through the series. As a writer who finds it difficult to fill space without dialogue, I am constantly in awe of writers such as Herbert (and Robert Jordan, and Ursula K Le Guin, etc…) who can fill out thousands of words - pages and pages - with character introspection and movement through the scene with very little dialogue at all - especially when it’s paired with a fairly conservative amount of description (Robert Jordan wasn’t very good at this bit - nor was Tolkien). I’ve also come to appreciate Herbert’s dropping of the superfluous “and” in his prose; it’s surprising how cutting out that one word speeds along an action sentence, jarring as it is at first. Though, I’m still in two minds about the deep philosophising: I love it because it feels like the author is having a lot of fun going in-depth about the heady concepts and themes of the book, and often they’re the kind that stick in the mind long after reading and unconsciously unpack themselves as time goes on. But I equally hate it because I barely understand the metaphors at the time of reading, and it makes me feel stupid.

Blurb

The sand-blasted world of Arrakis has become green, watered and fertile. Old Paul Atreides, who led the desert Fremen to political and religious domination of the galaxy, is gone. But for the children of Dune, the very blossoming of their land contains the seeds of its own destruction. The altered climate is destroying the giant sandworms, and this in turn is disastrous for the planet’s economy. Leto and Ghanima, Paul Atreides’s twin children, and his heirs, can see possible solutions - but fanatics begin to challenge the rule of the all-powerful Atreides empire, and more than economic disaster threatens…

Review

I’ve heard from many people that the Dune Saga gets weird, and here in Children of Dune really is where that begins. We have children who are not children - the pre-born, filled with the genetic memories of their entire ancestry - and Herbert really goes to town exploring the implications of that setup on the human psyche. One of the great things about sci-fi is how authors will often invent a topic that seems, on the surface, to be a benefit (how often do we say “if only I had known then what I know now”? A vague yearning to go back to a younger time in our lives but retain the maturity we’ve gained since, so we may make better decisions), and then probe them for all the ways in which they can be utterly terrible things. Pre-birth is something that is introduced at the end of Dune and sort of appears in Dune Messiah with Paul’s sister, Alia. But Children of Dune is where the concept really gets a thorough and rigorous examination. Through Alia, Herbert examines the pitfalls, and through Leto and Ghanima, the possible solutions to avoiding those pitfalls. It’s really very fascinating - especially as it gets incredibly strange towards the end.

The plot is highly engaging and enjoyable. As expected of Dune at this point, there’s a lot of intricate political manoeuvring and court intrigue - unique assassination plots, and feints within feints within feints. We see Alia’s slow descent into madness, and the utter chaos that ensues as she almost destroys her brother’s empire from within. We also see Leto and Ghanima constantly underestimated, since they’re bodily nine-year-olds with minds that reach back tens of thousands of years. And we see a lot about the corruption of religion and dilution of core doctrines. And it’s all set against a backdrop of the misguided ecological rejuvenation of Arrakis. I actually felt a deep aching sadness about this, because it was something of Liet Kynes’s legacy from the first book, and to see it turn out to be a huge problem is somewhat upsetting. But alas, Arrakis must remain Dune if humanity is to continue traversing the galaxy.

There’s not a great many new characters this time around (technically). With the exception of side characters, and the Corrino heirs, most of the others are present in the previous two books, like Alia, Stilgar, Jessica, Leto and Ghanima (though they were only mentioned briefly at the end of Messiah), Duncan Idaho and Gurney Halleck. Each one’s continued development is excellent, in particular, Stilgar. In my review of Messiah, I bemoaned the way that Stilgar transformed from intimidating, commanding Fremen leader into Paul’s lapdog, but here in Children of Dune we see him reclaim his former mojo and it’s great. I loved the storyline of the enigmatic Preacher as well; so much uncertainty and mystery surrounding him, and it was very satisfying to find out his true identity. Leto and Ghanima were fantastic characters, but I did feel that Ghanima got the short shrift in favour of her brother. There was more that could have been done with her, as she turns almost passive in the latter half of the book. Farad’n Corrino was pretty refreshing in his earnestness - I really liked his arc and how it concluded. I think generally all the characters were on top form throughout.

The pacing is good. Chapters vary in length quite a bit, and there’s a lot of places in which Herbert takes substantial space going through the intricate philosophies at play, but it never felt like it dragged too much. I think this might be more because I’m used to the writing style at this point, because it can be incredibly dense at times.

Now, the ending. Without going into spoiler territory, it was a bit mind-blowing in its weirdness. I really enjoyed the blend of action with novel usages of concepts Herbert primed us for in the previous books, like the Bene Gesserit ability to manipulate the chemical makeup of their bodies to become Reverend Mothers, or to nullify poisons etc… Let’s just say it got turned up to eleven here! And I am very intrigued to see where this goes with the next book, God Emperor of Dune. I know a little bit about that one already, and I’m told it’s the peak of weirdness for the series. I’m thoroughly looking forward to it.

So, I highly recommend going ahead and picking up Herbert’s original Dune Saga at this point. It’s a wild ride, and well deserves the veneration it receives in my opinion. I don’t know when I’ll get to God Emperor yet, because I’m going to try to focus on a lot more indie books throughout 2023. I have a big bunch of them waiting for me on my wife’s Kindle.