Book Review: "Children of Dune" by Frank Herbert
*Spoiler alert!*
Children of Dune, the third entry in the “Dune” series, gets three out of five conflicted stars from me.
“Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, government tends more and more to act exclusively in the interests of the ruling class—whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy.”
Never let it be said by me that this science fiction epic does not explore lofty ideas about human civilization, governance, and political and religious philosophy. That is not where my quibbles with Children of Dune lie. The worldbuilding is extensive and lovingly cultivated by the author. Another point in the series’ favor. No, my quibbles are mostly characterization-based.
“They who learn the lesson of self-deception too well shall perish by that deception.”
First, Alia got done dirty in this book. She was abandoned by her mother, Lady Jessica of the Bene Gesserit, who fled back to Caladan. (Caladan being the primary seat of House Atreides before Dune.) Her brother, the famous Paul Muad’Dib Atreides and former emperor, decides to wander into the desert and never return after the death of Chani and the birth of his twins, Leto II and Ghanima. C’mon Paul, I know you were grieving and on a bit of a self-destructive streak, but you just decided not to be involved in the rearing of your own children? (Yes, yes, I know, the point of “Dune” is that Paul is not the hero, but I would think that he would want to be in his children's lives. Is that a naïve assumption on my part? But that is how I feel.)
When the events of Children of Dune begin, the royal twins are around nine years old. Like Alia, they were both “pre-born,” possessing the knowledge of a thousand generations of Atreides, so they are not children in the ordinary sense. (Second, there is a lot of mysticism you must accept if you read the “Dune” series, and some of it stretches to its limits, but that’s just how Herbert wrote it. Although, I will admit the suspension of disbelief was more difficult this time around.)
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
I am aware of Alia trying to hold onto her regency power in shady ways. I will not deny that Alia is scheming and corrupt and very afraid of her own mind and of losing power, but the set-up for her possession by her maternal grandfather, the Baron Harkonnen, just was not executed well. (Can you blame her for being afraid of herself? She was raised among people who considered her alien and abomination. I cannot imagine the impact of that on a child’s psyche.)
It was just gross, for one. Baron Harkonnen is the archetype of the power-hungry and utterly warped aristocrat and was utterly disgusting in life and in this book as well.
Also, I know there was the possibility of the twins going mad, because they are considered “abominations,” but it seems like Alia is the most obviously afflicted by the madness associated with the preborn.
I would think everyone involved in the corruption of the empire and the cult of Muad’Dib should have been afflicted in some way. I would think such a possession would be contagious and I do not think it would be out of left field for a universe in which people can carry the psyches of a thousand generations of people in their heads.
Perhaps I’m too dumb to understand the utter genius of Herbert in this. I did not enjoy the trope, but I understood where the author wanted to go with it. It is a poetic duality to show how the corruption of leaders is a mirror of the corruption of a society and so forth.
“I do not have to be what my father was. I do not have to obey my father's rules or even believe everything he believed. It is my strength as a human that I can make my own choices of what to believe and what not to believe, of what to be and what not to be.”
I feel like House Atreides are just the Skywalkers of the “Dune” universe. Am I curious to see where Leto II takes humanity, what shenanigans House Atreides will pull next, and the violent drama that ensues as they decide humanity’s fate among the stars? Yes, I will admit to being curious.
House Atreides:
Will I admit that sometimes I got lost in the complicated mire of scheming, philosophizing, and constant preaching going on throughout Children of Dune? Yes, and sometimes that made reading the book quite a slog.
Am I going to continue the series? I will think about it, because I admit to wanting to know where the Dune universe is going. I can see the potential in this series but am a bit afraid to find myself unable to continue.
Happy reading!
--BookOwl
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