Read: 30 August, 2010Over three thousand years have passed since Paul Atreides died and his son, Leto, became emperor. Since then, Arrakis has been fully transformed, the sand worms have gone extinct, and the universe is held together solely by Emperor Leto's stockpiles of spice. Leto himself has also been transformed, into the great sand worm Shai Hulud.
God Emperor is written in a very different style than the other books in the series. While all have spent a good deal of time on political/religious theory, this one is nearly devoted to it, at the expense of plot and characters. Duncan Idaho makes a reappearance and his reaction to having been resurrected time and time again over the course of three millennia is interesting, but it isn't enough to fill 400 pages.
Leto's rantings about the patterns of human civilization are sometimes interesting, but often laughably silly. One reader commented that this is the lowest point in the series. With the prospect of two more books ahead of me, I hope that this was an accurate assessment!
