Following on from my review of Dune last week. I thought i'd continue on with the next novel in the saga, Dune Messiah. Its important to remember that he Author the great Frank Herbert saw Dune Messiah as the fourth book to the dune novel. In essence making both novel part of one larger story. That said there is a distinct break in the story..
..Its tweleve years since Paul Muad'Dib (Atreides) lead the Freeman to victory over the Emperor and his Sardaukar. Paul now presides over the greatest empire ever known, after the Freeman Jihad he set in motion has waged across a large majority of human space. Despite his political and personnel power, Paul struggles to limit the destruction caused by the religion built around him. A religion ,that some think, no longer needs their living God to be quite so living. Paul struggles with the knowledge that he has caused so much death, but his prescience tells him this was the lesser of evils and that the future could still lead to humanities extinction if he cannot find the right path.
Meanwhile the Bene Gesserit, Spacing Guild and Tleilaxu resent that Pauls Empire usurps the power they had in the previous Imperium. They set their conspiracy to topple Paul and return themselves to power, but are all members of the conspiracy happy to return to the status quo or do they play for a greater prize?
Over the years my love for Dune Messaih has grown somewhat. When I first read it I was young and resented what I saw as sad ending for Paul. Over the proceeding years and the many many rereads I came to agree with Herbert the typical Superman isn't a very good character. Arguably Paul is a rather more fleshed out superman than your son's of Krypton or your Spidermans. Rather than being born with powers or as a result of some accident Paul gains his prescient powers through a ”painful and slow personal progress”. Also Paul isn't the exception to the norm the guild and Bene Gesserit both have members with limited versions of his prescient gift and in the Freeman and Sardaukar we have a large number of normal people who through training have gained almost superhuman fighting skills. This is where Herbert excels himself he presents his superman with trails that really stretch his abilities and where a perfect ending is impossible. In essence Paul is no longer a superman just a great man and a true Messiah.
If you've read Dune you will probably have read this but if not you really really must.
No comments:
Post a Comment