Children of Dune

By Frank Herbert (1976)

Jumping back into Herbert's political drama sci-fi world, Children of Dune once again strikes gold (or melange?). While the second book in the series explored a bit more of the universe and focuses more on politics than plot, the third returns to a story-driven tale of Arrakis and the Fremen, and of course the Atreides. Weirdly enough at the beginning of the book I was skeptical and not that into it; it started to feel like almost a rehash of the first book and the same themes kept coming up, but as the story progressed it pulled me in and became a struggle to put down. Indeed, there are similar themes and even events, and yet this book deals with them in a fresh way, pulling together the previous books into a great tale that transcends generations. New characters arise that make you question how important the old ones were, and then such old characters strike that doubt from your mind, reminding you of their gravity. In the end, the third installation of the Dune series not only kept my attention but left me with my wallet out buying the fourth. 

I've been thinking about this ever since the beginning of the second book - I just don't see how the Dune movies will continue past the story of the first book. To be fair, I was doubtful of the ability to even faithfully make the first movie and I was gladly proven wrong, but the story becomes so interwoven and some, ahem, ideas discussed that I think would be a hard sell for movie executives. My theory is that they will sort of blend the first couple books together, perhaps squash some timelines, change ages around, and throw out some plot points. Whatever ends up happening, I can't wait to see more of the Duniverse on the big screen. 

(01/11/22)