# 📔 Dune Messiah (Book) --- # ℹ️ Information **Author**:: [[Frank Herbert]] **Category**:: Science-Fiction **Tags**:: **Started**:: **Finished**:: [[06-02-2023]] **Medium**:: Kindle **Price**:: $9.99 **Readwise**: [[Dune Messiah (Readwise)]] **Topics**: **Rating**:: 4 --- # 🏔️ What It's About *Dune Messiah* is a continuation of the [[Dune Book Series]], which advances the story of [[Dune (Book)]] after Paul ascends the throne as Imperial Emperor through the coup of Arakeen at the end of the first book. ADD MORE CONTENT HERE In this installment, the story is presented as a "devolution" of Paul, the prophet, from wince he stood in the first book. This, while highly controversial and led to many abandoning and speaking ill of this epoch of the story, in my opinion, was masterfully done. Sometimes, it is better that we hear the story that we didn't want... It may, in fact, be the story *that we need*. # 🧠 Overall Thoughts * To me, the main theme of this book is, "Not the story you want, but it is the story you deserve"... * Major theme: prophets are more often made of what we make of them than who they truly are... * I think this is the core point the author was trying to make... That it is so easy to become blind to "this person you believe" in * I think this idea was "ahead of its time" in many ways * Frank Herbert wrote this book about government... About "prophets", about politicians... People who "entice" you into believing that there is something more and that they hold the key to it... * America changed with Nixon... For a country to see that, all at once, a nationwide fever of trust was demolished with Watergate... * I think this book is under appreciated for this angle... It reads so much more historical now, but as stated, it was more prophetic of events to come... * And certainly, you can see this today with the Republican Party and people like Donald Trump at the helm... * It is sad... * You can see a constant theme of "dissension" in and surrounding Paul... * He's caught many times, especially with Chani, who is more of his "true strength" or pillar of support around the essentials of life, debating whether "all of this was worth it" - the jihad, the coup... everything... * There is just a deep deep somberness in Paul that... While he was "equipped for this", that doesn't mean it was right... * I think this weighed on him A LOT * To me, this is the **main reason** people don't like this book nearly as much * ## 👍 What I Liked - I liked the twist where Paul loses his eyesight - I think it’s deeply relevant and paces a interesting trajectory for the continuation of his story - *Note, at the time of this writing, I haven’t finished the book so I’m maybe reaching* - I think this is a great plot arc - it actually gives way for Paul’s prescient scent to evolve in quite a profound way - Throughout the book, it is clear that Paul is losing, or at the very least, is battling a degraded prescient ability - things aren’t as clear, they’re muddier, some people don’t exist (call back to the count from [[Dune (Book)]] at the end of the book), and this has, more or less, become the norm. - Therefore, the question is: does this *physical* loss of sight, enhance his prescience? - We know that there is a heightening of senses as we’re deprived of one. E.g, sense of hearing improves in blind people. - Will we see something similar here? - I thought the ending was... honestly really beautiful... (SPOILERS) - Again, this pulls on the thread of, "not the story you want, but it is the story you deserve" - Since the loss of Paul's eyesight, there is this frequent callback to the "Fremen Way" in that, they leave blind, or otherwise helpless Fremen, to the desert... to Shai-Hulud... - And while Paul *retains* some form of - This ties in **incredibly well** with the overarching theme of this book: prophets are often - Undoubtedly, this was a transitionary book - unequivocally * Honestly, I admire Frank Herbert for committing to that... That was ballsy 🤣 ## 👎 What I Didn't Like * # ☘️ How the Book Changed Me %% How my life / behavior / thoughts / ideas have changed as a result of reading the book. %% * # ✍️ My Top 3 Quotes > # 📚 Books Referenced - --- # 📒 Notes