rees_aidan741's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
cherbate's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
mattymoo97's review against another edition
3.5
A lot of good things about it but it was a bit too abstract for its own good at times and the ending felt rushed
jinglebellrockstar's review against another edition
5.0
amazing sequel to an amazing epic im crying yall
jackbowerman's review against another edition
3.0
This, the second book of the Dune trilogy, felt like a totally different kind of read to the first. The first allows the reader to discover a new world through its incredible descriptions of landscapes and weather, cultures and religions, vehicles and buildings, and most prominently it's play on substance abuse and humanities dependency of specific minerals. And then this book just... lacks all of that. Ok, yeah, we already learnt about the whole world of Arrakis in the first book, but it seemed like those descriptions of the world the story is set in were totally missing.
The story is good - the last 30 pages are great - but not an incredible amount happens throughout the rest of the book. The storyline is one of betrayal and of the politics of the Empire's royal household but I would have liked to have seen this take place more through a series of events as opposed to it's cryptic conversations and descriptions. It also had less inclusion of the characters thoughts I enjoyed so much in the first book.
I'm not totally disappointed - the ending gave me hope that this could be a good stepping-stone story to set up the third book of the trilogy.
The story is good - the last 30 pages are great - but not an incredible amount happens throughout the rest of the book. The storyline is one of betrayal and of the politics of the Empire's royal household but I would have liked to have seen this take place more through a series of events as opposed to it's cryptic conversations and descriptions. It also had less inclusion of the characters thoughts I enjoyed so much in the first book.
I'm not totally disappointed - the ending gave me hope that this could be a good stepping-stone story to set up the third book of the trilogy.
leannaaker's review against another edition
5.0
This was a wonderful sequel to the first book. Very different in tone though, and different in focus.
darkmagician12's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
scamp1234's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
anita_bath's review against another edition
4.0
A little slow to start, but once it gets moving, it gets pretty good.
laviskrg's review against another edition
3.0
To be honest, I did not enjoy this book. Everyone is perfect, everything is "seen" in Paul's head but he can't really do shit about stuff cos it's meant to happen, bla bla. Alia is perfect and talks nothing but nonsense and of course the great oracle is weakened by feminine weakness in the presence of a dude. The bad guys are just bad and of course, extremely weak and failing. The story is boring, over-written for not much action. I think I am not meant to enjoy literature classified as classic.
World-building - non-existent
Epic events that changed everything - these happened BETWEEN the second cover of Dune and the first cover of Dune Messiah, as off-screen as it can be, and this is just such a lazy, unacceptable writing style
Characters are flawless, unique snowflakes, and the author tries to make them the victims of human emotions when in fact they are EMPTY and devoid of any genuine feeling
The action can be summed up in 20 pages but 300 were needed for empty, pointless faux-religious saga bullshit
There is a whole lot of dialogue (which actually saved me from throwing the book on the other side of the room cos the narration and the description are so tedious to read) which, in the absence of "he said" or "she said" would be without voice, gender, social status, dialect, etc.
This book, like the entire series has amazing concepts and gloriously original ideas, especially considering when it was written, but for me, this kind of literature simply does not carry well over the decades. Literature has evolved. Tropes have been studied and categorized. Cliches are tiresome to me and I pity the ones who praise classic lit to no end but refuse to acknowledge the flaws in it.
World-building - non-existent
Epic events that changed everything - these happened BETWEEN the second cover of Dune and the first cover of Dune Messiah, as off-screen as it can be, and this is just such a lazy, unacceptable writing style
Characters are flawless, unique snowflakes, and the author tries to make them the victims of human emotions when in fact they are EMPTY and devoid of any genuine feeling
The action can be summed up in 20 pages but 300 were needed for empty, pointless faux-religious saga bullshit
There is a whole lot of dialogue (which actually saved me from throwing the book on the other side of the room cos the narration and the description are so tedious to read) which, in the absence of "he said" or "she said" would be without voice, gender, social status, dialect, etc.
This book, like the entire series has amazing concepts and gloriously original ideas, especially considering when it was written, but for me, this kind of literature simply does not carry well over the decades. Literature has evolved. Tropes have been studied and categorized. Cliches are tiresome to me and I pity the ones who praise classic lit to no end but refuse to acknowledge the flaws in it.