Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

7 reviews

macliffe's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.5

I enjoyed this much more than the original Dune! I can’t exactly explain why, maybe because the characters were familiar to me. I was just hooked reading it the whole time. And the ending! But that’s all I’m going to say. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Infertility, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Minor: Incest, Grief, and Medical trauma

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

What a tone shift from the first book!  Honestly this one kind of went off the rails into unhinged territory in the second half.  It was a very slow political machination start and then it turns into everything falling into place depending on who did the better job at plotting and scheming...  Absolutely wild.  I don't know how I feel about it fully but I'm going to think about it for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Genocide, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

annikathereader's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Incest, Infertility, Suicide, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

jelliclejules's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pregnancy, War, and Classism

Minor: Incest, Infertility, and Suicide

gvstyris's review against another edition

adventurous challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

 Religion, too, is a weapon. What manner of weapon is religion when it becomes the government? 

Dune Messiah is strikingly more didactic than its predecessor, jumping twelve years to follow a conspiracy against Paul's now-established rule over the empire. I'm struggling a bit to rate and condense my feelings about this novel, primarily because of how different it is to Dune.

Dune Messiah is theoretically right up my alley: it explores the corrupting influences of power and the inherent problems faced by a government built on religious worship and fabricated idolatry. Herbert is not intending to replicate the first novel's epic sense of adventure, but I would still argue that this sequel suffers a little without it. Its slow-burn is a bit painful, yet it ultimately still offers a much more nuanced (and needed!) character analysis of Paul, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I also really loved the discussion surrounding the Fremen's loss of cultural identity with 'modernisation.'

I'll definitely be considering continuing the series, but am mainly just hyped to see how Villeneuve chooses to adapt this story given his changes to Chani's character. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Infertility, Grief, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

Minor: Incest

natfoster's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma and Pregnancy

Minor: Infertility

hollowpointe's review against another edition

challenging sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Incest, Infertility, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Colonisation, and War