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| {{short description|1981 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert}} | |||
| ''See ] for the general concept, for the Warhammer 40,000 personality c.f. ]''. | |||
| {{Infobox book | |||
| {{Infobox Book <!-- See ] or ] --> | |||
| | name = God Emperor of Dune | | name = God Emperor of Dune | ||
| | image = God Emperor of Dune-Frank Herbert (1981) First edition.jpg | |||
| | title_orig = | |||
| | caption = First US edition | |||
| | translator = | |||
| ⚫ | | author = ] | ||
| | image = ]<!--prefer first edition--> | |||
| | audio_read_by = Simon Vance | |||
| | image_caption = Recent paperback cover | |||
| | cover_artist = ] | |||
| ⚫ | | author = ] | ||
| ⚫ | | country = United States | ||
| | illustrator = | |||
| | language = English | |||
| | cover_artist = ] | |||
| ⚫ | | series = ] | ||
| ⚫ | | country = |
||
| | |
| genre = ] | ||
| | published = 1981 | |||
| ⚫ | | series = ] | ||
| | |
| publisher = ] | ||
| ⚫ | | media_type = Print (] & ]) | ||
| | publisher = ] | |||
| ⚫ | | pages = 496 | ||
| | release_date = ] ] | |||
| ⚫ | | isbn = 0-575-02976-5 | ||
| ⚫ | | media_type = Print (] & ]) | ||
| ⚫ | | oclc = 16544554 | ||
| ⚫ | | pages = | ||
| ⚫ | | preceded_by = ] | ||
| ⚫ | | isbn = 0-575-02976-5 | ||
| ⚫ | | followed_by = ] | ||
| ⚫ | | oclc= 16544554 | ||
| ⚫ | | preceded_by = ] | ||
| ⚫ | | followed_by = ] | ||
| }}<!-- This article is the redirect destination of ], ], ], ], and ] --> | }}<!-- This article is the redirect destination of ], ], ], ], and ] --> | ||
| ⚫ | '''''God Emperor of Dune''''' is a ] novel by ] published in |
||
| ⚫ | '''''God Emperor of Dune''''' is a ] novel by American writer ], published in 1981. The fourth in his ] of six novels, it was ranked as the No. 11 hardcover fiction best seller of 1981 by '']''. | ||
| ==Plot introduction== | |||
| Thirty-five hundred years have passed since ] had become the ] of the ] and the Emperor of the known universe at the end of the novel '']''. His son, ], sees the path that his father Muad'Dib had also seen, a future that secures the continuation of human life throughout the universe. That future, however, requires an aberrant act of selflessness: becoming a ] of man and ]. At the end of '']'', Leto II accepts this mantle of ] from the Fremen and transforms himself into a monster of the ], a sandworm, that will dominate the ecology of the planet ] (known as Dune) for millennia. This is an act his father had been unwilling to do. Leto essentially accepts the terrible price of saving humanity which his father had rejected. ''God Emperor of Dune'' chronicles Leto's attempts to consummate the ], which delivers the volition of humanity by scattering it beyond the perceived safety of the Imperium's known universe, and also by destroying the possibility of the Imperium's control by any single entity, including himself. | |||
| ==Plot |
==Plot== | ||
| ], the God Emperor, has ruled the universe as a tyrant for 3,500 years after becoming a hybrid of human and ]. The death of all other sandworms as a result of the ] of ], and his control of the remaining supply of the all-important ], has allowed him to keep civilization under his complete command. Leto has been physically transformed into a worm, retaining only his human face and arms, and though he is now seemingly immortal and invulnerable to harm, he is prone to instinct-driven bouts of violence when provoked to anger. As a result, his rule is one of religious awe and ] fear. | |||
| The seemingly immortal God Emperor Leto II has ruled his Empire for more than 3,500 years, his lifespan lengthened due to his decision in ''Children of Dune'' to merge his human body with ], the ] phase of the giant sandworms of Arrakis. His continued evolution has slowly transformed him, altering his human form into what he calls a 'pre-worm'. His body has come to resemble a small version of the ancient sandworms of Arrakis, ribbed, elongated, and covered in scaly sandtrout; his face remains, as do his hands and arms, but his legs and feet have atrophied to be of no use. He moves from place to place on a large cart of ] manufacture, and it is later revealed that his brain has gradually diffused into the rest of his body, becoming a series of nodes throughout his whole form. The sandtrout skin makes him virtually impervious to harm, even allowing him to survive ] fire. | |||
| Leto has disbanded the ] to all but a few Great Houses; the remaining powers defer to his authority, although they individually conspire against him in secret. The ] have long since lost their military power and have been replaced by the ], an all-female army who obey Leto without question. He has rendered the human population into a state of trans-galactic stagnation; space travel is non-existent to most people in his empire, which he has deliberately kept to a near-] level of technological sophistication. All of this he has done in accordance with a ] divined through precognition that will establish an enforced peace preventing humanity from destroying itself through aggressive behavior. | |||
| During his long reign, Leto has enforced a state of peace throughout his multigalactic empire, both through tight control of his enormous hoard of the spice ] and the military might of his ] army. The old Imperium is basically non-existent; the ] has ceased to exist and only a few remnants of the Great Houses survive. The ] and ] have endured, although both have been forced to adapt to Leto's absolute control over melange and his powerful ], and ] has been reduced to a shadow of its former self. His reign is considered by many to be depraved and despotic, but he is confident that his actions will ensure the survival of the human race. | |||
| Arrakis has been transformed via terraforming from a ] to a lush forested biosphere with the exception of "The Sareer", a single section of desert retained by Leto for his Citadel. A string of ] ]s have served Leto over the millennia, and, during that time, Leto has also fostered the bloodline of his twin sister ]. Her descendant, ], is Leto's ] and closest confidant, while Moneo's daughter, ], has become the leader of an Arrakis-based rebellion against Leto. She steals a set of Leto's secret journals from his archives, not realizing that he has allowed it. Leto intends to breed Siona with the latest Duncan ghola, but is aware that the ghola, moved by his own morality, may try to assassinate him before this can occur. | |||
| Leto has employed a series of ]s grown from the cells of ], the faithful Swordmaster of ]. Duncan functions both as the captain of Leto's guard and as a familiar face to calm Leto in his moments of distress. They remind Leto of his family, and he feels that he owes Duncan for his service and devotion to House Atreides. Over the centuries, a significant number of the gholas have attempted to assassinate Leto through various means after struggling with the conflict between their intense loyalty to House Atreides and the moral disgust triggered by the repression and stagnation Leto has forced upon the Empire. These feelings, compounded with the uneasy doubt caused by being millennia out of their time, drives some of the Duncan Idaho gholas insane. | |||
| The ]s send a new ambassador named ] to serve Leto, and though he realizes that she has been specifically designed and trained to ensnare him, he cannot resist falling in love with her. She agrees to marry him. Leto tests Siona by taking her out to the middle of the desert. After improperly using her ] to preserve moisture, dehydration forces her to accept Leto's offer of spice essence from his body to replenish her. Awakened to Leto's prophecy, which he calls the ], Siona is convinced of the importance of it. She remains dedicated to Leto's destruction, and an errant rainstorm demonstrates to her his mortal vulnerability to water. | |||
| Leto's "Golden Path," as he calls it, is a millennia-spanning attempt to produce a human who is invisible to a watcher gifted with prescience. This breeding plan, begun with the marriage of Leto's twin sister ] to ], has resulted in Leto's majordomo '''Moneo Atreides''' and his daughter '''Siona'''. Moneo has served Leto faithfully for the majority of his life, having been a rebel until he was shown the Golden Path in a test by Leto. Siona is the leader of a group of rebels seeking to overthrow the God Emperor and locate his hidden hoard of melange. Unbeknownst to Siona, '''Nayla''' — her close friend and ''de facto'' bodyguard — worships Leto, and is under orders to protect and obey Siona in all things while reporting on her rebellious activities. | |||
| When Duncan falls in love and copulates with Hwi, Moneo sends him and Siona out to Tuono Village, an outcropping along the Royal Procession road, to keep them safe from Leto's wrath. Leto changes the venue of his wedding from Tabur Village to Tuono Village. Siona and Duncan overcome a mutual hatred of each other to plan an assassination. As Leto's wedding procession moves across a high bridge over a river, Siona's associate ] destroys the support beams with a ]. The bridge collapses and Leto and his entourage, including Hwi, fall to their deaths into the river below. Leto's body rends apart in the water; the ] which are part of his body encyst the water and scurry off, while the worm portion burns and disintegrates on the shore. | |||
| During a raid on his Citadel, Siona and her friends steal, among other things, a series of excerpts from Leto's private journal. Unknown to them, Leto is aware of their activities and allows them to continue. In perusing some of the items and documents stolen from the Citadel, Siona learns that Leto remains capable of love, and plots to use this as a weapon against him. At the same time, the new Ixian ambassador, '''Hwi Noree''', is sent to the court of the God Emperor. Immediately entranced by her beauty, grace, and purity, Leto begins to be tortured by the knowledge that he and Hwi are separated by his continued transformation. For her part, Hwi desires nothing more than to serve the God Emperor, and she quickly becomes a confidante, finally expressing her love of Leto. The latest incarnation of Duncan is also captivated by Hwi's beauty, but is rebuffed by Leto, who warns that Hwi is his alone. | |||
| With his dying breaths, Leto reveals a secret portion of the Golden Path: the production of a human who is invisible to prescient vision. Having begun millennia before with the union of Leto's twin sister Ghanima and ] of ], Siona is the finished result, and she and her descendants will retain this ability. He explains that humanity is now free from the domination of oracles, free to scatter throughout the universe, never again to face complete domination or complete destruction. After revealing the location of his secret spice hoard, Leto dies, leaving Duncan and Siona to face the task of managing the empire. | |||
| Because of his intense feelings for Hwi and the fact that she had never appeared in his prescient visions, Leto realizes that she is a trap, trained and sent by the Ixians to weaken him. However, he is unable to send her away, and she gladly accepts his offer to remain. It is revealed that Hwi had been grown inside an Ixian ] — a device that shields its occupants from prescient view — from cells of a former Ixian ambassador, '''Malky''', who had been a cynical and roguish friend of the God Emperor. | |||
| The Ixians have also begun the construction of navigation computers that will render the ]'s ]s obsolete. Leto's death causes ], a great forced exodus of the former Imperium citizens to other galaxies and planets. | |||
| Through discussions with Moneo and Leto, Duncan learns about Leto's transformation, the Fish Speakers, and the oppressive measures Leto takes to maintain his absolute control over the Empire. He begins to grow more agitated and restless, though he continues in his duties, defending the God Emperor from an attack by ] ]s. Duncan struggles with feelings of inadequacy and the confusion and disorientation that result from existing in a time alien to him. Duncan meets Siona, and though the two of them are coldly formal to one another, they eventually unite to kill Leto and end his tyrannical rule over mankind. | |||
| ==Analysis== | |||
| Leto and Hwi decide to marry, and lead a wedding procession from Leto's Little Citadel to Tuono Village, where Duncan and Siona have been sent. While crossing the Idaho River, Siona orders Nayla to cut the supports of the bridge with a lasgun, spilling Moneo, Hwi, Leto, and a number of couriers into the jagged rocks in the canyon below. Nayla obeys despite her fanaticism toward the God Emperor, believing that the instructions are a test of her loyalty. Leto survives the fall, but is immersed in water, and his body begins to dissolve, just as did the sandworms of ancient Dune. In a final conversation with Siona and Duncan, Leto reveals that Siona is the embodiment of the Golden Path, a human completely shielded from prescient view. He explains that humanity is now free from the domination of oracles, free to scatter throughout the universe, never again to face complete domination. After revealing the location of his secret spice hoard, Leto dies, leaving Duncan and Siona to face the task of managing the empire. | |||
| ⚫ | In ''God Emperor of Dune'', Frank Herbert analyzes the cyclical patterns of human society, as well as humanity's evolutionary drives. Using his ancestral memories, Leto II has knowledge of the entirety of human history and is able to recall the effects and patterns of tyrannical institutions, from the ]n empire through to the ] on ancient Earth, and thus builds an empire existing as a complete nexus encompassing all these methods. This ] differs from the historical tyrants in that it is deliberately designed to end in destruction, and is only instituted in the first place as part of a plan to rescue humanity from an absolute destruction which Leto II has foreseen through his prescient visions. Leto II personally explores the emergent effects of civilization, noting that most hierarchical structures are remnants of evolutionary urges toward safety. Thus, by forming a perfectly safe and stable empire, Leto II delivers a message to be felt throughout history.<ref>{{Citation|surname=Touponce|given=William F.|year=1988|title=Frank Herbert|place=Boston, Massachusetts|publisher=Twayne Publishers imprint, G. K. Hall & Co|isbn=0-8057-7514-5|id=PS3558.E63Z89}} <!-- Part of Twayne's "United States authors series"; 136 pgs --></ref> | ||
| ⚫ | Stylistically, the novel is permeated by quotations from, and speeches by its main character, Leto, to a degree unseen in any of the other ''Dune'' novels. The quotations are from Leto's own dictated records, made for future humanity. In part, this stylistic shift is an artifact of how Herbert wrote it: the first draft was written almost entirely in the ] narrative voice, only being revised in later drafts to insert more third-person narration of events.<ref>"''God Emperor of Dune'' is unique in the series, however, because almost all of the quotations are from ''The Stolen Journals'' (and not from the complete journals found at Dar-es-Balat). They were written by Leto to personalize himself to distant readers in the future....Written in the first person (the early drafts of ''God Emperor'' show that Herbert wrote most of the novel in the first person and left notes for himself to transcribe into the third person; material that he did not transcribe resulted in the journal quotations), they range informally and thought-provokingly over a broad range of subjects from government to prophecy to the nature of language...I believe this is their primary function, for Leto so dominates the book that the other characters seem to exist at times only to bring out differences in him. Even in their most private thoughts they are all obsessed with the God Emperor." pg 87, Touponce 1988</ref> | ||
| ⚫ | |||
| ==Critical reception== | |||
| ==Style== | |||
| ''God Emperor of Dune'' was ranked as the No. 11 hardcover fiction best seller of 1981 by '']''.<ref name="20th Best">{{cite web|url=http://www3.isrl.illinois.edu/~unsworth/courses/entc312/s05/best80.cgi|title=20th-Century American Bestsellers|work=]/]|publisher=LIS.Illinois.edu|access-date=January 5, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719211204/http://www3.isrl.illinois.edu/~unsworth/courses/entc312/s05/best80.cgi|archive-date=July 19, 2011}}</ref> The '']'' wrote that the novel was "Rich fare ... heady stuff", and '']'' called it "a fourth visit to distant Arrakis that is every bit as fascinating as the other three—every bit as timely."<ref name="Praise">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RxxwnkPHlfEC&q=Praise%20for%20the%20Dune%20Chronicles|title=Children of Dune|chapter=Praise for the ''Dune'' Chronicles|first=Frank|last=Herbert|date=1976|edition=2008|publisher=]|isbn=9781440630514|access-date=May 24, 2020}}</ref> Critic ] of '']'' was less charitable, stating the original ''Dune'' novel "was just about a perfect science fiction" that had not been improved on: "not in ''Dune Messiah,'' in ''Children of Dune'' or in ''God Emperor of Dune.''"<ref name="NYT Review">{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/27/books/books-of-the-times-104040.html |title=Books of the Times |last=Leonard |first=John |date=April 27, 1981 |newspaper=] |access-date=August 5, 2020}}</ref> | |||
| ⚫ | Stylistically, the novel is permeated by quotations from, and speeches by its main character, Leto, to a degree unseen in any of the other ''Dune'' novels. In part, this stylistic shift is an artifact of how Herbert wrote it: the first draft was written almost entirely in the ] narrative voice, only being revised in later drafts to insert more third-person narration of events.<ref>"''God Emperor of Dune'' is unique in the series, however, because almost all of the quotations are from ''The Stolen Journals'' (and not from the complete journals found at Dar-es-Balat). They were written by Leto to personalize himself to distant readers in the future....Written in the first person (the early drafts of ''God Emperor'' show that Herbert wrote most of the novel in the first person and left notes for himself to transcribe into the third person; material that he did not transcribe resulted in the journal quotations), they range informally and thought-provokingly over a broad range of subjects from government to prophecy to the nature of language...I believe this is their primary function, for Leto so dominates the book that the other characters seem to exist at times only to bring out differences in him. Even in their most private thoughts they are all obsessed with the God Emperor." pg 87, Touponce 1988</ref> | ||
| ==In popular culture== | |||
| ==Footnotes== | |||
| The book is parodied in the animated television show '']'' in the ] episode "Mandy, the Merciless", with Mandy as the emperor Leto II, and Billy as Duncan Idaho.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.slashfilm.com/1529708/cartoon-network-grim-adventures-billy-mandy-parodied-weirdest-dune-book-god-emperor/ |title=That Time a Cartoon Network Show Parodied The Weirdest ''Dune'' Book |first=Rafael |last=Motamayor |date=March 1, 2024 |work=] |access-date=March 4, 2024}}</ref> | |||
| ⚫ | {{reflist}} | ||
| ==References== | ==References== | ||
| ⚫ | {{reflist}} | ||
| *{{Harvard reference| | |||
| Surname=Touponce| | |||
| Given=William F.| | |||
| Authorlink=| | |||
| Year=1988| | |||
| Title=Frank Herbert| | |||
| Place=Boston, Massachusetts| | |||
| Publisher=Twayne Publishers imprint, ]| | |||
| ID=ISBN 0-8057-7514-5; PS3558.E63Z89| | |||
| URL=}} <!-- Part of Twayne's "United States authors series"; 136 pgs --> | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| *] | |||
| ==External links== | ==External links== | ||
| {{wikiquote|Dune}} | {{wikiquote|Dune}} | ||
| * {{isfdb title|id=1863 |
* {{isfdb title|id=1863}} | ||
| * | |||
| {{ |
{{Dune franchise}} | ||
| {{ |
{{Frank Herbert}} | ||
| {{Authority control}} | |||
| {{extended Dune series}} | |||
| ] | ] | ||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | ] | ||
| ] | ] | ||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
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Latest revision as of 17:17, 14 December 2024
1981 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert_First_edition.jpg) First US edition | |
| Author | Frank Herbert |
|---|---|
| Audio read by | Simon Vance |
| Cover artist | Brad Holland |
| Language | English |
| Series | Dune series |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Published | 1981 |
| Publisher | Putnam |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover & paperback) |
| Pages | 496 |
| ISBN | 0-575-02976-5 |
| OCLC | 16544554 |
| Preceded by | Children of Dune |
| Followed by | Heretics of Dune |
God Emperor of Dune is a science fiction novel by American writer Frank Herbert, published in 1981. The fourth in his Dune series of six novels, it was ranked as the No. 11 hardcover fiction best seller of 1981 by Publishers Weekly.
Plot
Leto II Atreides, the God Emperor, has ruled the universe as a tyrant for 3,500 years after becoming a hybrid of human and sandworm. The death of all other sandworms as a result of the terraforming of Arrakis, and his control of the remaining supply of the all-important spice, has allowed him to keep civilization under his complete command. Leto has been physically transformed into a worm, retaining only his human face and arms, and though he is now seemingly immortal and invulnerable to harm, he is prone to instinct-driven bouts of violence when provoked to anger. As a result, his rule is one of religious awe and despotic fear.
Leto has disbanded the Landsraad to all but a few Great Houses; the remaining powers defer to his authority, although they individually conspire against him in secret. The Fremen have long since lost their military power and have been replaced by the Fish Speakers, an all-female army who obey Leto without question. He has rendered the human population into a state of trans-galactic stagnation; space travel is non-existent to most people in his empire, which he has deliberately kept to a near-medieval level of technological sophistication. All of this he has done in accordance with a prophecy divined through precognition that will establish an enforced peace preventing humanity from destroying itself through aggressive behavior.
Arrakis has been transformed via terraforming from a desert planet to a lush forested biosphere with the exception of "The Sareer", a single section of desert retained by Leto for his Citadel. A string of Duncan Idaho gholas have served Leto over the millennia, and, during that time, Leto has also fostered the bloodline of his twin sister Ghanima. Her descendant, Moneo Atreides, is Leto's majordomo and closest confidant, while Moneo's daughter, Siona, has become the leader of an Arrakis-based rebellion against Leto. She steals a set of Leto's secret journals from his archives, not realizing that he has allowed it. Leto intends to breed Siona with the latest Duncan ghola, but is aware that the ghola, moved by his own morality, may try to assassinate him before this can occur.
The Ixians send a new ambassador named Hwi Noree to serve Leto, and though he realizes that she has been specifically designed and trained to ensnare him, he cannot resist falling in love with her. She agrees to marry him. Leto tests Siona by taking her out to the middle of the desert. After improperly using her stillsuit to preserve moisture, dehydration forces her to accept Leto's offer of spice essence from his body to replenish her. Awakened to Leto's prophecy, which he calls the Golden Path, Siona is convinced of the importance of it. She remains dedicated to Leto's destruction, and an errant rainstorm demonstrates to her his mortal vulnerability to water.
When Duncan falls in love and copulates with Hwi, Moneo sends him and Siona out to Tuono Village, an outcropping along the Royal Procession road, to keep them safe from Leto's wrath. Leto changes the venue of his wedding from Tabur Village to Tuono Village. Siona and Duncan overcome a mutual hatred of each other to plan an assassination. As Leto's wedding procession moves across a high bridge over a river, Siona's associate Nayla destroys the support beams with a lasgun. The bridge collapses and Leto and his entourage, including Hwi, fall to their deaths into the river below. Leto's body rends apart in the water; the sandtrout which are part of his body encyst the water and scurry off, while the worm portion burns and disintegrates on the shore.
With his dying breaths, Leto reveals a secret portion of the Golden Path: the production of a human who is invisible to prescient vision. Having begun millennia before with the union of Leto's twin sister Ghanima and Farad'n of House Corrino, Siona is the finished result, and she and her descendants will retain this ability. He explains that humanity is now free from the domination of oracles, free to scatter throughout the universe, never again to face complete domination or complete destruction. After revealing the location of his secret spice hoard, Leto dies, leaving Duncan and Siona to face the task of managing the empire.
The Ixians have also begun the construction of navigation computers that will render the Spacing Guild's Navigators obsolete. Leto's death causes the Scattering, a great forced exodus of the former Imperium citizens to other galaxies and planets.
Analysis
In God Emperor of Dune, Frank Herbert analyzes the cyclical patterns of human society, as well as humanity's evolutionary drives. Using his ancestral memories, Leto II has knowledge of the entirety of human history and is able to recall the effects and patterns of tyrannical institutions, from the Babylonian empire through to the Jesuits on ancient Earth, and thus builds an empire existing as a complete nexus encompassing all these methods. This galactic empire differs from the historical tyrants in that it is deliberately designed to end in destruction, and is only instituted in the first place as part of a plan to rescue humanity from an absolute destruction which Leto II has foreseen through his prescient visions. Leto II personally explores the emergent effects of civilization, noting that most hierarchical structures are remnants of evolutionary urges toward safety. Thus, by forming a perfectly safe and stable empire, Leto II delivers a message to be felt throughout history.
Stylistically, the novel is permeated by quotations from, and speeches by its main character, Leto, to a degree unseen in any of the other Dune novels. The quotations are from Leto's own dictated records, made for future humanity. In part, this stylistic shift is an artifact of how Herbert wrote it: the first draft was written almost entirely in the first-person narrative voice, only being revised in later drafts to insert more third-person narration of events.
Critical reception
God Emperor of Dune was ranked as the No. 11 hardcover fiction best seller of 1981 by Publishers Weekly. The Los Angeles Times wrote that the novel was "Rich fare ... heady stuff", and Time called it "a fourth visit to distant Arrakis that is every bit as fascinating as the other three—every bit as timely." Critic John Leonard of The New York Times was less charitable, stating the original Dune novel "was just about a perfect science fiction" that had not been improved on: "not in Dune Messiah, in Children of Dune or in God Emperor of Dune."
In popular culture
The book is parodied in the animated television show The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy in the 2003–04 season episode "Mandy, the Merciless", with Mandy as the emperor Leto II, and Billy as Duncan Idaho.
References
- Touponce, William F. (1988), Frank Herbert, Boston, Massachusetts: Twayne Publishers imprint, G. K. Hall & Co, ISBN 0-8057-7514-5, PS3558.E63Z89
- "God Emperor of Dune is unique in the series, however, because almost all of the quotations are from The Stolen Journals (and not from the complete journals found at Dar-es-Balat). They were written by Leto to personalize himself to distant readers in the future....Written in the first person (the early drafts of God Emperor show that Herbert wrote most of the novel in the first person and left notes for himself to transcribe into the third person; material that he did not transcribe resulted in the journal quotations), they range informally and thought-provokingly over a broad range of subjects from government to prophecy to the nature of language...I believe this is their primary function, for Leto so dominates the book that the other characters seem to exist at times only to bring out differences in him. Even in their most private thoughts they are all obsessed with the God Emperor." pg 87, Touponce 1988
- "20th-Century American Bestsellers". The Bowker Annual/Publishers Weekly. LIS.Illinois.edu. Archived from the original on July 19, 2011. Retrieved January 5, 2010.
- Herbert, Frank (1976). "Praise for the Dune Chronicles". Children of Dune (2008 ed.). Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN 9781440630514. Retrieved May 24, 2020.
- Leonard, John (April 27, 1981). "Books of the Times". The New York Times. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
- Motamayor, Rafael (March 1, 2024). "That Time a Cartoon Network Show Parodied The Weirdest Dune Book". /Film. Retrieved March 4, 2024.
External links
- God Emperor of Dune title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- God Emperor of Dune
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| Dune |
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| ConSentiency |
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| The Pandora Sequence |
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| Short story collections |
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