1995 Parallel Rendering Symposium (PRS 95) Book

Only half the length of the original Dune, the second book in the series takes place 12 years after.

Not as epic, this is almost like a chamber western, with political intrigue and references to great goings on, but little action described. The feel of the book is like a prelude to what comes next, that the third book will be the true sequel to Dune.

For fans of Dune, no doubt, and you really need to have read Dune first, to know the characters and to at least have a clue about Herbert's complex and intricately detailed world building.

But then, comparing this book to Dune is like comparing a country lawyer to a Supreme Court justice, the comparison itself is unfair, very few books will equal Dune or even come close. Dune Messiah is part of Herbert's great vision and is a good book in its own right.

*** 2019 Reread

Coming back to this book years later and after having read all of the first six that Frank Herbert, I have a better appreciation for Herbert's great vision. Describing a conspiracy against Paul after his conquest of the Universe, and devastation of myriad worlds and billions of lives lost, the author creates a setting of disquiet, as Paul's chapter slowly and strangely ends and Leto's will begin.

Herbert's literary grasp of theology, ideology and spiritualism is on full display and this is an important book in his canon.