God emperor of Dune
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Language
English
Description
Book Four in the Magnificent Dune Chronicles—the Bestselling Science Fiction Adventure of All TimeMillennia have passed on Arrakis, and the once-desert planet is green with life. Leto Atreides, the son of the world’s savior, the Emperor Paul Muad’Dib, is still alive but far from human. To preserve humanity’s future, he sacrificed his own by merging with a sandworm, granting him near-immortality as God Emperor of Dune for the past 3,500 years. Leto’s rule is not a benevolent one. His transformation has not only made his appearance inhuman, but his morality. A rebellion has risen to oppose the despot’s rule, led by Siona, a member of the Atreides family. But Siona is unaware that Leto’s vision of a Golden Path for humanity requires her to fulfill a destiny she never wanted—or could possibly conceive...
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Contributors
Brick, Scott Narrator
Herbert, Brian writer of introduction
Herbert, Frank Author
Kellgren, Katherine Narrator
Vance, Simon Narrator
Herbert, Brian writer of introduction
Herbert, Frank Author
Kellgren, Katherine Narrator
Vance, Simon Narrator
ISBN
9780593201756
9781440631979
9781427204332
9781440631979
9781427204332
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Similar Series From Novelist
NoveList provides detailed suggestions for series you might like if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
Readers of the Dune saga will find similarly thought-provoking stories in the Hainish series. Both contain complex, vividly described worlds and emphasize the characters as much as their adventures, which provide food for thought as well as physical challenges. -- Katherine Johnson
While Dune contains more complex world-building and Song of Ice and Fire focuses on characters' descriptions and actions, themes of social struggle and individual loyalty drive both dramatic series through generations of characters. Song of Fire and Ice is more violent, sexual, and morally ambiguous. -- Matthew Ransom
Dramatic, descriptive, and richly detailed, these character-driven science fiction sagas set on strange planets in distant galaxies, boast extensive world-building and intricate plotting, immersing readers in their complex stories. In both series, societies in crisis seek salvation from unlikely sources. -- NoveList Contributor
Strong protagonists control the fates of worlds in these intricately-plotted science fiction series, where the detailed setting is a fully realized character in its own right. These series create new cultures and include space travel and complex political machinations. -- Kaitlyn Moore
These world-building series, both starring strong female protagonists, imagine a far future where psychic ability plays an important role in the fate of humankind. Each series is a richly detailed vision of the possibilities of technology, science, and alien life. -- Mike Nilsson
Though Dune is a space opera and Broken Earth is an Afrofuturist science fiction tale, both of these intricately world-built science fiction series feature complex family relationships within a world filled with political strife and hidden mystical power. -- Stephen Ashley
These cinematic space operas with a strong sense of place and coming-of-age themes feature bewildered protagonists who are destined for greatness in fantastical worlds suffused with elements from Greek tragedies (Dune) and Japanese mythology (Kojiki). -- Andrienne Cruz
These dramatic, sweeping series feature large conflicts between worlds and smaller ones as powerful families get embroiled in political intrigue. Both feature detailed world-building and characters with psychic abilities, though Dune's tone is darker and more thoughtful. -- Kaitlyn Moore
Fans of speculative stories with complex world-building and political intrigue will enjoy both of these sweeping series. Dune is a space opera, while Masquerade is more of an epic fantasy. -- Stephen Ashley
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NoveList recommends "Broken Earth novels" for fans of "Dune novels. Main series". Check out the first book in the series.
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NoveList provides detailed suggestions for other authors you might want to read if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
Readers of the original Dune books by Frank Herbert will want to continue with the series taken over by his son, Brian, as well as exploring Brian's other fiction and his nonfiction, including a biography of his father. -- Katherine Johnson
These world-building authors create thought-provoking science fiction by invoking engaging characters in fascinating settings with imaginative technology. The schisms and alliances between spirituality and science are themes shared by their intricately plotted novels. Descriptive narrative, shifts of perspective, and dramatic action fuse into compelling reading. -- Matthew Ransom
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In their intricately plotted and sweeping science fiction epics, both N.K. Jemisin and Frank Herbert create worlds with complex mythologies and characters forced to make difficult decisions amid their grand heroic plans. -- Stephen Ashley
Alien worlds spring vividly to life in the works of Frank Herbert and Arkady Martine. Impressive world-building and creatively imagined nuances among alien cultures set the stage for political intrigue between large casts of characters in both authors' dramatic, complex, and intricately plotted space operas. -- Alicia Cavitt
Both Frank Herbert and Neon Yang write sweeping space operas that incorporate complex mythological and political elements. Herbert's writing tends to be more descriptive than Yang's spare prose. -- Stephen Ashley
Fans of Frank Herbert's epic science fiction series Dune will appreciate Seth Dickinson's science fiction and epic fantasy novels. Both authors create intricately plotted stories with impressive world-building featuring imaginary battles, imperialism, alien life, intrigue, betrayal, conspiracies, and revenge. Flawed characters add depth to their suspenseful and thought-provoking stories. -- Alicia Cavitt
Fans of high concept, sweeping science fiction epics will enjoy the works of Frank Herbert and Cixin Liu. Both authors write stories that intensify as they progress, but Liu's tales are focused more on hard science, while Herbert's incorporate more fantasy elements. -- Stephen Ashley
Both China Mieville and Frank Herbert create inventive and intricately plotted science fiction novels featuring detailed world-building that vividly describe life, politics, and commerce on remote planets. Fantasy elements like giant earthworms, krakens, and psychic abilities add complexity to their thought-provoking stories which can often be read allegorically. -- Alicia Cavitt
Though Tamsyn Muir's work is snarkier than Frank Herbert's more serious writing, both are known for writing dramatic and complex science fiction with deeply intricate world building. -- Stephen Ashley
Readers who enjoy speculative fiction featuring intricate world-building will appreciate the work of Frank Herbert and Ken Liu. Both Herbert's space operas and Liu's Asian-influenced epic fantasy novels revolve around rivalries, schemes, military strategies, political ambitions, intrigue, and imaginary battles involving large casts of characters. -- Alicia Cavitt
Science fiction authors Frank Herbert and Kim Stanley Robinson create richly detailed worlds set on alien planes inhabited by large casts of characters whose ideas and backgrounds vary wildly. Their stories are atmospheric, issue-oriented, and thought-provoking. Robinson writes hard science fiction while Herbert's stories contain fantasy elements. -- Alicia Cavitt
Published Reviews
Kirkus Book Review
This fourth and apparently final episode in the Atreides saga--following Dune (1965), Dune Messiah (1969) and Children of Dune (1976)--is a fatalistic, somber, typically complex creation which manifests something of the structure of a Bach fugue (a parallel which Herbert clearly intended). 3500 years have passed since the death of Paul Atreides and the accession of his son Leto II: the ecological transformation of Dune is complete, with crops, forests and seas obliterating the desert; the sandworms have vanished, ending ""melange"" (addictive geriatric spice) production; the God Emperor Leto broods in his citadel as he slowly metamorphoses into Shai-Hulud, the fearsome giant sandworm of old Dune. So now there's a dullish peace throughout the Empire, rigidly enforced by the Emperor's ruthless control of the remaining melange and his omniscient, oracular vision. But, while wise old royal majordomo Moneo is convinced of Leto's essentially benevolent intentions, embittered Siona (Moneo's daughter) and bewildered, reincarnated Duncan Idaho (latest in a long line of clones provided by the Tleilaxu for Leto's use) view him as a vicious tyrant to be expunged at all costs. The resulting struggle unfolds at a stately, almost staid pace, with even more talk than usual (tantamount to a lecture at times) and less action. Leto himself, however, gradually emerges as a genuinely tragic hero, accepting (and even abetting) his own approaching doom at the hands of Siona and Idaho--who never fully appreciate the terrible sacrifices Leto has made in order to redeem a humanity of which he is no longer wholly a part. Something of a disappointment in terms of surface action, then--but ultimately profound, poignant and powerful: a fitting end to a series which, its many faults notwithstanding, is unequaled in scope, intelligence, inventiveness, and narrative power. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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