Dune Messiah (Berkley SF, N1847) (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "Such a rich store of myths enfolds Paul Muad'dib, the Mentat Emperor, and his sister, Alia, it is difficult to see the real persons behind..." (more)
Key Phrases: shield wall, stone burner, oracular vision, Reverend Mother, Bene Gesserit, Duncan Idaho (more...)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 253 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Publishing Corporation; 1st Paperback edition (January 1, 1970)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425018474
• ISBN-13: 978-0425018477
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (184 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,813,527 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

112 of 117 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite possibly the best in the series., August 6, 2000

By	Jonnyboy117 (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dune Messiah (Dune Chronicles, Book 2) (Paperback)

Dune Messiah suffers in the general consensus from being plot-driven and extremely complex; for readers who take the time and effort to delve into its themes and characters, it is one of the greatest sci-fi books of all time. Messiah is not so much a sequel to Dune as it is a companion; it is impossible to fully understand the themes, motivations, and implications of the original Dune (or any of the others, even) without reading and comprehending Dune Messiah. Herbert takes his average hero from the first book and shapes him into a realistic, faulted human -- ironic considering Paul's decidedly abnormal powers. Finally, we see Muad'dib as he really is: torn by his position as emperor, cursed by his vision of the future, yet still capable of his duties to kingdom and family. His ultimate fate sums up a masterful, twisted analogy to the life of Christ. This is also the incredible origin of Duncan...the Duncan you will come to know throughout the other books. Messiah is not for the faint of heart though. If you can't handle a lot of philosophy, just keep walking. Some points in Dune Messiah are so profound that I had to quit reading and just spend a couple minutes thinking about what Herbert means. What a rare treat that is; I can honestly say that Dune Messiah changed the way I think about things, about life. If you give it a chance, it may just do the same for you.

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The End of an Epic - He died for their sins....., October 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dune Messiah (Dune Chronicles, Book 2) (Paperback)

I read Dune over three years ago, and naturally I loved it. When I tried to read Dune Messiah I couldn't, I found it boring, and felt that the main character was now too old.
Recently, I reread Dune and continued on through to Dune Messiah, reading both in only two weeks.
Dune Messiah is really just a continuation of the first, and it delivers a 'triumphant tragedy' that is makes a fitting end to the life of a Messiah.
Paul is thirty now (not very old at all), and the Jihad he feared so much is serving the purpose it is supposed to, mingling the genes of humanity and ending the stagnation that existing under the old Imperial system. He has been made both an Emporer and a God, and Alia leads his religion. Pilgrims come in their thousands to Arrakis to experience his Holyness.
However, there are many who plot against him. The Bene Gesserit wish to destroy Paul before he has the chance to establish an Atreides dynasty and regain the precious genes they worked so hard to create. The Fremen long for the old ways when water was precious and Arrakis was theirs. The Bene Tleilax want to gain a kwisatz haderach they can control, and the priests of Maud'Dib's own religion wish to make a martyr of him.
And with his prescience, Paul sees disaster for all man kind unless he follows one set path of the future, but is he willing to pay the price that comes with that future?
The plots that surround Paul are intriguing in their own right, but more intriguing is the development of Paul himself. Or rather, Paul's realisation that what he has created leads to its own stagnation. His powers also develop somewhat, making him an even more realistic Messiah, and finally, it ends in what is in many ways a tragedy, I certainly left this book feeling sad, but it is also in many ways a triumph.
I do not feel that this revelation spoils the book, because it could be sumised because of the Messianic nature of Paul, and because from the very begining of this book, all paths lead to a tragedy in one form or another.
Once I got over the initial depression, I realised that this book perfected the Messiah story begun in Dune, and together they make one of the best works of literature ever. I feel that the two must be considered as one story.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Think of it as Part 4 of the first book., March 7, 2000

By	Michael D Ward (Lexington, KY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dune Messiah (Dune Chronicles, Book 2) (Paperback)

The first time a read Dune: Messiah I was more than a little disappointed. By when I re-read Dune I also re-read Dune: Messiah. This was the first time I'd read them back-to-back, and I realized that Dune: Messiah was actually the conclusion to Dune and not a seperate book. As a stand alone book it's barely passable, as a sequal it's worth 3-stars, but as the fourth part of the first book it's a perfect conclusion. Dune was divided into 3 parts (called books) and the last ends with a nice Hollywood ending. Dune: Messiah shows the real conclusion to Paul's Life and the real consequences of his actions in the rest of the book. I think Herbert had to end the first book with Paul on top of the Universe because that is what reader's want, but Messsiah is a more somber look at what it means to have power. After I had re-read Dune and Dune: Messiah, I came across used cliff notes for Dune, and I noticed that it had an essay which treated to two books as one and compared them to a Greek epic pointing out that Greek epics didn't end when the hero was on top, but continued to the end of the hero's life. With the inclusion of Dune: Messiah, Dune now tells us the complete story of Paul's life, and what an incredible story it is. Do not read this book, rather read Dune and this book together.