"Dune Messiah" Review

• Title:  "Dune Messiah"
• Author:  Frank Herbert
  
• Finished:  January 31, 2009 
• Synopsis:  This book is the 2nd book in the original "Dune Chronicles" by Frank Herbert.  A pretty good synopsis is found here.
• Impression of the book: Of the six Dune books written by Frank Herbert, this one is the shortest and maybe the most disturbing.  It deals with the elevation of a ruler to Messiah or god-like status.  Paul struggles with what his followers (both political and religious) are doing in his name and his inability to stop them even with his tremendous powers.  The book deals with the dangers of religion and politics riding in the same boat.  It also demonstrates that sometimes these political-religious movements depend more on a figurehead than a true leader.
• Read Again Scale:  10
• Like "Dune" this book is also on my five year re-read list.
• Read Another Book by the Same Author:  10
• Frank Herbert is one of greats of science fiction.  Eventually, I plan to read every novel that he wrote.

Even though this is the second novel in the series, it is the last book that I read.  That is a long story.  This is an excellent bridge between Dune and Children of Dune, but does not stand out as a singular encapsulated story. It does however introduce new concepts such as the pitfalls of absolute prediction (perfect prescience) and the intrigue that surrounds an emperor with no heir. If you are a science fiction fan (or thinking of giving the genre a try), the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert is a good place to dive into.  If you enjoy the world that he creates, you might try the other books written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.  Again, I will warn you that if you don't enjoy sci-fi, take a pass on this book and series.