"Children of Dune" Review

• Title:  "Children of Dune"
• Author:  Frank Herbert
  
• Finished: April 17, 2009
• Synopsis:  This book is the 3rd book in the original "Dune Chronicles" by Frank Herbert.  A pretty good synopsis is found here.
• Impression of the book: This book brings closure to many of the issues raised in the first two novels.  Leto (son of the emperor who was both worshiped and hated) brings about a more complete transformation of society than even his father managed, but he pays a terrible price. 
• 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
• As I mentioned in the "Dune Messiah" review, Frank Herbert is one of greats of science fiction.  Eventually, I plan to read every novel that he wrote.

This book shows how the twin children of an emperor (who was elevated to messiah status) deal with the problems he left behind.  The twins must negotiate assassination plots, family politics, and a crumbling religion based on their father.  AND they have to do all this before they turn 10.  The end of this novel is closure for the first "trilogy" in the Dune Chronicles, and it is likely that Herbert intended to end his story here. I enjoyed the follow-on novels, but the ~5 years between this book and the next one tells me that Herbert was persuaded to expand his universe rather than planning it.  As I wrote during the Dune and Dune Messiah reviews, 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.