When I read what Brian Herbert (Frank’s son) wrote in his introduction to the book, that “Dune Messiah is the most misunderstood of Frank Herbert’s novels,” I knew that the reviews from the internet would prove to be true. The sequel is inferior to the original Dune novel. But I will still be reading the third book in the trilogy, and I am hopeful.
If I were Frank Herbert and I could go back and write the novels again, I would have drawn out the battle between the Fremen and the Sardaukar in the original Dune. It seemed like there was so much rising action and then the climax was over in a flash. The Padishah Emperor lands on Arrakis and then all of a sudden his Sardaukar forces are overwhelmed in what seems to be an instant by the Fremen. Meanwhile, Paul and Chani’s son is killed in one of the sietches. An entire separate 500-page novel could have been written to describe these events.
It almost seems like Frank Herbert was growing tired of writing the original and wasn’t yet planning to write the sequel, so he truncated the story and sped things along. Because of this, an entirely new storyline had to be created for the sequel. Paul is now Emperor of the known universe. Jessica is back on Caladan. And new main characters like Irulan, Edric, Scytale, and Hayt are introduced.
The central conflict completely shifts. Instead of leading the Fremen rebellion on Arrakis to reclaim his ducal throne, Paul is now fighting to maintain control over his political position and his prescient powers. As a result, the content of Dune Messiah became more politically and intellectually complex. Herbert spends more words on monologues than plot progression. As someone who reads Sci-Fi for the page-turning aspect of a good story, the sequel was less enjoyable than the original. I would have liked to read an elongation of the same plot from the original.
A thematic element that I noticed more in Dune Messiah was the balance between Mentat and Bene Gesserit. Both are powerful in their own way. Mentats are logical and data-driven. Bene Gesserit have abilities of the Voice and speech recognition. In Fremen societies, the Reverend Mothers of the Bene Gesserit are responsible for “changing” the poison into a drug that fuels Fremen orgies. Interestingly, Mentats are mostly men and Bene Gesserit are mostly woman. The respective powers of each type seems to align with our traditional understanding of gender—men being more logical and women being more emotional and empathic. Paul is the exception to this rule. He is the Kwisatz Haderach. He has the powers both of a Mentat and a Bene Gesserit (from his mother’s training).
A tangential note related to Dune: I’m starting to notice a common theme in the later works of authors that have experienced success with earlier works. I’ve noticed it with Hesse (earlier works being Gertrude, Demian, and Siddhartha, later work being Glass Bead Game), Huxley (earlier work being Brave New World, later work being Island), and now Frank Herbert (earlier work being Dune and later work being its sequel, Dune Messiah). The theme is that the author pays more attention to plot and character development in earlier works, and then more attention to theme and philosophical musings (often written into dialogue) in later works. The attempt to fit themes and philosophy into plot seems to be a less covert effort in later works. Instead the authors just come right out and say it using their characters as mouthpieces. Perhaps this is due to arrogance and laziness resulting from past successes. Or maybe later works are driven by ulterior motives such as commercial success.