Dune Messiah — Book Review

Short review, spoiler sections clearly marked below subtitles.

TL;DR I preferred Dune Messiah to its predecessor, Dune. It’s everything that Dune was but more extreme and faster paced.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the long descriptions of sand and thirst as much as the next reader—but I do prefer Dune Messiah’s scathing political intrigue.

For a summary, you can find my two-minute Dune Messiah review on TikTok!

Dune Messiah, Villenueve, and Lynch

Minor spoilers for the end of Villeneuve’s Dune Part Two, and minor spoilers for the overarching plot of Dune Messiah.

A lot of people have talked about the differences between Dune and the new films, but I don’t see so many people talking about how Messiah has influenced the production of these films. And when I say people, I do mean ignorant internet warriors rather than columnists who have researched their topics.

It interests me that so many individuals feel the need to slate Lynch and Villeneuve’s films based on some uninformed opinion that neither properly ‘read’ or ‘appreciated’ the book(s), when, from my perspective, both directors loved these books enough to be incapable of escaping Dune Messiah’s gravitational pull. Messiah leaves its shadows across all of their films. Surely, anyone who has read Messiah can see it in the presence of Edric and ‘the moon!’ in Lynch, and also in Villeneuve’s desire to plant the seeds of a Fremen rebellion against Paul earlier than Frank Herbert’s Dune did.

Having now seen Villeneuve’s part one and two of Dune, we know that a Dune part three is on the horizon, though it’s still a long way off hitting cinema screens.

My Favourite Moments of Dune Messiah

Big Spoilers for Dune Messiah

Dune Messiah felt like a reward for struggling through Dune book one. Alia has always been a strange character, but in this sequel she really inhabits her own difference and weaponises it for her own benefit.

I did miss Jessica here, but her absence was interesting in its own way. Seeing her children develop without her guidance (or closeting, perhaps both) felt key to the direction of the plot. Nonetheless, she’s one of my favourite characters in the series and I was sad to read that she wasn’t an active presence in this book.

Scytale is the newest, most exciting addition to the Dune cast, and unfortunately won’t be returning in future titles. Scytale shares a lot with one of my favourite literary fiction characters ever, Steerpike from Gormenghast, and I loved to read about his presumptuous, people-hating ambition as it spiraled into ever-greater monstrosities.

As a shapeshifter, Scytale is one of the many indicators that Dune Messiah is much stranger than its predecessor. There’s also the somewhat erotic scene with Alia fighting a robot in the nude, the escalated question of whether incest will occur in these books, and a romantic, philosophical zombie.

I always felt that Dune leaned more towards traditional fantasy elements than sci-fi ones, and Messiah cements that belief even more firmly for me.

My Criticisms of Dune Messiah

My main difficulty with Dune Messiah is that its female characters take a step back from the politicking and activity in this book, and instead get pushed around by whichever man is in the room at the time.

In book one, Chani was vibrant and active. In Messiah, she’s loving, but grumpy and stifled.

Irulan enters the main stage, only to have her plans consistently and quietly squashed by everyone.

Jessica is simply absent.

Gaius Helen Mohiam is quickly imprisoned by Paul and outdone at every turn by Scytale.

Alia has the most energy and effect on the narrative, but at the same time she feels separated from the main struggles.

Even the spoils of Paul’s first victory, Jamis’ wife, Harah, is mentioned in this book but kept to the side. In Dune book one, she offers insight into seitch life and offers wisdom to Jessica, Paul, and Chani. In Dune Messiah, she’s simply one of Stilgar’s wives. I can’t remember if she even got a spoken line of dialogue in Dune Messiah.

Reading Dune Messiah made me feel like perhaps Frank Herbert had been making an active decision to include women in the plot of Dune book one, and that he simply forgot to keep their importance in book two. It felt quite old-fashioned to read in a series that already had a few problems with prejudice.

Summary of Dune Messiah

I’m not sure how many of the Dune books I will read, but I think I will read Children of Dune! Before that, though, I need to go back to Brandon Sanderson’s Cyotverse… It’s time for some Starsight!