Children of Dune (1976) Review
-For the Uncensored!
As Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah left the series on a cliff hanger of Paul losing his sight and wandering off into the Desert, Children of Dune takes place 9 years later. Published in 1976 by ACE, a Berkley imprint of Penguin publishers, the captivating perspectives Herbert takes is what most commercial writers can’t do. Find a story that they can tell, without sacrificing there integrity for a larger audience sake. This was also one year before Star Wars: A New Hope came out. So, keep that in mind.
Stilgar and Alia are raising Paul’s Children. But Stilgar remarks, “How simple things were when our messiah was only a dream, Stilgar thought. By finding our Mahdi we loosed upon the universe countless Messianic dreams. Every people subjugated by the jihad now dreams of a leader to come.” (pg. 4).
They are too smart for there own good. Wild, rambunctious, but gifted with all the collective memories of there parents. Leto II could, with his young powers, turn into Paul at any moment. Ghamina, who is named for Spoils of War, are beyond gifted. It makes sense why Herbert would give the twins Paul’s powers, because Chani was poisoned by spice in Dune Messiah, but the twins would have been powerful on there own anyway.
Jessica and Princess Irulan return to see the twins. Only Paul and Ghamina hear of a stranger called the Preacher. “You think he’s our father.” “Ask yourself that question.” (p. 51). It seems that the story itself proves its point for itself. I can see where Microsoft’s Gears of War pulls some threads of Herbert’s vision into its masterful series.
But Alia has doubts. She can’t see her future, and it drives her insane as Jessica and Princess Irulan make there return to Dune. “Without a vision of the future I could fail. Oh what magic I could perform if only I could see as Paul saw! Not for me the bitterness which prescient visions brought.” (p. 21) But the consequence of Paul’s Jihad paid a terrible price upon all of them. But before Paul died, he made Dune into a lush green planet. Alia is being invaded by voices through her spice mélange training, as Agamemnon speaks to Alia too. “I Agamemnon, your ancestor, demand an audience.” (P. 86)
What is sad to note is that there is no room for individuality with Leto the II and Ghamina. They are always confronted by the past, present and future. They have access to there memories, but individuality proves detrimental to the world of Dune. The Water of Life connects all the characters together. Through space and time. If the Bible is connected to the Old Testament, the past is always connected, as a noun, Past, as noun, is considered shameful. And leaders can’t lead based on Shame without the knowledge of the Past, which Leto the II and Ghamina are constantly aware of.