“Children of Dune”, by Frank Herbert

408 pages, Berkley Books, ISBN-13: 978-0425074992

Children of Dune is the third book in the Dune series; although there are six Frank Herbert authored books in total, the first three form a trilogy, essentially the biography of Paul Atreides and his family (the other books take place much later, as you’ll soon find out). Nine years after the conclusion of Dune Messiah, Paul Muad’dib’s orphaned twins, Ghanima and Leto, are quickly growing up and realizing that they are pawns in an epic struggle for the control of the Imperium. Paul is believed to be dead, a martyr last seen at the end of Messiah. The political and religious empire he had created is prospering under his sister, Alia, who is acting as regent until Paul’s twin children come of age. With indications of decadence already appearing, a mysterious Preacher is speaking out against the failings of this empire, and there are those who believe that this Preacher may in fact be Paul, still very much alive.

One of the reasons that this book is stronger than the second book is the return of Lady Jessica, absent since the end of the first book. With her daughter Alia seemingly going mad (read the book to find out what’s really going on), Jessica becomes entangled in plots that could be fatal to her and her grandchildren. The twins themselves, intellectually far older than their physical ages and gifted with inherited talents, are hardly helpless in all this intriguing. However, Children is no light-hearted romp through a perfect future, for Herbert created one of the richest and most detailed universes in science fiction, extrapolating Earth history into a much larger cosmic history. There are so many ideas at work here – religion, politics, conspiracies, ecology, energy, culture – plus subplots that don’t appear to go anywhere (at first); Herbert reveals them gradually like peeling away the layers of an onion. In this third book, the story expands in ways that are almost bewildering at times. But I never lost interest. A dense, almost convoluted narrative that is both fascinating and frustrating, and a worthy ending to the first trilogy.