Nick Perzacki’s Reviews > Children of Dune > Status Update

RIP #2 to my boy Duncan, you will be missed dearly, until you’re brought back again I’m sure. All jokes aside, Alia finally crying after losing him despite the Baron screaming in her skull was pretty impactful. I want poor Ghanima to get her memories back, she’s been doing all this lowkey half-blind since like midway through this book, let my girl back in on the plan.

“My skin is not my own” - we are oh so close, bring on the worm! Leto and Paul’s conversation is truly haunting, and feels like a capstone on Paul’s story right at the true start of Leto’s. The Jihad being likened to a picnic on Caladan compared to what Leto has in store doesn’t exactly foretell good things to come in God Emperor.

Everyone seems to be entering the final stages of their respective plans. I’m particularly curious what Jessica’s goals are with Farad’n and whether they’ll pay off when/if he meets Ghanima. I really enjoy reading Leto build confidence and push his powers beyond what we’ve seen before - don’t love reading about his “beefswelling”… I know it was your intention, but that was yucky, Herbert.

The separation of the twins lowkey hit hard. Ghanima is a total badass, and I love reading 9 year-old Leto work out his own philosophy. Very curious what Duncan is planning by renouncing the Atreides, and I honestly just feel kinda bad for Jessica, she’s had it rough. Paul finally directly confronting Alia was very cathartic, though it seems to have only made her mental state even worse.

I like Jessica going to an ex-Fedaykin sietch which lives in even more poverty than the typical sietch, I think it does well to show the disconnect between those who followed Paul and those who follow the religion formed out of him. Farad’n is growing on me, he’s showing himself much smarter than he initially let on, I love a little schemer.

Alia and Jessica’s conflict finally coming to a head was very intense, while also better establishing the wider issue for Arrakis of the loss of desert. I kind of wish the focus of their conflict was more centered on Alia’s resentment of Jessica for taking the Water of Life, rather than it being the demon Baron, but I can also recognize the importance of the shared Harkonnen ancestry

I just love so many of the characters for so many different reasons: Stilgar the questioning zealot; the twins and Alia as mirrors to one another built on very similar pasts with distinct motivations; Duncan the walking contradiction; Paul as a weird little freak; Jessica and her ever-mysterious aura; even Irulan with her strange relationship with the Atreides. I am so engrossed with them and their dynamics.

It’s all but outright stated that Paul is the Preacher. Leto seems to be a lot more open to prescience than he’s been letting on. I think it was really smart to use Stilgar to finally truly reckon with the feudalistic world of Dune, the conservatism, the restrictions on development, and the all-encompassing nature of that ideology in all parts of that society, most felt and upheld by its most subjugated.

Alia being possessed by the Baron was not what I expected as the explanation for what made her an Abomination. I’m looking forward to learning more about these outcast Fremen. The twins consulting their parents has probably been my favorite chapter so far, I really like the way the two of them play off of each other, and it builds a ton of intrigue around the Golden Path and what it means to pursue it.

Really fun to read a double conversation with Jessica and Gurney. If Paul is the Prophet that is kind of hilarious. I straight up can’t remember if the old Emperor was established to have multiple daughters or not, but this new Princess is an absolute savage. Curious what the Bene Gesserit plans are with Leto - do they think he’s a more malleable Kwisatz Haderach?