God Emperor of Dune

By: Frank Herbert

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 15 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

More than 3,000 years have passed since the first events recorded in Dune. Only one link survives with those tumultuous times: the grotesque figure of Leto Atreides, son of the prophet Paul Muad'Dib, and now the virtually immortal God Emperor of Dune. He alone understands the future, and he knows with a terrible certainty that the evolution of his race is at an end unless he can breed new qualities into his species.

But to achieve his final victory, Leto Atreides must also bring about his own downfall.

Don't miss other titles in the Dune series.

©1981 Frank Herbert (P)2008 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"A fourth visit to Arrakis that is every bit as fascinating as the other three - every bit as timely." ( Time)
"Rich fare...Heady stuff." ( Los Angeles Times)

If you pay attention, this book will change you

Every time I re-listen to or read this book I am reminded of Frank Herbert’s transcendental understanding of human nature, human societies, and their flux, as seen through the window of Leto II.

If the the earlier books were really about the dangers of charismatic leaders, and humanity’s inability to resist the lure of them, this book is this full synthesis and explanation of the loop those leanings creates; and how it ties into something primal in our species.

Pay close attention to the quotes from Leto’s journals, Herbert treats every chapter like a rhetorical argument and the quotes often frame the context.

It may be some peoples’ least favorite book for being perhaps the most preachy and dialogue heavy of the Dune books, but it is truly my favorite for that reason.

Super dope read 👍

The 4th time!

Intense, psychological, intricate, this is a book to be mulled over long after being read. Insightful gems about the impact of absolute power on both the possesor and the subjects, the loneliness and fears of the wielder. I've read the book twice and listened to the audible twice. Worth it!

A must hear for those lovers of the Dune franchise

I liked very much how was the book read, although it was not the best. Nonetheless, I highly recommend this book as a must in the ORIGINAL SERIES.

An intellectual masterpiece

I found much more satisfaction in this book than the previous two otherwise I loved all three. I think the authors satire and peeling back out of all of our social and cultural and religious aspects of humankind are looked at in a very interesting globe of this futuristic story playing bear our humanity. Imagination than it took to write this book and include all the intellectual cultural insights in retrospect seems beyond possible to me. I feel like I have to read it again to capture it all. The movie it was recently released does no justice to this masterpiece. I would love to see a long drawn out series and the actual form of movies of this book but it would have to be very lengthy and capture all the aspects of the books and do it justice. If you read this book I hope you really enjoy it

Different but the same

Was a bit hard to start but quickly morphed into the dune we know . Loved it

Epic

Builds up all the characters for many hours to reach an awakening, satisfying climax. It is like looking at hundreds of puzzle pieces and seeing every edge fit into a whole picture called “God Emperor of Dune”.

Excelent so called "existential stuff"

Kind of a "slog-part" of the Dune series perhaps, but completely worth it for the second part after(!!SPOILER!!) Mondayo(spell-check?) has the true nature of man-kind deconstructed for him by Leto, and after that he's kind of just resigned to being an ant in a universe he doesn't understand and there's a lot of funny banter between them, like when Mondayo was angry and yelling at the god-emperor. As Leto II said himself to Mondayo in one scene: "If nothing else, we provide good theater, you and I"

Starts off

slow then picks up about half way through, Simón vance is brillante, as always. i enjoyed the book very much, also think maybe some people are not going to get all of IT. very heavy Reading.

The Golden Path

Initially the story seems too far apart from the first three books but by the end you will see it is an essential part of their story.

Pretty good. Just wordy.

Pretty Good book, just much longer than it had to be because of the monologues.