God Emperor of Dune

God Emperor of Dune compares well with the original Dune, better than the previous two sequels (Dune Messiah and Children of Dune). It doesn't quite measure up to the standard of the first book, but few books, anywhere, do.

Warning: God Emperor of Dune is the third sequel to Dune. Ignore this book until you are familiar with Dune and the first 2 sequels.

It is 3500 years since Leto II Atreides donned his living sandtrout armor. Leto is now a living deity as well as galactic emperor...prescient, super-intelligent, supremely strong, vengeful...and more sandworm than man. Arrakis is now lush and green; the sandworms (except for Leto) are all but extinct. There is no more spice, excepting centuries-old stockpiles.

This is Leto's Golden Path...the future for humanity that he foresaw and planned 3500 years ago.

Like most of Herbert's Dune books, this book has an operatic feel...it moves slowly and most of the book is taken up with dialogue. The story really is the people, their motives and their schemes. This book revolves almost entirely around the title character (more so than the prior books), but, then, the God Emperor is the dominant story of this time and place.

The narration is very well done; Simon Vance narrates most of the book, with Katherine Kellgren reading the occasional female-dominated chapter and Scott Brick delivering the epigraphs at the start of each chapter. Three excellent readers who did a great job.

Frank Herbert's Dune series are among my all time favorite books. God Emperor is by far my favorite of the series. I have been waiting anxiously for the release of this production. I have not been disappointed. The story is at least as compelling in audio as it is in print. This production does the job excellently.

There is little need of me further commending the Dune series. My main purpose here is to praise Simon Vance's reading of this extremely long book - as it is perhaps most natural to think of all six of them as one book. He manages to balance an extremely clear enunciation with the right sense of emotion and complex character composition required. I'm eagerly waiting for Audible's publication of "Chapterhouse Dune" , and I certainly expect that Simon Vance will be entrusted with the whole project. He's given new life to a book which is already very alive.

When asked my favorite book, I answer Dune. I understand that it is not everyone's cup of tea.
Of the series, God Emperor is my favorite and this audiobook brought forth other aspects to consider. I enjoy contemplating Frank Herbert's writings.
If you have interest, please be sure to have checked out the others prior to this in the series: Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune.

Im working my way through all of the Dune books. While there is a significant amount of time passed between Children of Dune and this book the plot continues well with out the sense that a significant amount of the story is lost. This book is a little long in the tooth and IMO could have been a few hours shorter and not have lost the overall story. This book defiantly leaves me wanting to listen to the next part of the saga.

I'm a big fan of Frank Herbert's original works in this series. After the first book (Dune), this one ranks highest in my opinion, but it's true that you have to appreciate Herbert and the world he created in order to 'get' this book. I suspect most people who are fans of this book identify strongly with Duncan Idaho, who bridges the world of the first three books with God Emperor of Dune. Leto Atreides II is such a fascinating character - love him or hate him. The reading is very well done, especially Simon Vance and Katherine Kellgren. Fortunately Scott Brick only reads the chapter introductions... very much over the top as usual, but you can tune those out.

They are doing a great job with the production on these books, The readers are fantastic!
Of course they are the Dune books by Herbert so they are great. This one was as good as the rest.

This is a great story - in my opinion, only the original Dune novel was better. Simon Vance was, as always, excellent. There weren't really that many parts read by Katherine Kellgren, which was a shame, but my major narration revelation was...

Scott Brick is the narrator equivalent of William Shatner as an actor. Melodrama? I think yes.

This was and still is one of the great science fiction stories of all time. The audiobook brings it to life! From beginning to end the story holds your attention and stretches the imagination. Easily one of the best audiobooks I have listened to.

An excellent performance by Simon Vance, whose narrations I seek after no matter the book, now, this fourth installment of the Dune series continues the Dune saga several thousand years into the future.

Frank Herbert, the author, has a habit of getting his exposition across through the use of meetings and discussions, and this book is not only replete with them; it is bogged down with them. The entire book seems like a series of connected meetings, with Emperor Leto constantly and annoyingly trying to be as shocking as possible with his statements. After a while, it just gets old.

I enjoyed the book, however, but found it tedious at times and wishing some action would occur.