Dune Messiah

By: Frank Herbert

Narrated by: Scott Brick, Katherine Kellgren, Euan Morton, Simon Vance

Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

The epic, multimillion-selling science-fiction series continues! The second Dune installment explores new developments on the planet Arrakis, with its intricate social order and strange, threatening environment.

Dune Messiah picks up the story of the man known as Muad'Dib, heir to a power unimaginable, bringing to fruition an ambition of unparalleled scale: the centuries-old scheme to create a superbeing who reigns not in the heavens but among men.

But the question is: DO all paths of glory lead to the grave?

Listen to more of our titles in the Dune series.

©1969 Frank Herbert (P)2007 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC

Good-not-great book, not as fond of the narration

Dune Messiah is the sequel to Frank Herbert's masterpiece, Dune. As is often the case, it does not live up to the high standard of the first installement, but it is still pretty good.

First off: if you haven't read/listened to Dune, ignore this book until you've done that.

This book wraps up the story of Paul Muad'Dib Atriedes; 12 years after the successful war to capture the imperial throne, Paul is dealing (struggling?) with the issues of governance, the imperial succession and plots to overthrow him. The story deals with strategems, plots and plots-within-plots. For those who desire swashbuckling action, laser battles in space, exploring strange new worlds and menacing merciless malefactors will find this book disappointing....Dune Messiah is mostly conversation and internal dialogue. It's a slow-moving story...most of the action (and there isn't much of it) occurs in the final quarter of the book. (This style is common among Frank Herbert's writing.)

Dune Messiah is a bit more mystical than Dune, and focuses a great deal on some of the odder issues surrounding Paul's prescient visions and his sister, Alia, who is now in her teens.

Overall, I give the story 3 stars...it's not a seminal work, like Dune, but it does follow up the original and bridge to the next few works.

I am not as fond of the narration as I could be. There are several readers, and they each read a separate chapter. They are all great readers, and I love the idea, but it would have helped if the readers had some common ground rules. It's a minor quibble, but sometimes the characters (like Stilgar) have thick accents and at other times they do not. It makes it a little hard to keep track of who is speaking.

A step down for sure

While it is certainly a deeper exploration of the world Herbert created with Dune, Messiah is not on the same level. This book is more of a character study and less the grand adventure that the first book was. I will finish the trilogy out, but with tempered expectations. The narration was much less confusing in this book though. Less of the random character changes and that was a pleasant improvement. I don’t regret spending the credit to continue the story but it’s not far from that feeling story wise.

Enjoyable but not as much

This book picks up right where Dune lets off. I did find this book a bit lack luser as compared to the first. I still rated it a 5 but it defaintly seems a bit incomplete as compared to other books from Frank Herbert.

Gripping, amazing!

These books are convincing me that Sci-fi movies have ruined the genre, and made it stale. Book series's like Dune and Hyperion are creative and unique unlike modern Sci-fi.

The future is a powerful weapon.

And due to us being in the future, I know this is just a bridge novel so I won't be too hard. This book is not what made me love Dune. Paul does the exact thing he doesn't want to do in the first book and for some reason leads the biggest genocide of all time. I also don't love resurrection, it destroys urgency. Which is why I liked Hayt until the end of the book. Hopefully the next full entry doesn't feel so rushed and has a clear story.

disappointingly short and not that interesting

The performance is good and makes it easy to finish, but the story is not very good and the plot is not very interesting. would not recommend.

great series. pay attention, readers get tricky

love the series. the voice actors changed the narration parts in this one. it threw me off. I liked the way the prequel dune books are voiced better. the story is fantastic and I love this universe!

Good story, annoying narrative choices

I enjoyed the novel, as I do with everything Herbert the elder wrote, however the choices in narration semi-ruined the experience for me. 3 narrators meant a constant recalibration figuring out which accent went with each character.

And the young man who voiced Paul in the first Dune was a terrible choice as one of the narrators. His thick accent (which he apparently cannot supress at all) and distinctive voice meant that every character- man, woman, or child, from 5 different planets and numerous ages and backgrounds- had the voice of a young man from Bristol. It was often difficult to figure out who said what during his chapters, and by the end of it I was dreading each new chapter in fear he would be chosen to ruin it.

Love the Story! Amazing production!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes I would! I love the Dune world. All of the concepts and ideas are so interesting and compelling. The production is amazing!! It helps create a great experience. A must listen.

Squeal Not Equal to the Original...by a longshot

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would not recommend this book...it just isn't the quality of the first book in the series. While not awful, it just doesn't live up to the fantastic quality of the first book. It's a disappointment because of contrast--Dune is a masterpiece...this is a so-so follow-up that might be considered decent if it wasn't trying to live up to the first book.

I should add a note about the performance. The narrators were great. While I was disappointed with the story, the narrators did a great job. I'm a big fan of both Katherine Kellgren and Simon Vance in particular...I will listen to a book just because one of them did the narration.