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

Great follow up to Dune.

Great follow up to Dune, not as good as the original though. A lot of plots and subterfuge with very little action. I recommend it if you are a fan of Dune.

Interesting Sequel

This sequel is not what most would probably expect, but it is interesting, thoughtful, and a fully engrossing plunge into the fascinating political philosophy and fanciful religion of Dune. There is nothing simple or simply entertaining about Dune's deceptively dark world. It is insightful more than it is exciting.

An Amazing Sequel

I really enjoyed listening to the story of Paul as he is a flawed man continuing to uncover the trap set by his enemies. Even with the Galax under his control as the emperor he can't see his destiny finished.

Character Narration Suffered

I had a hard time finishing this book. Individual narrators for chapters instead of characters was a poor choice and it made it hard to listen to. Each of the narrators do great voices for their characters, but not when they have to act as another character. That paired with a story that didn’t have much going for it made it really difficult to power through.

My only negative take away is...

Frank Herbert is certainly a fantastic writer, but the one issue that I have had with his books are some of the more complicated intricacies in the universe he is built are not really explained, just expressed to the characters, so you either have to do your own digging or nowadays look at some wiki page to figure out exactly what he's talking about.

it is both one of my favorite and least favorite part of the books. much in the same way that the characters don't give easy answers to one another, because they're all hyper intelligent and their teaching them better reasoning than just giving them the answers they deserve, that's kind of how Herbert treats the universe and giving the information to the reader

Great book!

Loved the story, not so much switching out the speakers for the same character. Made it difficult to keep track of the character talking.

Grand story of sacrifice

Great book, was slow to start but and often left you worried on the direction the book was taking you but ultimately lead to a satisfying destination.

fascism at it's finest

this series so far has been the most compelling and sympathetic take on fascism that I have ever read, much more so than non-fiction takes on the subject.

really shows how effective fiction can be at making philosophical pitches like Ayn Rand's novels did for Objectivism.

I'm surprised I've never seen it recommended or praised on fashy forums.

A rough follow-up

It's no Dune, and the beginning is especially rough, but once I got past that initial hump, it was an engaging and mostly enjoyable experience. Some very awkward scenes, and some of the voices are a bit strained.

Good Follow-Up with OK VA

Following up Dune must have been hard for Frank Herbert, and there are bits and pieces throughout this that shine through the way Dune did, but it still falls a bit short. This isn’t to say that it wasn’t enjoyable, thrilling, and exciting. Far from it as the novel really has some remarkable moments and a story that serves as a perfect follow-up to Dune.
The only downside is that the Paul we experience now is toned down, and the intrigue of the last book is muddied by far too many players than the reader (or listener in this case) can be bothered to follow or care about. It serves well enough narratively, but ultimately becomes the undoing of a fantastic series of locations, dialogues, and important story events.
Some may like the Voice Actors here, but I was nonplussed. It’s nice to have different people for different chapters, but some of the voices they use for different characters vary from person to person it can be a bit maddening trying to figure out who is talking from chapter to chapter. Made worse is that the bulk of the narration is done by someone who’s range for creative voices being so narrow that I, once again, would sometimes have to go back a few pages to listen to an exchange.

All-in-all a great Dune book that scratches at the foothold of greatness left by the first before landing gracefully a level below.