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God Emperor Dune Mass Market Paperback – May 1, 1983

by Frank Herbert (Author)

4.4 10,934 ratings

Book 4 of 6: Dune

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Millennia have passed on Arrakis, and the once-desert planet is green with life. Leto Atreides, the son of the world’s savior, the Emperor Paul Muad’Dib, is still alive but far from human. To preserve humanity’s future, he sacrificed his own by merging with a sandworm, granting him near immortality as God Emperor of Dune for the past thirty-five hundred years. Leto’s rule is not a benevolent one. His transformation has made not only his appearance but his morality inhuman. A rebellion, led by Siona, a member of the Atreides family, has risen to oppose the despot’s rule. But Siona is unaware that Leto’s vision of a Golden Path for humanity requires her to fulfill a destiny she never wanted—or could possibly conceive....

Book 4 of 6

Dune
Print length

423 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Berkley
Publication date

May 1, 1983
Dimensions

7.01 x 0.98 x 5 inches
ISBN-10

0425062333
ISBN-13

978-0425062333
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“This wise man observed that wealth is a tool of freedom. But the pursuit of wealth is the way to slavery.”
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“Most believe that a satisfactory future requires a return to an idealized past, a past which never in fact existed.”
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“Never attempt to reason with people who know they are right!”
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About the Author

Frank Herbert was born in Tacoma, Washington, and educated at the University of Washington, Seattle. He worked a wide variety of jobs--including TV cameraman, radio commentator, oyster diver, jungle survival instructor, lay analyst, creative writing teacher, reporter and editor of several West Coast newspapers--before becoming a full-time writer. He died in 1986.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Berkley (May 1, 1983)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 423 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0425062333
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0425062333
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.01 x 0.98 x 5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,266,325 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #22,051 in Science Fiction Adventures

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4.4 10,934 ratings

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Frank Herbert

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Frank Herbert (1920-86) was born in Tacoma, Washington and worked as a reporter and later editor of a number of West Coast newspapers before becoming a full-time writer. His first SF story was published in 1952 but he achieved fame more than ten years later with the publication in Analog of 'Dune World' and 'The Prophet of Dune' that were amalgamated in the novel Dune in 1965.

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David Wolf

Best of the Series

Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2024

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If you are new to Dune, you'll want to read the 1st 4 books especially, but this one was my favorite of the series. Not as much action as some of the earlier novels, but well written and worth the investment of your time.

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RDD

A Great Continuation of Herbert's “Dune” Series!

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2020

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Frank Herbert’s “God Emperor of Dune” picks up 3,500 years after the events of “Children of Dune,” with Leto II Atreides now a massive human-sandworm hybrid ruling over the Empire as its God Emperor. He underwent the bodily transformation to create a period of enforced peace that would preserve humanity and redirect its worst impulses. Further, he took control of the Bene Gesserit breeding program, managing the various descendants of his sister Ghanima Atreides and Farad’n Corrino (Harq al-Ada). Further, ecological changes have turned Dune into a lush planet, with only a small area set aside for desert. The worms no longer exist and Leto controls the various factions within the Empire by carefully doling out spice from his private hoard.

Herbert uses this fourth book in the “Dune” series to debate the nature of rulers, religion, and historical memory. He writes, “The Romans broadcast the pharonic disease like grain farmers scattering the seeds of next season’s harvest – Caesars, Kaisers, tsars, imperators, caseris … palatos … d----d pharaohs!... We are myth-killers, you and I, Moneo. That’s the dream we share. I assure you from a God’s Olympian perch that government is a shared myth. When the myth dies, the government dies” (pg. 49). Building on this, Herbert continues through debate between Leto and his majordomo, Moneo, “Throughout our history… the most potent use of words has been to round out some transcendental event, giving that event a place in the accepted chronicles, explaining the event in such a way that ever afterward we can use those words and say: ‘this is what it meant.’ …That’s how events get lost in history” (pg. 265). Additionally, Leto says, “‘The ultimate aristocrat dies within me.’ And he thought: Privilege becomes arrogance. Arrogance promotes injustice. The seeds of ruin blossom” (pg. 272). In terms of religion, Herbert writes, “‘Religious institutions perpetuate a mortal master-servant relationship,’ Leto said. ‘They create an arena which attracts prideful human power-seekers with all of their nearsighted prejudices!’” (pg. 302).

Leto has the same powers of prescience as his father, Paul Muad’Dib Atreides, and he comments on those who would attempt to shape the future, “Most believe that a satisfactory future requires a return to an idealized past, a past which never in fact existed” (pg. 380). In the future, the only “Fremen” who remain are those who attempt to copy the rituals of the ancient people without the context or meaning. Leto says, “These Fremen do not know what is lost from their lives. They think they keep the essence of the old ways. This is a failure of all museums. Something fades; it dries out of the exhibits and is gone. The people who administer the museum and the people who come to bend over the cases and stare – few of them sense this missing thing. It drove the engine of life in earlier times. When the life is gone, it is gone” (pg. 401).

In terms of this book’s place in the “Dune” mythos, Herbert returns to the theme of the Butlerian Jihad and its prohibitions against advanced technology and artificial intelligence, especially as Leto uses tech from Ix and must negotiate the delicate balance of powers between the Ixians, who are working with the Spacing Guild to develop an artificial substitute for the spice-derived abilities of the navigators, and the Bene Gesserit, who maintain the old proscriptions against advanced technology (pg. 175). Further, the Chapter House of the Bene Gesserit Order first appears and their name will later inspire the title of the sixth book (pg. 76).

Fans of the “Dune” series will find more of Herbert’s ideas on full display here and the change in time keeps the series fresh while further expanding on its message and meaning.

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Bryan Desmond

The Leto Experience. The Worm Who Is God.

Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2020

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God Emperor of Dune. The Leto Experience. The infamous. The impenetrable. It boggles the mind, this book. It is something that my 15 year old self was not ready for. I get something new out of these books each time I read them, and I was especially looking forward to reaching this one, as I have only read the back three books once each. Suffice it to say, reading this book was an entirely different experience this time around.

God Emperor is without a doubt the most divisive book in the series. You sometimes see it hailed as a fan's favorite book in the series, other times as utter drivel that should be the stopping point for all readers. It's interesting, really. I'm not quite ready to claim it as the high point of the series, but I will say that I loved it. And while there were plenty of pieces of this puzzle that still went over my head, so much more of it landed. I am a firm believer that when you read a book is as important as reading it in the first place. And I may not have the memories of my ancestors to call on or a prescient vision to guide me, but I found my right time.

I have been jokingly referring to this book (using Leto's own words) as 'The Leto Experience', rather than its actual title. The entire book is a trip. Truly, it felt like Frank Herbert found a storehouse of the spice melange before writing it and partook heavily during the process. The frame-story is noted by the discovery of the journals of the God Emperor Leto Atreides II, some 1,500 years after his death. The story we read then, is taken from the contents of these journals. This story is 3,500 years after the reign of Paul Muad'dib, and so right away a reader's expectations are blown apart. This is by far the biggest time gap in the series to date, but (once again) it is necessary for the story Frank wants to tell. I (do and) don't want to dive deeper into what the story is about because I think there is something to be said for the discovery by the reader of just how much has changed since the time of Paul. An enforced tranquility hangs over the universe, a suppression of freedom. Leto holds to his Golden Path for the good of mankind, but there are some who name him tyrant.

It must be said though, God Emperor is unlike anything that came before it. It is still unequivocally Dune but... more so. It is dense with knowledge and absolutely stuffed with information. 90% of the book is just dialogue. This did not bother me because among Herbert's many writing strengths I think that conversation is one of his greatest. If conversation bores you though that would be a deal-breaker for this book. I must admit though, it is hard for me to imagine being uninterested in the conversations within. Dialogue between Leto and the Duncans, Leto and Moneo, Leto and Hwi Noree, Leto and Siona, Leto and his ancestral memories, even Leto and his own imagination. I think one has to give it up to Frank Herbert for what he has created in the character Leto Atreides II. I mean, it's hard to imagine a being living for 3,500 years. What a being like that would be like. And yet... Leto feels so believable. One must remember that this isn't just a matter of age, either, but of ancient memory, and intimate knowledge of the future. What would it do to someone to have perfect knowledge of their ancestral memories, going back into time immemorial? What would it be like to be so closely associated with the future of one's universe? You'd grow bored. Emotion would fall away, replaced by an implacable intellectual resolve. You would crave novelty, treasuring every surprise. Herbert represents this state of being remarkably well in Leto. Now, if Dune and Dune Messiah were Herbert showing readers the dangers of a charismatic leader, then God Emperor is him showing us a universal tyrant in the long term. He does this in such a compelling way because he gives us an omniscient look at the why behind Leto. Because rest assured, from almost any other point of view the oppression he serves up to the universe is tyrannical indeed. But, as silly as it sounds, this is tyranny with a purpose. The terrible purpose that Paul brushed up against but could not fulfill. That awful purpose that requires Leto to give up his very humanity to achieve it, for the good of his kind. He is both hated and worshiped for it, and it is completely fascinating.

I can't really do justice to the complex and infinite nature of God Emperor of Dune with a simple Goodreads review, but I would urge potential readers to not be deterred from reading it because of external opinions. I think it is something to be read and judged for oneself. I think this book, more than any other in the series, has Frank himself shine through the pages the clearest. I understand that it bothers people (and frankly the book isn't without its faults, and Frank has a few unfortunate, outdated opinions) but it is an ambitious feat, if nothing else.

"You have faith in life. I know that the courage of love can reside only in this faith."

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Angel Hill

Great Book

Reviewed in Canada on March 31, 2024

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Arrived quickly on time for birthday.

Amazon Customer

Arguably the last great book of the Dune series. Book sold same edition as depicted.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 25, 2024

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Like a lot of my generation, David Lynch's version of Dune had a profound influence, and you just had to read the books - I remember ripping into them and in particular this particular UK NEL paperback edition of God Emperor of Dune sometime between 1985-86 - never saw the film in the cinema, came across it on video a couple of years later and was just blown away how epic the whole thing was.

After the original first novel, God Emperor has always been by far my favourite - it's arguably the last really great book in the original series and certainly by far the most epic in scale: Paul Atradies son, Leto, remains the only surviving direct link and remnant between the Dune of the original trilogy - Dune, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune - and rules as absolute tyrant of the entire galaxy in the grotesque form of a human merged with a sand worm...

Him and Duncan Idaho who, despite dying in the first act of the original book, has been brought back to life as a clone - in the novels something called a ghola - repeatedly throughout the three thousand of years plus of Leto's reign.

From here on the story then passes on to the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood and the fallout of Leto's tyranny, but in God Emperor you have the real concluding part of the original trilogy - Children of Dune is really quite open-ended and kind of sets you up in anticipation for this, the actual final part...

Assuming a trilogy in four parts actually makes any sense outside of Douglas Adams.

Not going to go into it any more, only to say its possibly the maddest and trippiest of what already is a mad, trippy story - this is its pinnacle: Heretics and Chapterhouse are, of course, worth the read, but really It's just for completion - the following two books open up and expand the very Dunecentric universe of Frank Herbert's creation in a way other writers, including his own son, can pick up and run with - but Paul Atradies story and legacy ends with his son, the tyrant, who saves his family's fate from the trap his father was forced into accepting when taking on the mantle of Kwitzach Hadderach back in the original book...

My particular attachment to this edition is simply the fact I actually owned this NEL1982 UK paperback edition second hand back in the day - if I hadn't had lent it out, this edition I've bought to replace it wouldn't be in any worse condition than the one I've just received today: for all I actually know it could actually be that same edition I originally owned and lost - it's clearly been read many times - as all paperbacks should be, I can't abide new books - I like them worn, well thumbed and cherished and this copy obviously has been.

A tradition I plan on maintaining till it's time to pass this edition on to another generation of hands.

It's a good book, I also highly recommend the seller I bought it from. Happy to buy from them again, book sold is actually the edition depicted - I can't rate anyone highly enough for making sure the version depicted actually is the edition you receive, that's so important when buying second hand books - most usually you're buying for the particular edition, not necessarily the story itself.

The book you probably read decades back, it's the memories associated with the particular edition you originally read - that's why I buy old, used paperbacks.

Not just the story but the story but the story that goes with it.

10/10 for both book and seller.

Leah

Great, as advertised

Reviewed in Spain on April 18, 2024

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Delivery was perfect and fast.

Quality of book is nice, book is as advertised. Only thing is bottom corner of pages are slightly discolored (not sure if from storage or a printing defect) - in any case, it's hardly noticable.

Monika

A good read..!

Reviewed in India on July 9, 2023

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A wonderfully written book..if you are into sci-fi you should read the complete dune series.

Ilya Watteau

Mon livre préféré de la saga!

Reviewed in France on March 3, 2023

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Excellent comme d'habitude avec Frank Herbert. J'ai déjà lu les 3 livres précédents de la saga Dune, mais je dois que celui-ci est mon préféré. Le personnage de Leto II, maintenant l'empereur Dieu de Dune est fantastique et les relations entres les personnages, ainsi que leur progression sont impeccables, un véritable tour de maître de la part de l'auteur.