I think I like Children of Dune more than Dune. You need to read or listen Dune and Dune Messiah before it but I think I like it more than first two books. It makes Dune Messiah feel more out of place than it felt after listening it first time. Dune Messiah didn’t have proper story for main characters. Paul just tried to manage until he walked away at the end of the book. Most stayed the same for the world. There was little progression.
Same can’t be said with Children of Dune. It has epic story arc like first book. Unlike first book it doesn’t portray main protagonist as flawless good guy. It gives quite bleak picture of persons and institution looking for ultimate control. I am not too familiar with Warhammer 40K but based on what I know about it from lore videos on Youtube it has been heavily inspired by this book and probably some later books. I don’t mean story but darkness of the world and how rulers want to control their subjects. This is not as dark as Warhammer 40K but it reminded me of what I have learned from lore videos.
This was first Dune book making me want lo learn much more about the books and philosophy of the series. This concentrates more philosophy than first two books. First was hero’s journey building the world. Second was revisit to world. This tries to tell Paul getting nearly ultimate power wasn’t as good thing as first book portrayed it to be. This time leader will get more ultimate power and it isn’t hidden it might not be such a good thing for the subjects.
You can still see the story as hero’s journey but the hero is not all good and not human at the end. When I said guy turns himself into a worm in fourth book I was wrong. The transformation starts in this book. If you like the first book you should at least get to this book. I know Dune Messiah isn’t that good but this makes enduring it worth it. I will be listening this again in future. I am sure I will get something new out of it next time. Next the book is why I decided to listen all Frank Herbert’s Dune books. Don’t know much about it but the premise is so interesting I have to listen it and getting to it meant listening first three books. If I listen first four why not last two also.