L' Empereur-dieu de Dune

French language

Published Nov. 19, 1982 by Laffont.

ISBN:
978-2-221-00775-4
Copied ISBN!

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (8 reviews)

28 editions

Did not change my opinion after 30 years

4 stars

I read this book for the first time about thirty years ago. I have maintained for years that this very book is the counter argument that Science Fiction cannot be literary. My current copy (with a hideous cover) has been sitting on my shelf for many years now. Having reread (and re-enjoyed) the first trilogy, it was time to re-read this book as well.

More than with the first trilogy, it took a long time for both the story lines and the characters to properly develop. Apart from the main character, there are four other major characters who were a bit cardboard-ish in the first three quarters of the book, but who finally fleshed out in the last 150 pages or so.

The same goes for the story. A lot of pages are dedicated to describing the universe after several thousands of years. There were plots and subplots in good …