Spicy is the Head that Wears the Crown: Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

 

The cool old edition I got from a used bookstore sometime in the Before Guild era

Having read Frank Herbert's Dune books several times, I've always said the second volume, Dune Messiah, was my least favorite. But on this latest re-read, I feel like I've been too harsh on the second book. It's still not my favorite, but there's more to appreciate here than I previously thought.

First, a couple choice quotes...

"Because we cannot imagine a thing, that doesn't exclude it from reality." - Hayt (p. 154-155)

"There are problems in this universe for which there are no answers." - Paul (p. 248)

Messiah is a really different book than Dune because instead of a story about beginning an empire, it's the story of maintaining an empire, which is in some ways more difficult and definitely less dramatic. Still, there is some drama 12 years into Paul's rule: a conspiracy against Paul with some major players, the effects of his Jihad, the rise of Alia (one of my favorite characters who gets more attention in the next book), the introduction of gholas with the beginning of the most famous ghola series of them all, etc.

There are also some interesting philosophical bits (as is always the case with Herbert). How does prescience work? Does it really work? (The Dune Tarot is a story line I've never really liked, but I suppose it helps to frame some of these issues). Did Paul start the Jihad or did it start him? Could he stop it if he wanted to? How do we all fit into the larger sweep of history if even Kwisatzh Haderachs can't completely shape events? What does being Paul Muad'Dib the Kwisatz Haderach do to a person? Are we all as weary as Paul after two years in a pandemic?

This book also deserves a lot of credit for initiating one of the deepest philosophical issues of Dune: personal identity. The Guild and the Bene Tleilax present Paul with a ghola (clone for those uninitiated into the Dune universe) of his dead friend and mentor Duncan Idaho. Is Hayt Duncan? Is he not Duncan? Is he both Duncan and not Duncan? 

At first he doesn't have Duncan's memories. Also, he's trained as a Mentat and a Zensunni philosopher, which the original Duncan was not. But then through a type of process that becomes familiar in later books, but still a bit mysterious, he reawakens all the memories of Duncan, to become what Herbert describes at one point as "Hayt/Idaho/Hayt/Idaho" (p. 237). Whoa. 

So is he Duncan? If memory is what makes for identity, than yes, maybe? Or is there something else? After all this new Duncan is a sword master, but he also has new skills and abilities as a Mentat and a Zensunni philosopher who also has the memories of being conditioned by the Tleilaxu. Yikes! Gholas become commonplace later in the series, but no less fascinating as a bit of mind-expanding fiction.

So all-in-all, I have to rethink my previous assessment of Dune Messiah. It's not merely a stepping stone to weird and cool things later (although it is definitely that!), but it's genuinely a great book in its own right that created a lot of what makes the Dune universe so thoroughly intoxicating.

Lastly, I really recommend the book club on Dune Messiah on the excellent Gom Jabbar Podcast, which gets into a lot of spicy depth on this book.

Another fun fact: According to Brian Herbert's biography of his father, the Guild Navigator in David Lynch's Dune movie is supposed to be Edric from Dune Messiah.

See my slightly different Goodreads review.