Finished Dune Messiah. I wish I could say it was the worst book I’ve read in a long time, but then I’ve read “I am Pilgrim” not that long ago.
It’s still terrible, though. The worst is Alia, as Herbert says she’s that prodigy, but she’s completely unable to connect the dots. Like when she’s sent to investigate a corpse in the desert, unable to identify it, then when a fremen girl suddenly comes with a proposal to resurrect Chani she doesn’t think “that’s a tiny bit suspicious”, but instead brings the shapeshifter directly to Paul.
And it’s doubly ironic that after that “meticulous” plan to give resurrected Idaho to Paul so he would be convinced how good the technology is and tempted to give away his Empire in order to resurrect his wife (really? An Empire for a wife?) the shapeshifter doesn’t find anything more cunning than pointing a knife at Paul’s newborn.
But Paul has another never hinted at deus ex machina, with his ability to see through his newborn’s eyes. So because everyone things he’s blind, he manages to fool the shapeshifter and best him. Although actually, only Paul knew he couldn’t see, everyone else should have though he could. So Herbert bested himself.
Oh, and remember the metallic eyes Idaho has? They play no role whatsoever. None. You would think if he was recreated to show Paul how good the technology is they would pay more attention to making him less uncanny.
And then Alia declares her love to Idaho, who’s a cyborg 20 years older than her, and she had a couple of interractions with, one including him hinting that he could force himself on her. Yeah…
Suffice to say, if I ever try “Children of Dune”, it won’t be right now.