I was within sixty pages of finishing my book last night, so once the kids were in bed, and I had done a second go round on the shoveling (yes – even more snow!) I sat up in bed for an hour and finished Dune: Messiah. Good book. Liked it a lot. Far less dense than the two or three books in one which you get with the original Dune. Far less world building, and nearly no location jumping between planets. Also the long list of characters drops quite substantially in the sequel too. Far easier to read. I still don’t see Paul as a villain, or anti-villain though. I’m told I should. I see him as being withdrawn, and desperate to try to follow a narrow path to victory, and not lead the universe to ruin, though the Jihad does go on in his name once he loosed it upon said universe. He couldn’t control the ever expanding grasp of his religious jihad, so he’s a villain for having killed something like 60 billion souls, according to the book. That’s not great. He set it off, but on an individual level he wasn’t evil. Maybe our view of him is too myopic, and doesn’t consider the grander scale of what he unleashed. Hard to fathom being the guy responsible to 60 billion deaths, yet not being totally awful as a human being. Super charged and altered though he is. I guess he didn’t do enough to curtail it, and step aside, and that’s what makes him not a “good guy” in all of this. Ok, I see it. Can’t look at him directly as the charming cool guy, but rather judge him from what he set in motion. Hard to like a man with 60 billion deaths hanging around his neck, with no way to put the lid back on the jar.
Anyway, on to book five, which looks like a further exploration of his sister Alia’s decent into madness, and Stilgar’s growth towards… what? Corruption, tenacity to not lose his place of power and influence, though the Fremen ways are deeply instilled but slipping away from the old Naib of his seitch Tabr. Plus the children and their rise toward filling Paul Muah Dib’s throne. It’s a lengthy book, around 600 or so pages. Not sure what will happen.
I have steered away from books that long for quite some time now. I’m concerned the length feels off putting and I may make the book drag on longer than it needs to. Just because it takes so long to make any kind of considerable head way in a book that length. It’s a mental thing. Early wins makes it easier going when reading. If I keep coming back to read for hours but so much is still left to go, it feels defeating. I hate that. It’s like working on a 150 page report. You could have an excellent day and do 25-30 pages or more, but you see how far you still have yet to go, IF you can maintain that pace. If you can’t and you have a 10 page day, or a 12 page day, it drags on, and feels like a heavy weight pressing down on my shoulders. Yuck.
As a teen with no responsibilities I loved getting lost in 1000 pages or more of a book, but now that just feels like added weight, bloat, and an obligation to muddle through. Writing my own short fiction made me far more open to shorter works. Time and effort are rewarded. Lots of material can be covered that way too. But I digress.
The book looks good, and so far reads as easily as the sequel. Plus it’s a sunny Saturday morning, and I’ve been out to shovel for a third time in less than 24 hours, and I don’t have any plans until this evening, and again tomorrow mid morning. I’m thrilled.
Greatwall Studios Graphic Design 