Wow. For such a tiny book, this thing is just jammed full of thought-provoking material. As you will doubtless remember, Dune left me a bit flummoxed. And at the end of Dune Messiah, I’m still not a lot closer to understanding the political and social forces that resulted in Paul Atreides becoming Emperor of the universe and his Fremen warriors unleashing Jihad upon that universe. For one thing, I don’t really understand either the religions being supplanted or the religion doing the supplanting to any real degree. But I’m starting to think that all of that is just background noise and only of minimal relevance.

There are several forces at play. The Fremen wish to continue their bloody holy crusade across the galaxy. The business interests, the Bene Gesserit, and the family of the fallen emperor want to restore their rightful places in the scheme of things, which is to say back on top. Paul wants to live out a life of peace and love and not be remembered as the man who unleashed the worst atrocities in history; and to his credit, he wants this not to be true more than he wants to modify the perception of the events. Then there are the lynchpin characters around whom all of these elements are turning: Chani, Paul’s Fremen wife who wants only his happiness regardless of what comes of the rest; Alia, Paul’s sister who wants that as well and the same for herself, even if she’s too blinded by the godhead that has been thrust upon her to fully realize it; and the being formerly known as Duncan Idaho, Paul’s teacher in his previous life and now shaped by fate to play as his Judas, who wants above all to know who or what he really is.

See, and that’s what’s cool about Messianic stories. At root, they’re the story of individuals. Once it becomes a story of a god, or even a story of one who is destined to be a god, the point is already too muddied. The huddled masses use gods for their own purposes. They always have, and the indication for this particular future is that they always will. Instead, then, Frank Herbert presents the story of two men hemmed in on all sides by fate and the choices that they make to escape that fate, or at least minimize the damage to everyone around them. There are two things I’m sure of after reading this. I’m going to have to read the Dune books again once I get through to the end, as it’s been a fair while since I’ve read sci-fi that was also fully literature. And I’m going to have to read the gospels again, because I’ve never viewed Jesus through the lens of somebody making the best of an impossible situation before.