Dune Messiah: Book Two in the Dune Chronicles

After reading the first book, I was so surprised that this was so much shorter that I initially thought it was the abridged version. After listening to this for the fourth time in a row, I understand why now. There’s so much to unpack and process, understanding what all the different characters are doing and why. It’s almost as if as the spectator you need to look at the story as Paul would, from a non-temporal viewpoint of the events. I think it’s an interesting look at the concept of predetermination, and what would one do if you knew the future, but also knew how dramatically chaotic events could unfold if you were to deviate carelessly from that path. Love it, want to listen to it four more times.

I loved the dune series so much

Few authors can hope to match the breath and depth of this body of work. A work done with immense care, fleshed out to a spectacular degree. No heroes, contentious factions and truly profound ethical quandries. A beautiful book dramatically dimnished by the heratic production. Women are narrated by the main voice while some males are narrated by a second voice. This gets rodiculous when the 50+ years old narrator with a british accent tries to channel the voice of a 16 years old girl from an other world with a borderline offensive botched middle-eastern accentor that of an old sly and scheming woman. An insult to the author and his masterpiece. I strongly recommend you do not listen to this audio version, simply because of this appalling choice.

the first book was magnificent. As the series progress there is less variation in narrators. Some events merely happen, and the plot is a little stretched out. Great read/listen nonetheless.

This was a great follow on to the first book. I honestly missed the change in theatrics between narrators. There are no announcement of chapters and Simon Vance is great as always. Still confused to how Paul just abandoned his kids into apparent suicide...weird but looking forward to the next book.

I get the feeling this is a bridge between the first and third installments in the Dune saga. I'll know more once I've listened to Children of Dune.

Book 2 was good

Pretty good, not as suspenseful as the first. I'm definitely still hooked and moving on to the next volume.

grateful to have this in my life

Dune is one òf the best ever written, but Dune Messiah not as good.

Good book. Not as good as the first. I also missed the background sounds and music from the first audio book.

It seemed a little slow in comparison to book one, nonetheless, very good.

Narrator's voice for female characters is so incredibly awful and annoying. In fact, pretty much all his "character" voices are terrible. Why can't he just read the story?

Took me a while to warm up to this book, but still engaging and upon retrospect a good direction for the series.

Couldn’t quite get into this book. Similar to the John Grisham “stinking” lawyer books.

As a follow up to the incomparable DUNE, this is wonderful. It’s even more existential, full of behind the action thinking, philosophy, theology and political strategy. All of it is necessary as a follow up and build up for the expansive Dune story.

I hope book 3 is better

A must if you listened to Dune (Book 1). Not as much action and a lot of political dialogue and internal thoughts, but every great story needs an end and this gets you there and keeps you guessing at what the decisions the key characters in the book make. Narration, still one of best narrations of any audiobook I’ve listened to. Dune narration was great, but with one person narrating and the voices with a different cast. In Dune: Messiah you have other the characters also narrating.

Count inured the story wonderfully, even if it was more political intrigue than sci fi space adventure. Narration on point!

This book was sad for me. Letting go of a lot of great characters. I've read the three prequels and the first dune book. But I will still impressed with the story line and it kept me interested.

A great sequel to Dune. I was not expecting a better read than Dune but I believe that it was. This is a much shorter novel when compared to Dune and that length fits the book well since most of the background was already set in the longer novel, Dune. You won't be disappointed as the story continues ... and obviously, you must have already read Dune to fully understand the nuances suggested in this book.

I was not expecting to like this book. Unlike everyone else, I did not like Dune. I felt the characters were rushed in the first book. I thought this book was very interesting as a character study. Herbert spent much less time developing the story line and much more time expounding on the characters. Put together the story felt complete.

Difficult book to get through. Very week plot--nothing exciting happens. Mostly consists of dialogue between characters.