Rating: 
Summary: A page turner until the end; yet the suspense remains
Review: After having read "Children of Dune", I could not wait to get my hands on this book. This book drips even heavier that its predecessors in philosophy, but maintains enough action and drama to keep you turning the pages.The planet is now rich with moisture and plant life. The sandworms are all dead, except for one. After 3500 years of metamorphosis into a new breed of sandworm, Leto is still alive as Emperor, tyrannically pursuing his 'Golden Path'. Except for the ghola Duncan Idaho, all the other characters are long dead. It explains even more of the allusionary foreshadowing of "Dune: Messiah" and "Children of Dune", which is its real strength. The ending however was not really the best in my taste. It happens too quickly and it didn't seem to answer the foreshadowing that was presented earlier in the book. Also, the character development of the surviving characters was poor while the well developed characters all die. While I look forward to reading about how the Dune universe turns out in the final two books, I was ultimately disappointed in flaw in character development. I'm also becoming a little tired of the constant resurrections of Duncan Idaho when there are many more intriguing and complex characters that die premature deaths. Despite this, I stil give the book a four star rating because of its predominant consistency to the Dune theme and its epic foreshadowing of the events to come in the following books.
Rating:
Summary: Slow, but great
Review: This book is not a page turner like some of the others in this series, it took me probably twice as long per page as its immediate successor, heretics of Dune. It's kind of hard to read, with it's immense amount of concepts, many that you aren't supposed to understand. Even from the view of Leto himself, you are still just a human reading his words.
However, give this book a little time when you think you've had enough, let it sink in. Keep reading, by the end you are in to it. I tingled through the ending.
When I was reading the bulk of the book I didn't enjoy it as much as the others a lot of the time, but now loooking at it in retrospect I see the greatness of the thought, and the story as well.
After all, Herbert is only a mediocre action writer anyway, his strengths are in plotting and concepts, which this book is filled with.
Sorry if I didn't communicate as effectively as some of the others the quality of this book, but it's great.
Rating: 
Summary: the best book in the Dune series
Review: This book, in my opinion, is unquestionably the best in the series, if simply because of the main character. Leto Atreides 2 is simply the most fascinating, unique character I have evr seen in science fiction/fantasy. His aims are unique and eminently hard to understand- but throughout the book you get the feeling that he is trying for a 'noble purpose'- his Golden Path. Although its not clear what exactly the golden path is, it can be incredibly satisfying just to try to figure bits of it out and putting them in place, like a jigsaw puzzle. Leto is a tyrant (as he acknowledges freely), but he is simple different from anything you will have seen. a tyrant with a love for humanity, one who is no longer human himself, and who manipulates his people but is incredibly, painfully conscious of that manipulation. The dialogue in the book is also well-written, if a bit abstruse 9but thats part of its charm). Reading the book is like wrestling with difficult concepts and trying to understand them. Part of the dialogue is even just Leto's manipulation of words- 'just words, however beautiful' as he says. But anybody who like lterature will have an experience just trying to follow Leto's mind through the dialogue. Sadly, this is the last interesting (or even readable) book in the Dune series. The next two books have neither a compelling character, nor interesting dialogue and subtle meanings. Heretics f Dune and Chapterhouse: Dune are, to put it frankly, unreadable in the sense that you will understand practically nothing of whats going on.
Rating:
Summary: GOD, What a Great Book
Review: This is an awesome book. I think that it is a lot like Messiah for a couple of reasons....In Children of Dune, we read about the soon-to-be Emporor. The same things happened in Dune. Then in this book, we read about his strugles and tyranies. The same thing that happened in Messiah! And in this book, the Emporer just like in Messiah is Super-Human and has to deal with reagular humans and how his prescience allianates him from his brethren. This book is Dune Messiah on a much greater scale. This book takes place 3,500 years since we last left Leto II and he is still alive! The sandworm skin has mede him live super long, but he is far from human. He's turining into a sandworm. The planent of Arakis is far different from where we left it. It is green and lush. The Fremen are no longer really Fremen, and Duncan Idaho and been reincarnated again. This book is most philosophy but there is some action in it and its not that hard to understand because of two characters. Moneo and Idaho. Leto II says a lot of really deep stuff that is hard to understand, but he says it mostly to Moneo and Idaho. THey don't understand it either, so Leto II explains it to them and US making this book a relaxing read. If your looking for and action book don't read this. If your looking for a psycological triller, then you have found it in God Emperor of Dune.
Rating:
Summary: A Different Dune Book
Review: Take Mankind 9000 years into the future (not 100 or even 300 years, like most authors, or even Arthur C. Clarke's somewhat weak attempt at going 1000 years), and what do you have? It leaves the author pretty free to have anything be true. Frank Hebert clearly and precisely and thoroughly creates a truly alien Human society that is also strongly rooted in its past. The worlds and cultures of "Dune" are strongly influenced by Arabic and Islamic culture, along with a hearty dash of medieval European feudalism. Frank Herbet wrote so well that it all becomes very believable, as if you are reading history instead of fiction. And, who can say it won't turn out this way? After "Children of Dune" the trilogy was supposedly done. "God Emperor of Dune" is another continuation of the series, but has an entirely different feel to it. At the end of "Children of Dune" Leto II has made the terrible choice of encasing himself in sandtrout. In "God Emperor of Dune" time has passed and Leto is now as much sandworm as he is human. There is much less action in this book than in any of the other books in the series. Everything is quieter, subtler, and more behind-the-scenes. Enough happens to keep the story going, but a lot of it is off-stage. Much of the more direct content of this book deals with Leto's efforts to retain his humanity, rule well, and move Mankind in a good direction through enforced peace. The planet Dune has become almost unrecognizable, to him and to readers, but there are signs it is on the brink of returning to its former ecology. I never call anything a must-read, as I don't know who has the right to dictate to anyone what they "must read". However, you're missing something if you don't read (and later re-read) the entire Dune series. I recommend buying a set when you're a teenager and keeping it to re-read every five years or so. The story will grow as you do, as will your appreciation of it.
Rating:
Summary: Literature`s God Emperor
Review: Often criticised in favour of the more action orientated Dune novels, God Emperor is a beautiful script. The complex dialogues with Leto II are thought provoking and rivetting. Though the lack of action has been criticised I find the mental manouvering of this book to be just as interesting as any combat descriptions, as these tend to be subjected to endless cliches. The writing is deceptive also in that while often it feels as if no action is taking place all of a sudden we reach the end of the novel and Momentous happenings have... well happened. Definitely recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Exellent series, execpt for this book...
Review: God Emperor of Dune is an essential part of the Dune series, and therefore you must have read it. It contains certain key events, described from the God emperors point-of-view, which is the only way to know how stuff really happened. In the sequels, which happen several mellenia later, the people have a quite wrong image of the God Emperor, because history is written by the victors.. This book is unfortunately the most awful book I've'ever read, and trust me, I've read plenty. The storyline is downright pessimistic, none of the main characters, excluding the Idaho invoke any sympathy, while The Fremen have continued to degenerate. Hell, Duncan even meets one with BROWN EYES! Fortunately, the sequels to this book make up for this debacle. Read it, yawn, cry a little and move on to the next book, which I rate 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: The deepest thoughts aren't seen in the first reading..
Review: When I was a teen-ager I read this book. I thought that it was slow and boring. After having re-read this book 20 years later I can see that it is probably the best novel I have ever read. The thought that by becoming the most vile despot the universe has ever seen, Leto can push humanity to finally reject despotism as a political/religious force, and in doing so force individuals to assert their right of freedom above all else, is perhaps the whole point of the Dune series. As we live in a society that has abbrogated much of our freedom due to apathy, fear, and feelings of helplessness, we should all read this book for its insights into where our society could be heading. This book is probably much too slow to keep some people interested, but if it is read with the realization of the points that Herbert was trying to make, this book truly stands out. After all, if Dune was just about desert maniacs and war, we would never have liked it much in the first place. It is precisely the depth of the thinking in Herbert's work that keeps us coming back.
Rating:
Summary: The future of mankind hangs upon Leto's breeding program
Review: Leto Atreides must be the loneliest person in the world, though he is an Emperor and worshipped as a god. And why a god? Because he is unique and practically, though not really, immortal. At the end of Children of Dune, (Book 3) Leto makes a terrible choice and covers himself with sandtrout, the spawn of the mighty Shai-hulud, the sandworm. This causes a transformation and we meet him, mostly Worm, all too human, in the fourth book. The characters are very well drawn, as you'd expect from Herbert. In particular, Duncan Idaho, returned as the eternal clone or ghola, has a large role. Leto, bigger than life, still retains the human tragic-hero quality, similar to that of his father Paul-Muad'Dib. He has created an army of women, the Fish Speakers, to enforce his law throughout the galaxy. There is peace, but at what price? Despite the peace, Leto has powerful enemies, and he knows it. Some are enemies he has deliberately created. Why? The end of the story has all the qualities of a legend or great tragedy, though Leto's legacy is that men can survive an uncertain future. This is a fine book and better than the second and third of the Dune series, and in fact, quite unique.
Rating:
Summary: The Seperation of the Dune series...
Review: Simply put, God Emporer of Dune was one of the finest novels in the series. I enjoyed *Every* Dune novel, including Messiah, and I believe this is one of the finest in the series. This novel is widely misinterpreted to be the beginning of the second Dune trilogy, but it is not. Dune 4 is the mid-point between the first trilogy, and second, unifished trilogy. This book was meant as a bridge between the two trilogies. In this novel, we are shown Leto Atriedes, the God Emporer. Now, he has become Shaitan, and he has changed Dune into a green planet. We see the last years of his life, and his Golden Path, the path which he has set humanity on to reach the ideal future. He has controlled everything, from the Bene Gesserit to the Bene Tlielax, to his own personal army of Fishspeakers. In the end, we are shown the building block for the next trilogy, in which we watch the world through the eyes of the Bene Gesserit. I am angry for the fact that many state this book should not have been written. This book is a necessity in the series, pushing foward centuries at a time and going to a place where we know only two people: The God Emporer and the Duncan Idaho ghola. This new perspective gives the whole universe a new feel and pace, one that will set the tone for the future. Many complain about the lack of action, but this was a reflective novel, much of the dialogue being an internal conflict of Leto. No one could truly understand him, as the Stolen Journals stated, yet he did his best to usher humanity along the Golden Path. Next time you read this novel, please read with an open mind and remember, this wasn't the Dune Muad'Dib knew, the Dune of Shaitan, Leto, the God Emporer.
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