Dune Messiah

I love Dune. According to Goodreads, I've read it five times - the last in 2013. After finishing its audiobook a few days ago, I couldn't figure out why I hadn't read the the rest of the series, and so picked up the audiobook for Dune Messiah - the second in the series.

I realized that I remembered the initial portions of the book, so I must have started it sometime in the past; but it quickly became clear why I had never finished this book, and hence never touched the rest of the series.

This book is pretentious, filled with flowery language for no reason other than to be decorative, and bogged down by a plot device that smothers all sense of excitement - the vision of the future that the protagonists possess. It's shocking how, towards the end of the book when Paul lets go of his future sense willingly, the book seems to come alive.

What this book lacks is everything that made the original great - world-building, real tension & conflict, a sense for the fantastical.

What a disappointment. :-(