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Dune Messiah cover art

Dune Messiah

By: Frank Herbert
Narrated by: Scott Brick, Katherine Kellgren, Euan Morton, Simon Vance
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Summary

The epic, multimillion-selling science-fiction series continues! The second Dune installment explores new developments on the planet Arrakis, with its intricate social order and strange, threatening environment.

Dune Messiah picks up the story of the man known as Muad'Dib, heir to a power unimaginable, bringing to fruition an ambition of unparalleled scale: the centuries-old scheme to create a superbeing who reigns not in the heavens but among men.

But the question is: DO all paths of glory lead to the grave?

Listen to more of our titles in the Dune series.
©1969 Frank Herbert (P)2007 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC

What listeners say about Dune Messiah

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    2,458
  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
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    35
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    2,402
  • 4 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
    64
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Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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    2,013
  • 4 Stars
    1,160
  • 3 Stars
    622
  • 2 Stars
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  • 1 Stars
    47

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Too much melange by the author?

I listened to the first book and loved it. Although I found the first book hard going at the beginning you drop into the new words, and now 50 years on a lot of the Arabic words the author drops in a more familiar to westerns - Haj, Jihad.

I can't help thinking though that this book is slightly addled and more of it's time - 1969! Book one seemed timeless and I was amazed that after 50 years it still felt fresh and relevant, but this one felt like something from the height of flower power and hippy trippy acid frenzies. The author seems to jump from event to event, with little to interlink the story and long, rambling, impenetrable, and frankly nonsensical passages that drift off to nowhere describing the nature of Paul’s visions of the future with a torrent of words that seem thrown together and make little sense. Maybe the author is genius and the nonsense of his passages were meant to reflect the confusion of Paul trying to read the right path in the future … but frankly I got bored of listening to long passages of babble and garbage thrown together with little attempt at a coherent story thread.

Here’s just one extract (and I could find many) that will give you an idea of how mind bendingly nonsensical it is

“He became a motionless chain of relative existence, singular, alone. Old memories flooded his mind, he marked them, adjusted them to new understandings, made a beginning at the integration of a new awareness, an new persona achieved a temporary form of internal tyranny, the masculating synthesis remained charged with potential disorder, but events pressed him to the temporary adjustment, the young master needed him.”

I won’t be listening to the rest of the saga, this just disappeared up it’s own behind. I found myself listening to it more, just so I could get it over with faster. Thankfully it was under 10 hours so less than a week of my driving schedule, if it had been longer I'd have just ditched it.

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58 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Not as good as the original book

I had heard that this book was a bit of a week link in the Dune series so I was a bit apprehensive in ordering it. However, after listening to the original Dune audio book I knew I had to find out what happened to Paul and the others.

It was always going to be a hard act to follow but the production of this audio book is not as accomplished as that of Dune. I think this is mainly because many of the more distinctive characters from the first book do not appear in the sequel. The plot starts very very slowly and the clue is in the title - it is very Messianic and almost spirtual in the descriptions of the 'oracular vision'.

That said, there are some superb original concepts in the sequel, including the ghola 'Hate' and the descriptions of the Tleilaxu culture. The book also ends very well.

I'll certainly be downloading the next one.

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24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A narrative bridge, not well executed

What did you like most about Dune Messiah?

The source material isn't as good as the first book but still a very worthy read. Sadly the decision to share the narrative between the voice actors makes the experience confusing and distracts. The original has a set actor for character and one narrator, which is much more immersive.

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Book, Great readers

Great reading. clear and easy to understand. while the reading does change a few times to different narrators i found this a good thing. A superb book explaining what happened 12 years after Paul Atreides took over Dune. As gripping as it is intricute. This is a must read for those who want to know what happened to Paul, channi and the others in the royal court

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Dune fans only.

It's good. But a bit dry and with less colourful description as the original and best. I'm a dune fan so I enjoyed it.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

a downgrade from previous audiobook

More actors and music in the last audiobook but it doesn't affect the quality of the book

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Patchy narration and not well acted.

A difficult story to follow at the best of times, the narration company tries to Jazz things up a bit by moving the narrative between many different people. They ultimately fail to make it either more interesting, or easier to follow.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good sequel but narration is lacking

After really enjoying Dune, and the narration style of the Audible version despite its mixed reviews, I was not a fan of how Dune Messiah devoted entire sections of the book to different voice actors. Simon Vance is amazing, everyone else is lacking. The context, and pronunciation, shift and differences were too jarring and at times really took away from what is a good sequel. While I would recommend the story I can see why some people say to stop after the first book. If you loved the first book then don't let this put you off, but be warned that the narration leaves a lot to be desired.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent story.

Excellent storytelling. Beautifully written. Great book for those who enjoyed the first Dune book.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

an okay reading

I've read this story maybe 40 times in my life. the book was well read but the mix of narrators was jarring at points. I always felt the most emotional part of the story was towards the end when paul finally became blind and rescued his children through their eyes. with this reading some of that was lost.
I would recommend but feel that maybe the cost should not be a whole credit.

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2 people found this helpful