Funny thing about the fourth book - decades ago I was in a library and saw Dune on the shelf and immediately picked it up because I knew Dune 2 was one of the best games ever and I like sci-fi. It took me a while to realise I picked the God Emperor of Dune rather than the first one. I didn’t know there were multiple. I liked it. Duncan Idaho was the GOAT in there for sure.

I read the fifth book afterwards, maybe to continue where I left off, but it could also be that the library didn’t have any others. Or they were always borrowed.

I only got around to reading the whole thing from the start as the new movie went into theatres, though by that time I had a pretty good picture of the story from all the adaptations (including the first Dune game, which is an adventure game more or less following the first book’s story).

Anyway, the first one is great. The second and third, I felt like I was only enjoying them because I wanted to see what happens with the characters and to stay in the world a bit longer, but they’re weaker than the first. Re-reading the fourth one, I had a blast. I can see why it is less popular in general, but since it was the first one I read, I had a connection to it and really enjoyed it.

Then I got to the fifth one and… I just couldn’t finish it. I didn’t care about any of the characters or what they were doing and it was just a drag. I only read the synopsis of the sisxth one on wikipedia and, wow, that sounds like a terrible fan-fiction, with all the popular characters from the first book coming back to life thousands of years in the future. I could be wrong, but it certainly seems like I dodged a bullet when I stopped reading where I did.