Storyline: 2/5 
 Characters: 2/5 
 Writing Style: 3/5 
 World: 3/5 
 I imagine Herbert having this bulletin board with words pinned in prominence: angst!, resignation!, self-sacrifice!, loyalty! Herbert wanted to write a book that explored these themes, but he never really showed us these or an interesting story with them in place. Instead he whirled round and round the concepts telling us that these were really important. Unsure if we grasped what was meant, he took us on another circuitous and repetitious tour without getting us any closer. We finally all found ourselves at the end of a fairly unremarkable story of never-conveyed thoughts. 
 What I did like: I liked that this skipped forward 12 years and that we don't clearly know or understand what happened in the interim. Herbert continues to manipulate enigma, showing all other writers how less can really be more. The Butlerian Jihad? Awesome name. Sounds like something I want to know more about. All we get are tidbits that tell us that it has something to do with destroying computers. We don't know fact from legend or why, but throughout the book we get telling reminders in the form of prejudices and assumptions that convey that this is an important part of history. Less truly was more. 
 What I didn't like: As much as I like and appreciate insinuation and allusion as tools, you've got to add something substantive. Dune was full of rich cultural experiences and numerous and wide-ranging plots and subplots. Dune Messiah was localized and limited; we don't get a deep view of how the culture has changed over time and the plot was extremely limited. If not worldbuilding, pacing, or action, then Herbert at least owes us some character development. But Paul Atreides looks and sounds just like the Paul Atreides of 12 years ago. If Herbert isn't going to develop the characters, then at least push some of the various political, religious, and economic messages that were intimated in the first. The whole messiah thing was done in the first one; build on it or give it significance. Mentats, too, could have been used to show us some lesson such as reliance on technology blinds us to our innate abilities. We don't get to see how a mentat works, though. We get reminded again and again that they're smart and capable and difficult to understand, but never get to understand how they are smart or capable. The nature of the jihad was one of the driving motivations of Paul and the opposition in the book, but Herbert doesn't even give you enough information to understand it anew. Why and how the jihad came about and mattered and in what way were important for the book, and it is only because I read the first recently that I was able to recall those details. 
 What I was uncomfortable with: The religious allusions to Christ were often overplayed and underexplained. Why make the Dune Messiah so similar? A Christian author using the example as allegory would make sense, but I couldn't decipher Herbert's purpose here. The naked 15 year-old (though, we are told, womanly in body) and the love story were borderline pedophilic (and sometimes incestuous). Why go there? The role of genetics continues to be weird. Do something and go fully kooky, or show us that you are exploring something meaningful. The book just needed to go somewhere with all the ideas leftover from book one. 
 Even if its predecessor had not been monumental, this would have been a fairly unremarkable sequel. As Dune was monumental, the unremarkable follow-up was a real disappointment. This served largely as a refresher and placeholder. Rather than reread the original in preparation for more of the story, you get to read this middle volume that offers little new but that reminds you of just how great the first was.