[Barry the Sprout]

Hiero man, I love philosophising books - why do you think I'm a sci fi fan in the first place! Sci fi at its best is about mans place and destiny in the universe, and it often makes me think a hell of a lot more than regular fiction.

However I do not think God Emporer is sci fi at its best. I'm glad you got so much out of it but I just plain disagree that its a deeper book than the rest. I don't think the others are action-adventure style by any means, they're just faster moving as the characters are actually involving. I don't have a problem with Leto being smug other than it makes it hard to sympathise with him, which Herbert quite obviously wants you to do. Also, as you say yourself, we regard Leto in the same way the other characters do - so why do they come around to his way of thinking when I don't! That should make their actions regarding him easier to understand, not harder! If they have the same outlook on Leto as me then they should react in the same way - they were unbelievable as given the same information as me they reacted in a completely inexplicable manner.

I personally didn't think he was slowing down and philosophising but instead he had written himself into a corner and had to go through the unfortunate process of writing a book he didn't want to in order to get out of it... The whole book seemed half hearted, poorly thought through, unbelievable, and just generally not thought provoking or fun to read. It read like someone caricaturing Herbert's byzantine-thriller-in-space style.

But Heretics and Chapter House were better. Not as good as the first three, but better than God Emporer.