Navigators of Dune (Mini-Review)

Navigators of Dune is the third and final book in the Schools of Dune Trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. After his assassination of the late Emperor Salvador Corrino, Directeur Josef Venport finds himself on the run from Emperor Roderick Corrino. At the same time, he continues his feud with the Butlerian Cultists lead by Manford Torondo. While humanity stands on the crossroads of its future, Erasmus continues to figure out what it means to be human.

Erasmus has been my favorite character of the first two prequel series. He has spent so long trying to figure out what it means to be human while experiencing more human-like emotions than he has realized. Such as being jealous of Serena Butler's attention just like an older sibling would be of a new brother or sister. In this book he is able to have a human body and so have a new area of life to explore. Just like last book, he continues to be close to Anna Corrino. While he tells himself she is just a new experiment to him, it's obvious he's in love with her.

Vorian and Willem Atreides start a hunt for Tula Harkonnen. In the previous book she had killed Willem's brother all for a blood feud. During the book Vorian does his best to find a way to end the feud. He thinks that by killing Tula, the blood feud will be ended. He has a point as Valya wants him above any other Atreides. But it's also foolish as such strong hatred doesn't just die down.

I've found the battle between Torondo and Venport to be extremely interesting. They're both as different as they are similar. Torondo believes that by abandoning all technology he can save the soul of the Imperium. Venport believes it's only by embracing technology that humanity can be saved. Torondo is a hypocrite as taboo technology is whatever doesn't serve him, he uses fear to keep those who disagree with him in line, and he will commit countless murders if someone slightly disagrees with him. Venport does his part to keep the cultists in check but doesn't understand why people continue to bow to them. This due to the fact he doesn't seem to understand that not everyone has as much power as he does. Both men cross lines: Manford uses atomics while Venport builds cymeks.

It's funny that everyone has been clamoring for Roderick to be Emperor and then being angry when he is. Such as Venport killed Salvador due to the former Emperor being the plaything of Torondo. The Directeur thought that Roderick had the strength to make the Imperium a better place. But what Venport didn't understand was that a man with such a drive would realize though Venport had good intentions, he had too much power. That and Venport killed the brother that Roderick truly loved.

Vorian "Vor" Atreides is one character in the prequels that I can't fully decide where I stand. I loathe that he abandoned clearing Xavier Harkonnen's name for no reason and think the man should die for that crime. I can understand about needing to keep the Harkonnen/Atreides feud for the original books, but it could have been done so much better. Yet Vor does his best to improve, though he still retains some blind spots. At certain points I love his character and yet at others I cry out for his blood.

I would highly recommend Navigators of Dune to those that like the Schools of Dune Trilogy. I would recommend Navigators of Dune to those that like the Dune series. I would highly recommend Navigators of Dune to those looking for a fun and gripping science fiction novel.