If Dune can be considered an expansion, Children of Dune is a contraction. Although not as speculator as its predecessors, Children of Dune breaks down many of the lessons learned by the Atreides family — this time focusing on Chani's twins, Leto II and Ghanima. It also offers up some pointed philosophies, with two of my favorites being that the future dictates the present and that the worth of a society should be measured by the individuals it produces.

With Frank Herbert hard baking such ideas into his work, I'm reminded of why I fell in love with Dune as a young teenager who had recently been uplifted from the greens and blues of the midwest and dropped into the dusty browns of Nevada. And yet, this isn't another five-star favorite. Instead, this installment feels strained, taking too long to find its humanity with Leto II. He is after all, and to a lesser extent his sister, what this story is really about — how someone other than Paul might slip into some enormous shoes and find a new path to lead the universe.

In sum, Children of Dune is about Leto II and Ghanima mastering or failing to master the abilities inherited from their father. It is also about Leto II attempting to bring balance back to the universe before the sandworms of the desert go extinct. It is about the constraints that societies and religions try to saddle the future. And it is another grand power struggle, this time between House Atreides, House Corinno, the Benne-Gesserit, the past, and Paul's sister.

For fans of the Dune universe, the book is easily digestible and entertaining. It's a must-read, as are all the books that make up the Atreides saga. But what it is not is the same disciplined mastery of the craft that opened everyone up to this robustly imaginative future.