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The continuing story of the planet Dune and Paul Muad'Dib follows the story of Paul's children, Leto and Ghanima. Like Alia, who is now ruling Dune and Paul's empire, these two were pre-born because of the spice their mother took while she was carrying them. While they are still quite young children, they possess great wisdom and experience because of the spice-- and sometimes it is a little hard to believe, or imagine, children saying and doing the things these two do.

I've been intrigued with this book ever since I saw the SciFi channel's "Children of Dune". I completely understand why they chose to go with teenagers, instead of children, for the roles of Paul and Ghanima-- it is hard to imagine or believe them, just when reading the book; I can imagine it would be much more difficult to find child actors who could carry the roles, and make something so strange believable.

When Alia was first born, there were some who considered her an "abomination"; in this book we get to see what they were afraid of. It is a clever way for Herbert to be able to bring back the disturbing Baron Harkonnen, and it is also interesting to view Alia's derangement from the point of view of Leto and Ghanima, who are careful lest the same thing happen to them.

Leto's choice-- to follow what he sees as "the golden path"-- is a fascinating one. In this book, he claims that Paul saw that choice and didn't want to take it; this makes me feel that Herbert has been revising and inventing things as he goes, because I certainly never got a sense of it when I read Dune. It is fascinating to think that the only way to rule a human empire with justice and preserve peace and stability is to become not-human. And that idea alone makes me quite interested in reading the sequels at some point, to see how Herbert plays this idea out-- although after reading Dune Messiah and this book, I was ready for a break from the world of Dune for a while.

Title:	Children of Dune
Author:	Frank Herbert
Date published:	1976
Genre:	Science Fiction
Series:	Dune Chronicles
Number of pages:	408

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My brother once told me, long ago, that all the Dune sequels put together are not as good as Dune itself. I postponed reading any of the other Dune Chronicles for a long time, but since someone had given me a copy of Children of Dune (I think it was Sapphire, actually), I finally decided to read more of the series. I have to admit-- so far, my brother was right. However, Dune Messiah is not a completely worthless or un-fascinating book.

I thought one of the points in the original Dune was that Paul was trying to carefully navigate all the possible futures, to avoid the raging jihad through the stars that he saw in so many of his possible futures. He apparently failed, or it was impossible. It is, however, a pretty fascinating idea that Paul's foresight is so clear and precise that, when he loses his vision and becomes blind, he can still see and navigate perfectly by the use of his inner eyes.

This book also adds some interesting new groups of plotters. In addition to the Bene Gesserit, we now encounter the Bene Tleilax, who provide Paul with a clone of Duncan Idaho trained as a Mentat and philosopher (you almost wonder why the Tleilax weren't mentioned or introduced before-- although the first book was plenty complex without them). This is one of those cases where there are plots within plots-- hidden beneath a plot to kill the emperor Muad'Dib is an attempt to perfect the Tleilax cloning techniques, to provide a circumstance that would allow the cloned Duncan Idaho to recover the memories of the original Duncan.

Title:	Dune Messiah
Author:	Frank Herbert
Date published:	1969
Genre:	Science Fiction
Series:	Dune Chronicles
Number of pages:	329

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A wonderful story of a woman who believes God is sending her to Hong Kong as a missionary. No agency will take her, so she goes on her own. She ends up opening a boys club in the walled city, where police will only go if absolutely necessary. It is beyond dirty, and almost everyone does opium and is part of a dangerous gang. But God is gracious and uses her. Pullinger learns about the power of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. Through intense praying and fasting and worship, she helps bring many opium addicts back to normal life. God is the only reason her story is possible, and it is very encouraging to read this book and believe that our God is more than able.

It is interesting to think about this style of ministry. Pullinger has immense amounts of energy and calls those who work with her to also have energy to do many things and be very involved with those coming from hard, dangerous lifestyles. Sometimes organizations or ministries are started through the influence of one person who is charismatic (in the sense that people are willing to follow them and believe them), and brimming over with life - in one sense or another. There is a danger in these leaders not preparing for others to take their place or to take over small pieces of the ministry. Wisdom seems to call for an exit plan - meaning that there is preparation for others to be able to take over the organization or ministry. CEOs have to do this too -- if the company only works because they are present, it won't last when they have to leave. In terms of ministry specifically, it should be God's work and not just the work of a person.

All those thoughts are not to say that Pullinger's ministry and life work are not useful, but it raises questions for me of how people are called differently, and what God uses individuals for. Some people are created to be leaders with charisma and excitement and to create ministries or organizations that are very successful. Some are created to build networks and connect those who are already doing work. Some are created to do the simple, day-to-day tasks that God uses to bring glory to Himself and to draw individuals and communities closer to Himself. Who were you created to be?

Title:	Chasing the Dragon
Author:	Jackie Pullinger
Date published:	1982
Genre:	Autobiography
Number of pages:	238
Notes:

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Promised Land is a variation on the standard plot of two people being forced to marry for some reason, and then gradually falling in love afterwards (usually because the man's unswerving and abiding love eventually wins the woman over). Just recently I've seen this plot in the TV movie "The Magic of Ordinary Days" and also in "Love Comes Softly" (based on Jeanette Oke's book of the same title). There are some fun quirks to Willis' and Felice's version of this familiar story, but I wonder if there is a draw to this basic plot itself? My pastor, in a recent series on love, claimed that none of us is capable of loving perfectly and unconditionally-- but in spite of our inability to love, we still all want to be loved perfectly, and we recognize real love when we see it. My suspicion is that this is the reason we are drawn to this familiar plot-- because, as unrealistic as it is, this story presents something that may be as close as humanly possible to the kind of love that all of us are longing for.

Despite the fact that the main plot of this book is familiar and predictable, I still enjoy it quite a bit-- as evidenced by the fact that I've read it three times now. It is a quick read, easy to breeze through and enjoy. The promised land of the title is a lanzye, or farm, named Millesflores on the colony planet Keramos, and this setting allows for some exotic scenery and fanciful creatures. In this case, the marriage is caused by planet laws relating to inheritance, and designed to keep lanzye's from being split up. The off-planet educated Delanna comes back to the back-water planet her mother hated and did her best to get her daughter away from-- and (of course) Delanna comes to see the beauty of the land and the people on this undeveloped planet. There are some points where the character development or dialogue isn't quite believable (including a line at the very end of the book-- it seems a detail the characters would be unlikely to forget). This is a bit disappointing (at times I found myself wondering which parts were written by which author-- I mean no offence to Felice, but I'm unfamiliar with her work and know a bit of Willis' brilliance); I suppose, as a reader, you put up with these inconsistencies because you know where the story is heading.

Title:	Promised Land
Author:	Connie Willis and Cynthia Felice
Date published:	1997
Genre:	Science Fiction
Number of pages:	368
Notes:	Third reading

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I've always liked The Last Battle-- it's one of my top two or three favorite Narnia books (I know, there are only seven of them), and I think that might be because it is so different from the other books in the series. There are lots of wonderful characters, and you get to see Lewis' view about what the end of time and heaven might look like (a different kind of view than what you get in The Great Divorce).

There are lots of great characters in The Last Battle, and I kind of enjoy the fact that this book starts in Narnia, and it is a while before any Earth children come into the picture. You get to learn about the sweet donkey Puzzle, who underrates himself and his own wisdom, and gives in too easily to the selfish, malicious ape Shift; you get to meet the last king of Narnia, Tirian, and his trusty friend, the unicorn Jewel. Lewis also uses this opportunity to show how different people choose to believe or not believe-- some of the cleverer animals, like Shift and the cat, deliberately refuse to believe in Aslan and try to trick the others. One of the sadder moments in the book is the self-deception of the dwarfs-- they are sick of being tricked and refuse to be "taken in" again, so even though they are sitting inside the doorway to paradise, they close their eyes and refuse to see or believe in Aslan or eternity.

One of the details I particularly liked from Lewis' view of heaven presented here is that Narnia and our Earth both offer paths to the same Aslan. The Pevensie children start in the Narnian heaven, presumably because that is where the first came to know Aslan well, but with their heightened vision, they can look across and see their parents, who are also moving towards Aslan's country. I think I read somewhere that Lewis believed there really might be other planets somewhere with sentient beings on them (you might get a taste of this from the Narnia books and the space trilogy, but not every writer believes even remotely in the things they imagine), whether fallen or unfallen-- and it seems to me both foolish and arrogant to assume we are the only ones in this immense galaxy, or that God is limited in some way as to be unable to handle more than one planet. That must be why I love the images we get here, of people from different worlds all moving towards Aslan's country.

Because I grew up reading this book with my family, we all know and love the repeated refrain from the end of the book. Every now and then, it will come up again as appropriate, whether we are hiking or just encouraging each other:

Further up and further in!

Title:	The Last Battle
Author:	C. S. Lewis
Date published:	1956
Genre:	Fantasy / Young Adult
Series:	Chronicles of Narnia
Number of pages:	184
Notes:	Read this book aloud with G. This is a repeat reading.

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The moving story of a rural Zulu priest who leaves his home in the country of South Africa to travel to Johannesburg, to track down a sister who has gotten into trouble in the city and wants to come home. He also hopes to find his son, Absalom, whom he has not heard from in some time. Unfortunately, shortly after he arrives a white man-- one who is sympathetic to and outspoken on behalf of the African people-- is murdered by a black man who broke into his home to rob him. When Kumalo first hears of the murder, he instinctively-- and rightly-- fears that his son may be the murderer, despite the reassurances of the man who is helping him in his search.

This is a moving story, depicting the experiences of some of the poorest people in the cities of South Africa. The relationship between Kumalo and his son is somewhat restored at the end, when Absalom is abandoned by his friends and left to take the punishment for the murder all alone. But I think the most moving part of the story is the unlikely relationship that develops between the two fathers-- Kumalo, the father of the murderer, and the white landowner Jarvis, who comes from the same region where Kumalo lives, the father of the man who was murdered. This horrible event creates a bond for them, and when Kumalo returns home, this develops into a friendship with the murdered man's son; and then landowner decides to help the community, providing milk for the sick children, and bringing in experts to teach them how to manage the land better.

One of the saddest aspects of this story is Kumalo's helplessness and sometimes even hopelessness for his people. He sees the darkness of the city and the evil there, but at the same time he knows the land is not doing so well in the country, and that the rural areas cannot support a larger population. Perhaps this is why the relationship between Kumalo and Jarvis is so moving: because it provides a note of hope and possibility.

Title:	Cry, the Beloved Country
Author:	Alan Paton
Date published:	1948
Genre:	Fiction
Number of pages:	283

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