Finally finished all the Dune books. The first one is by far the best. Felt like Herbert was grasping at straws for 5 books and never really knitted it all together. I still enjoyed it, but there was a lot more potential in his universe that never came to life. Maybe the movies will pick up some of that slack
Discussion
I agree. God Emperor of Dune was a pointless mess with all of that constant chatter and Golden Path crap. It was also there that he destroyed Arakis for the first of two times. He basically cut the heart out of the series when he turns it into an Edenic garden. Who cares about the story called Dune if there isn't actually a Dune?
Is it just me or his writing skills actually declined over time? I liked most of the ideas in the later books, but struggled with the way it was written.