CHILDREN OF DUNE

Last in Herbert Dune's trilogy, this ponderously realigns the surviving family of the departed (or not so departed) messiah Muad'Dib, Paul Atreides. At stake axe the precious ecology and ethos of Dune itself, with terrible consequences for the scattered planets of the Imperium. It's sometimes gripping, but dreadfully overwritten (""the parched glissando of moonglow"") and self-important beyond description, with at least two great thoughts to a page, and sometimes three or four. Still, that's just what seems to attract the post-born tree believers.