I finally read Dune Messiah, the second book in the Dune series, after years of only having read the first book.

Excellent. Dune and Dune Messiah, together, form a reasonably complete story. Some of it is invalidated and/or retconed by subsequent books (I'm reading Children of Dune right now), which is unfortunate, but in reading Dune Messiah, it's obvious that many elements of the setting, which seem like standard Space Opera color, such as the feudal system, were carefully chosen so nothing would get in the way of the issues that Herbert was highlighting: Struggling against destiny (prescience), choosing the lesser of many evils, the power of human genetics and genetic memory, the footprint of man on an ecological system, and the psychological power of religion, along with a healthy dose of politics and duty, feminine and mascline power, and explorations into human potential. It's surprising how little of the details of the setting turn out to be color; nearly everything seems to be carefully chosen to highlight the themes the author is working with.

I particularly enjoyed the bits with the ressurrected Duncan Idaho, not to mention seeing Alia get a little happiness. I like seeing my Abomination women get a little happiness. :)

If you're intimidated by the whole series, but felt that Dune was oddly incomplete, you can read Dune and Dune Messiah and reach a reasonable stopping point. In fact, the continuation seems a little weak, something I'll go into in more detail when I talk about Children of Dune in a later entry.