I thoroughly enjoyed this book, if for no other reason, than it goes into a bit more of the back-story of the human civilization. In the first book, I got the feeling that we weren't supposed to know if the characters were the descendants of humans, or just happened to be another culture rather like ours in some ways. This book discusses a bit more of the history, and how they come from our Earth to be where they are today. It also introduces a new set of characters, which have taking genetic engineering to an extreme. They used this to introduce a bit of science that I felt was missing from the first book.

The story itself though is more of a fatalist story that the first, to say the least. Paul's character has a coming of age of sorts in this book, where we, through his character, realize that the Spice drug isn't as mystical as you might think. But more just a drug, not too unlike any other drug, and how human culture has become too dependant on it, mixed with a good dose of religion.

It will be interesting to see where they take the religious undertones in the coming books, especially the newly created pseudo-religion surrounding Paul.