On Dune‘s political angle — Spoilers
I read the whole series in my late 30s. I think @keygen.exe is def onto something. The prefaces of the books (written by Herbert‘s son) laud the „think for yourself, avoid the messiah! - core“ of the books, but the books themselves are nowhere near that clear cut on that theme. Yes Paul‘s Fremen kill billions in their holy war, but there‘s constantly the implication that Paul did what he could to choose the „lesser evil“ as indicated by his prescience. This notion is further deepened in Children of Dune and God Emporer, where Paul‘s son CONSCIOUSLY chooses the Golden Path and calls out his father for having been weak for not having gone all the way (which, the golden path also includes brutality, domination and suffering across 3000 years…and as the story unfolds we are implied over and over, that the God Emporer did the right thing for the evolution of the universe). I agree with keygen, Herbert was really into his Artreidis‘, any criticism that‘s launched in the books seems supersceded by his admiration for and attraction to his Atreidis characters….and Duncan Idaho in particular.
I‘m glad I read the books, especially the first one was a bit of a psychedelic trip, whereas the weak political angle of the other five books was mostly annoying and tainting my enjoyment of an otherwise interesting story.