What is the author's style in Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert?

Dune Messiah is Frank Herbert's 1969 sequel to the best seller Dune. At 221 pages, it is miniscule compared to the first volume, whose action ends some twelve years earlier. Both are narrated in straightforward Standard American English, allowing contractions, but avoiding the tendency of many science fiction works to make heavy use of the passing idioms of the day. Thus, Dune Messiah escapes feeling "dated" even decades after its writing. Narrative description is far less important than dialog in developing characters and moving forward the plot. There is little use of literary or historical symbolism or other literary tools from human society before ca. 12,000 C.E. Much use, however, is made of references to the political, social, and religious life since the "Butlerian Jihad" and Paul's emergence as Muad'dab, Madhi, and kwisatz haderach.