@ Trisk, I don't think so.
People just like drawing parallels and using analogies.
Nonmen are elves, Shae is Saruman, Skin-spies are face dancers etc etc.
These analogs don't really give a better understanding - they might be useful descriptions for those more familiar with the later, but any extra information they transmit is far more likely to diverge from authorial intent than form derived insight.
I suspect authors very rarely base their plotting off the influences that go into their world building. OTOH if Akka destroys Mog by throwing a ring into a volcano I shall retract this.
That said, God Emperor was a lot better than Dune. I don't think I can even remember what happened in Messiah, and I could not be arsed reading more after GE -seemed like a great place to leave the series.
On a side note, where are the threads investigating the thematic and stylistic similarities with Homer and Gilgamesh?