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cap17's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
1.5
cagebox's review against another edition
2.0
Frank Herbert's Dune series comes to an underwhelming and long overdue end in his 6th novel. For all the fleeting moments of brilliance in Dune, I will ultimately remember it as an incredibly uneven and massively overrated series.
mburnamfink's review against another edition
2.0
Well, that was certainly a book.
Dune: Chapterhouse is mostly empty sand, with a few bits of melange in original thoughts about tradition, power, and survival. The main character is Odrade, Bene Gesserit Mother Superior, who faces the destruction of her order at the hands of the rampaging Honored Matres. Only secrecy, and a Reverend Mother's willingness to die before betraying the order, can buy Odrade precious time to figure out a strategy for survival, a multipronged plan involving a ghola of the Bashar Miles Teg, renegade Honored Matre Murbella, and the ecological transformation of the planet Chapterhouse into another Dune via sandworm.
But here's the thing, a protagonist requires a character arc; a heroic protagonist requires a flaw (at least in the classical sense), and the Bene Gesserit in this book provide neither. The are history embodied, through the thousand of other memories that live in the Reverend Mothers. the Honored Matre are a kind of twisted mirror of the Bene Gesserit, all of their vaunted control and power with none of the tempering of wisdom. But what faces Odrade is not barbarians, but what Iain M Banks deemed an 'Outside Context Problem'. What has returned from the vast Scattering of human space and evolution, and how is it beyond the memories of the Bene Gesserit. However, the Bene Gesserit are too unruffled, to serene even in the face of extinction. They're a far cry from the subtle shapers of people and events of Dune, and strangely unaffected by the failure of their 10,000 year program to produce the Kwisatz Haderach, which lead to Muad'Dib and the Tyrant Leto II.
Dune was at its best when it balanced the grand forces beyond human control, the Fremen Jihad, prescient powers, Bene Gesserit plots, etc, with the fact that it mattered that it was these humans, in this time and place, Paul and Jessica and Chani and Stilgar, on Dune, when the power of the Atreides has been broken.
Herbert died before the true conclusion of the series. Duncan foresees an enemy that the Honored Matres are fleeing from, which in perhaps the ultimate example of anti-climaticism, are Face Dancers named Marty and Daniel who have absorbed so many identities they have become super-human.
If Heretics were fragments of a better book, Chapterhouse is those fragments ground to dust.
Dune: Chapterhouse is mostly empty sand, with a few bits of melange in original thoughts about tradition, power, and survival. The main character is Odrade, Bene Gesserit Mother Superior, who faces the destruction of her order at the hands of the rampaging Honored Matres. Only secrecy, and a Reverend Mother's willingness to die before betraying the order, can buy Odrade precious time to figure out a strategy for survival, a multipronged plan involving a ghola of the Bashar Miles Teg, renegade Honored Matre Murbella, and the ecological transformation of the planet Chapterhouse into another Dune via sandworm.
But here's the thing, a protagonist requires a character arc; a heroic protagonist requires a flaw (at least in the classical sense), and the Bene Gesserit in this book provide neither. The are history embodied, through the thousand of other memories that live in the Reverend Mothers. the Honored Matre are a kind of twisted mirror of the Bene Gesserit, all of their vaunted control and power with none of the tempering of wisdom. But what faces Odrade is not barbarians, but what Iain M Banks deemed an 'Outside Context Problem'. What has returned from the vast Scattering of human space and evolution, and how is it beyond the memories of the Bene Gesserit. However, the Bene Gesserit are too unruffled, to serene even in the face of extinction. They're a far cry from the subtle shapers of people and events of Dune, and strangely unaffected by the failure of their 10,000 year program to produce the Kwisatz Haderach, which lead to Muad'Dib and the Tyrant Leto II.
Dune was at its best when it balanced the grand forces beyond human control, the Fremen Jihad, prescient powers, Bene Gesserit plots, etc, with the fact that it mattered that it was these humans, in this time and place, Paul and Jessica and Chani and Stilgar, on Dune, when the power of the Atreides has been broken.
Herbert died before the true conclusion of the series. Duncan foresees an enemy that the Honored Matres are fleeing from, which in perhaps the ultimate example of anti-climaticism, are Face Dancers named Marty and Daniel who have absorbed so many identities they have become super-human.
If Heretics were fragments of a better book, Chapterhouse is those fragments ground to dust.
jamievr's review against another edition
3.0
It took me forever to finish this one. I kept losing interest. It's my least favorite in the series. I'm still confused about some parts (particularly Marty & Daniel). I wished Sheena had more page time. Overall it's an underwhelming conclusion. I know Herbert's son wrote more books to expand the series but I won't be reading them.
julein's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
caspian_the_pauper's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
macetherebel02's review against another edition
I much as I loved this series, the series drops off big time after god emperor. Heretics had something’s that I enjoyed and was interested in exploring more. However, with the way the book ended a lot of those things aren’t either able to be expanded on or they are just forgotten all together. I am not interested in the characters and after getting this far I have watched some reviews that are just reinforcing that I don’t want to continue readying this book. Maybe in a couple of years when I re-read the series I’ll finally finish this last one but for now I’m ready to move on to something new.
dustyn_is_cool's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0