Chapterhouse Dune (Dune Chronicles, Book 6) by Frank Herbert
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.00 You Save: $3.99 (50%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Chapterhouse Dune (Dune Chronicles, Book 6)
Book Review: Excellent...but many questions left unanswered....?Sequel
Summary: 5 Stars
Comparatively speaking, I would rank this book very close to the firstDune novel in the series. It has a huge (and I do mean HUGE) build up
from the beginning of the novel until about fifty pages from the end
when Herbert dumps the proverbial soup into our laps. But there are
many questions left unanswered at the end (not that all questions
SHOULD be answered but I felt that a sequel was sure to come had Frank
Herbert not passed away before he could finish the series). I've
heard that Brian Herbert, Frank's son, discovered a seventh Dune
manuscript in a safety deposit box after his father died. If this is
true, I can't wait to see it in print. If it's not true, then we may
never know what the 'master' had in mind.
But enough of
that...onto the book itself!
The story is that of the Bene Geserit
sisterhood and their war against the wicked 'Honored Matres' who've
returned from the scattering and has threatened to wipe out all of the
BG sisterhood. Meanwhile, the BG's are turning Chapterhouse --- their
last sisterhood stronghold planet --- into a desert planet and
bringing back the worms of Dune to this planet in hopes of starting a
new cycle of sandtrout/worm/spice/sandtrout, again. Strong in this
story is that of Duncan Idaho and Murbella, the captured Honored Matre
from the fifth Dune book. They are [multiplying] like rabbits still in
their no-ship prison and the BG sisterhood takes away the babies
hoping to find genetic markers that they haven't seen before
(continuing on in their quest for a perfect human). Also at the
forefront is that of Odrade, the Mother Superior of the BG, who sees
where their paths with the Honored Matres must lead. It is a giant
melting pot that began with Leto II's rule (the God Emperor or the
Tyrant if you prefer). The BG and the Honored Matres must become one
sisterhood for them both to survive. Odrade sees this and passes her
sisterhoods internal lifetimes on to Murbella after completing her
training and watching her go through the spice agony.
In the end,
the melting pot is achieved thanks to Odrade's manipulations and
Murbella's Honored Matre's training. But there's a lot left out to
indicate that more would have been forthcoming had Herbert not died.
Duncan, Sheeana, Scytale, the Rabbi, and a wild-reverend mother,
escape in the no-ship and head off into the unknown; even they don't
know exactly where they end up. And, it appears, the gods don't know
why this was done or where they will end up.
Questions: Who was
chasing the Honored Matre's? Who were the handlers of the Futars and
where did Futars originate from? Will Chapterhouse become another
Dune world? Did Duncan and his runaway band in the no-ship take a
worm? If so, what will they do with it? What will happen to the
Guild now that Chapterhouse is turning into a Dune world?
Many
questions...will there be answers. We'll just have to wait and see, I
guess.
Book Review: The sinister one...
Summary: 5 Stars
Let's get this straight; Frankie boy was a genius, plain and simple. He would think nothing of writing a book for the sake of building a series and it shows itself in this effort, the sixth Dune novel. While a fantastic story (deep into politics and the nature of survival), you still get the feeling that he was building up to a climax with this book being the penultimate one. Well, in 1999 (I think), Brian Herbert discovered Frank's notes for the unreleased 'Dune 7', which included a complete outline and story for what was to be the final book in the series.Yes! I hear you say...well...we'll have to wait a bit longer I'm afraid because Brian and Kevin Anderson are doing their Butlerian Jihad series first (3 books), which won't be over until about 2004. Well we got used to waiting for Frank's books I suppose...
I found this story to be the most sinister one. In every chapter there is a revelation or some indication of what is to happen next: characters like the Face Dancers and Honoured Matres shrouded in mystery, the Handlers and Futars (who bred them?), the (still) unknown qualities of the Reverand Mothers. Herbert liked to tease, and the by now infamous last chapter is still pondered over to this day. I've seen literally hundreds of different analytical studies of this chapter alone, nevermind the book or the series. Because of the open ending, the book, more than any other, has taken on a cult feel; I've seen people even try to finish the story off themselves on many different websites and forums.
Addictive in the extreme, I've always got one of Frank's books (usually Dune ones) on the go at any time. I may take a week to read them, I may take a month or two...but each and every one is a sci-fi classic in its own right. My personal favourite was 'Heretics' (so well plotted and action packed and, dare I say it, even more readable than 'Dune'!).
If you like Star Wars, you must get these books. In fact, you will be laughing at how primitive Star Wars is in the face of these masterpieces. Star Wars always borrowed heavily from this anyway :P
Book Review: waiting vainly for the sequel...
Summary: 5 Stars
I read the first of Dune series 14 years ago, and had no conception of the breathtaking distances that the author would take towards the "last" book of the Dune Chronicles. While it is conceivable that someone with sufficient patience can read Chapterhouse Dune and fully appreciate it with no other Dune Chronicles exposure, it would seem criminal to recommend this book to someone without ensuring they had read the first five beforehand. Or, for something of a treat, read Chapterhouse, and then jump to the first five as "prequels"! I recently did something similar when I read the second and third Dune Chronicle books for the first times in 14 years, having reread the last two books in the last few months: quite an enthralling effect! The hardest part of reading this book was coming to the ending, and feeling selfishly deprived regarding the prospect of finding out What Will Happen Next as a result of the author's death, which in turn came shortly after the death of his wife following a long fight with cancer. Herbert created an astonishing world of breathtakingly evolved characters and contexts to appreciate them in. I have reread this book and others of the series numerous times. As is the case for meeting interesting characters in real life, it is poignant getting to know these characters only to lose the ability to anticipate being in touch with them later on, to find out how they're doing... The formidable detail and richness of perspectives is such that while reading it I was at times fearful of discovering a gimmick or a cliche to undo the trance worked by the book. This never happened. The publishing of the Dune Prequels is quite exciting in itself, and I hope that somewhere in the late elder Herbert's notes, are some detailed indications of SEQUELS, future Atreides audacities, Bene Gesserit contemplations and plotting, and passionately drawn characters to fall in love with and be fascinated by all over again.Book Review: Portrait of Darwi Odrade.
Summary: 5 Stars
An alternative title to this novel may have been: Darwi Odrade, a portrait.
Maybe a little melodramatic, but I think it might explain why many people find themselves not liking this novel. This is a landscape painting of Chapterhouse, and all of those connected to it. The planet is personified by Odrade herself. Changing course slowly, secretly, making plans inside of plans. One so devious and intricate that no one sees the true purpose or goals until after they had been attained. Willing participation in the golden path.
While there are two more novels written by different authors, honestly though Chapterhouse Dune stands in its own unique way as a fitting conclusion to Herbert's portion of the golden path. Its continuation being your own responsibility.
Reading the novel is like watching a painter, stroke by stroke, creating a piece of art. Paralleling the Van Gogh painting in Odrade's possession. While the thing is being made you can appreciate the technique and the form and skeleton of the composition, and only after it had been admired and examined from a distance can it be truly finished and appraised.
What may have seemed a frivolous dialogue about clam soup in the novel is finally seen as something integral as the piece is finished - it becomes a singular brushstroke that is a part of the whole - which can never be complete without that brush stroke.
The novel barks at form of metaphysics throughout that is explaining, brushstroke by brushstroke, how to decipher the piece as a whole by constantly reminding you how the masterpiece could be made up of seemingly frivolous parts strung along threads of poetry, binding together the multifaceted galaxy shaking events casually referred to, smashing into a momentary denouement that immediately splinters into a new series of threads leading off into the unknown.
Book Review: A brilliant ending to the whole series
Summary: 5 Stars
This book basically carries on from where Heretics Of Dune hardly stopped. But now the Honoured Matres, instead of simply holding a slight distaste for the Bene Gesserit, are head-hunting, searching out the original sisterhood's home planet: Chapter House Planet.Already the Honoured Matres have laid bloody waste to dozens of Bene Gesserit planets, and the new Mother Superior (an Atreides with wild talent) can sense that the hunters are getting closer. So she hatches a radical plan that puts the entire sisterhood at risk, in the hope of finally punishing the Honoured Matres.
And brilliant it all is too. This is easily my second-favourite from the whole series (after Dune). After an initially slow lead up (one of Herbert's defining features, it seems) we get violently thrown into action, watching in breathless silence as the final conflict hits us.
As is always the way, you'll never know what is going to happen, never know who next will feel the chill of death, and you'll wow at one shock after another.
Suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, this last book suddenly made me stop seing the Dune series as a set of six books. The second-to-last chapter oh-so suddenly made me see the whole series as one story, made me see the pattern, told a story beyond the ending of Chapterhouse Dune. And I enjoyed it all very much.
As for the last chapter. Well. I've still no idea what to make of it. It's such an intriguing and unexpected last two pages. If anyone knows what it's about, what the hidden message is, I'd love to know.
It's worth reading the whole series just to get to this book. Read it all. The rewards for a sci-fi fan are better experienced than listened to. Go find out. Now. You'll never find a better series of books.