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mars2k 's review for:
Chapter House Dune
by Frank Herbert
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
We give in to pressures and are shaped by them. Or we react against pressures and are shaped by that. Pressures and shapings, that is life.
Answers are a perilous grip on the universe. They can appear sensible yet explain nothing.
Like the previous book in the series, Chapterhouse Dune meanders and drags and is ultimately unsatisfying. It does feel as though it exists primarily to set up and move pieces around in preparation for what was to be the final Dune novel, referred to as “Dune 7” by Herbert. The fact that this was the last instalment Frank Herbert wrote only makes the dullness/anticlimax even more disappointing.
I think this book did a better job than Heretics at distinguishing the Bene Gesserit and the Honoured Matres (while also highlighting their similarities and parallels, of course) – I felt that was one of shortcomings of that book; the factions blurred together and I had a hard time telling them apart or caring who was doing what. Even so, I still found it hard to connect with the characters or feel invested in this story for the most part. Maybe I’ve just lost enthusiasm for the series?
‘Odi et amo. Excrucior.’
She lifted herself onto one elbow and looked down at him. ‘What language is that?’
‘A very old one Leto had me learn once.’
‘Translate.’ Peremptory. Her old Honoured Matre self.
‘“I hate her and I love her. And I am racked.”’
‘Do you really hate me?’ Unbelieving.
‘What I hate is being tied this way, not the master of my self.’
‘Would you leave me if you could?’
‘I want the decision to recur moment by moment. I want control of it.’
‘It's a game where one of the pieces can’t be moved.’”
Above is an excerpt. In isolation, I like this writing style. I like the back-and-forth, I like the punchiness of adjectives-as-punctuation, I like the poetic feel to it. It’s fun. But more than four hundred and fifty pages of this... it starts to wear thin eventually, and scenes where I don’t really know what motivates any given character are especially unengaging.
I think in some ways I was more charitable about this sort of thing in Heretics; I interpreted the directionlessness of the narrative as meta/diegetic, illustrating the aftermath of the Tyrant’s reign. I suppose that’s true here as well, only the various characters and factions are starting to form actionable schemes now. Again, it’s a shame there was no “Dune 7” to tie up loose ends.
Then again, do I really want more “Secret Israel” ?
I do want more cannibal catboys...
And I want some kind of payoff when it comes to Daniel and Marty (not so much “who are they?” but more “why were they present in this story?”)
I wish I had more to say.
I like Dune a lot and would recommend it to pretty much anyone who enjoys science fiction or philosophical novels. I would recommend the next three books in the series (everything up to and including God Emperor) to people who enjoyed the original Dune novel. But Heretics and Chapterhouse? I really don’t think they’re worthwhile.
I keep umming and ahhing about whether I should bother reading Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune, follow-ups loosely based on Frank Herbert’s notes for “Dune 7” written by his son Brian. I hear they’re not very good so I’m hesitant to pick them up. While reading Chapterhouse I got the feeling the Dune series was losing some of its personality, introducing typical sci-fi staples like robots and cyborgs. A new writer stepping in (even one who happens to be the son of the original author) would only compound that sense of unDuneliness, surely? I don’t know. Maybe I’ll revisit the series and read those additions one day but for now it’s a bittersweet goodbye.