This was quite hard to rate because there’s some pretty cool stuff in the plot that really pushes the saga forward in a way that the previous books do not. They all seem more like small little reboots that are continually stuck in a rut, where as this is like okay, this went somewhere and obviously sets up a finale—which is great.

A large damper on my excitement over the larger plot beats and developments, however, is the damn gender essentialist ideas in this that just never seem to cease. There are major issues with empowerment for women in these books, where their established agency usually ends up being their exact downfall. It reads like Herbert read a 70s paper on the differences between the sexes, internalized it—though all those notions are very much debunked—and just creates a through line in every major character that’s a woman. Always trying to control people through sex and these wildly antiquated ideas about gender and sexuality. Its hard to believe and not to be offended by, and because large movements of the plot hinge on them, it’s inescapable to have this cold water splashed on you right when interesting things are happening.

It’s just too bad they’re so antiquated in areas where they matter so much. It doesn’t feel like the future either, when hundreds and hundreds of years have passed since the original and yet cultures generally remain the same. Only factions rise and fall. Yet ecologies have completely changed but the ways of people don’t. It’s hard to suspend your disbelief around sometimes.

Between the plot and the philosophy I still manage to enjoy the series. It can be quite deft at intrigue and plays into fun tropes better than most; perhaps even been the progenitor of some? The setting is still fascinating and the tension of the golden path having been built over the course of so many books is palpable now. I can empathize with people who love the series and can’t stand it, to be honest. Which is why it probably ends up being middling fun for me with most every book.