Disappointing, very much wasted potential

Ogólnie cała seria ma dobre momenty, ale to nie do końca mój klimat, a styl pisania mnie męczył. Całe kroniki częściowo czytałam, a częściowo słuchałam i zdecydowanie lepiej mi się przyswajało w audio, co stanowi dla mnie rzadkość.

Bez wątpienia najsłabsza część serii i kiepskie jej zakończenie. Męczyłam się z tą książką, z duuuużą przerwą, przez 3 miesiące i gdyby nie audiobook oraz fakt, że to ostatni tom do zamknięcia serii, odpuściłabym na samym początku.
W tym tomie, jeśli chodzi o jakiekolwiek wydarzenia posuwające historię do przodu, nie dzieje się praktycznie nic pomijając samą końcówkę książki. Przez wcześniejsze 500 stron przerabiamy dyskusję, która toczy się wokół w sumie jednego, rozwleczonego tematu. W poprzednich częściach nawet długie gadaniny dawały radę, bo do czegoś prowadziły. Tutaj mam wrażenie stoimy w miejscu przez całą książkę.
Fabuła skupia się niemal w 100% na Bene Gesserit i Dostojnych Matronach oraz planach wyjścia z impasu. Prócz kilku momentów fabularnie nie było to ciekawe ani zaskakujące. Niestety finał też mnie nie wzruszył, a chyba miał to zrobić. Tym sposobem nie mam chęci na cokolwiek okołodiunowego w najbliższym czasie.

frank herbert said i can excuse antisemitism and child rape, but i draw the line at gay people.

"Damn the Chapterhouse: Dune!"

This book is 90% unreadable garbage. Too much right-wing proselytizing, too little story. This might be the worst book I have ever read. What an awful note to go out on.

Пів року читала цю нудотіну. Збагнути її було важко. Моя оцінка 2.5 з 5и. Наскільки мені подобалась Дюна на початку…. Настільки ж плавився мозок від 6-ї частини. Не знаю чи наважусь я читати далі продовження від сина Герберта і Сандерсона.

10,700 word analysis of my reread

People change. 10 years ago I read the Dune series for the first time, and it became my favorite series ever. In 2019 I started my reread of the series, and now I’ve finally come to the end of that project, finishing Chapterhouse: Dune, the 6th book. 10 years ago, I thought Chapterhouse was the pinnacle of the series – today, I think it is its nadir, and I would not call the series as a whole a favorite anymore.

In what follows, I will first try to explain why I think Chapterhouse: Dune is the weakest of the bunch. The bulk of this post will be an analysis of the book’s main themes, and their relation to the previous books.

For starters an examination of the Bene Gesserit. The main question I still had after reading Heretics was about their intentions, and I’ll check how Odrade’s emotions play out in Chapterhouse as well. I’ll also look into the question of free will again – the main issue of the first Dune. I’ve written shorter sections on change & creativity – change being the series overall constant, on Nietzschean morality – yet another recurring theme, on the obscure & conflicted nature of Mentats and, finally, on Herbert’s obsession with bureaucracy, something that popped up in Heretics already.

Before I wrote my actual analysis, I lined up 85 quotes with a total of 5500 words. Not all of those made the cut, but the text is quote heavy nonetheless. If you don’t want to read quotes, just skip them: in most cases, you should be able to follow my reasonings without them.

I’ll end with a short assessment of the series in general.

(...)

Full analysis on Weighing A Pig Doesn't Fatten It

1/5
Sırf okumuş olmak için okudum, seri bitsin ve kafamda bu konu kapansın diye. Seri boyunca söylediğim gibi üçüncü kitaptan sonra kurgu, karakterlerle birlikte şarampole yuvarlandı ve yok oldu gitti. Bu kitap mükemmel ötesi bir güzellikte bile olsaydı o kaybolan kurguyu geri getiremezdi. Çok üzgünüm böyle bittiği için.

Well fellas, we did it. This is the last of Frank Herbert’s Dune books. This one was a slow burn. It was a little harder to want to pick this one up and read it when there are so many other books on my bookshelf I’m dying to read. 500 pages of people talking until the last 100 pages when we get some of the most exciting stuff we’ve ever gotten in the Dune series. The ending is pretty insane. I’m pleased that I read this book and it is a worthy addition to the series. Although apparently there were notes for Dune 7 that Frank wrote before he died, this is a fitting and emotional ending.

Overall, the Dune books were an awesome time and they mean a lot to me. Frank Herbert did something really special. His world-building is up there with Tolkien in the top tier. His influence on Sci-Fi is unparalleled. I’m not planning on reading the Brian Herbert Dune books so this is the end of the road for me. My golden path has been completed. I’ve spent so much time in this world at this point that it is sad to be done, but there are many ideas, characters, and phrases from Dune that will live in my head (rent free) for years to come!

3.5?

Buddy read with Athena!

“Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.”

The Honoured Matres have returned with their full strength from the Scattering, and their fleets are assaulting all the worlds that once made up the old Empire at the core of the universe. The nobility and the Ixians have fallen, and the one force resisting the relentless invasion is the now legendary sisterhood of the Bene Gesserit.

Heretics of Dune ended with one of the most dramatic and unexpected plot twists in science fiction, and this sequel takes up where the last book left off. Unfortunately, the first eighty percent of this book were a total chore to get through. Little or nothing happened, the setting and the characters were unremarkable and dull, and not even the writing was particularly good. After having read those eighty percent, I was more or less ready to give this book a one-star rating.

Even so, I'm raising the whole book to three stars based solely on the short part in the end. Frank Herbert has once again demonstrated his ability to write a boring book where nothing happens and then turn everything on its head in the end. In an impressively fascinating way, I might add. I was almost tempted to give up on the series on occasion while reading this, but after reading the ending there's absolutely no way I could do that.

Dobby Is Free!

Є трошки спойлерів, тому обережно якщо ще не читали третю-четверту частини.

Коли я починала читати цикл Хроніки Дюни, мені здалось, що я знайшла улюблений науково-фантастичний цикл.

Який сюрприз мене чекав на п'ятій частині...
Вся історія звелась до безкінечного клонування Дункана, чоловіків-сексуальних рабів, розплідниць і "майстринь над оргазмами".

Яке ж розчарування мені принесла друга половина циклу. Чесно кажучи навіть не знаю як оцінити цю книжку і весь цикл загалом. Я тепло люблю перші три частини і абсолютно не сприймаю дві останні. До "Бог-імператор Дюни" у мене достатньо змішані почуття. Мені не дуже подобаються теми, які підіймаються у цій частині, але це суто моя проблема і мої вподобання. Тим не менш четверта частина не була поганою (особливо якщо порівнювати з двома наступними).

Мабуть у читанні циклу варто було зупинитись на четвертій частині, щоб не розчаровуватись.

Він наукової фантастики майже нічого не залишилось, натомість перше місце тут посіла політика. Не скажу, що політика не займала вагоме місце і у перших частинах, проте було відчутно певний баланс. У двох останніх книжках цей баланс для мене втрачено.

Якщо дві останні частини екранізують, то люди в кінотеатрі вірогідно позасинають