What did women, or a woman do to Frank Herbert? I mean, really, what did one do to him, to inspire the creation of a novel centered on an anti-intellectual group of women thousands of years into the future (and after a worm-god) who destroy planets and keeps men as sex slaves. And now Jews are added? Good Lord.

This reaches the supreme depths of awful. Why does this have a 3.89 rating? The only non-completely objectionable thing, is his occasional pithy statements on religion/philosophy, etc., and the epigrams before each chapter. And even those reek of arrogance and pretension.

Truly one of the worst books I've ever read.

As 2021 comes to a close, so does my first read through of the entire Dune series (those that count, at least!) and I am left with a feeling of great sadness - Frank Herbert should have lived to complete his masterpiece, or at least have left it in hands of someone with more respect for the source material. Herbert's universe only grew richer as it grew away from the Atreides, and in my opinion, more interesting. Paul, Leto II, Alia, etc were all interesting characters, but they are much more interesting when they are not actively shaping the stories of the universe, instead being looked upon as lessons, or warnings. The Tlelaxu, the Bene Gesseret, the Honored Matres, all are so much more interesting to me. I wish that we had seen the finale that Herbert had in mind, but I would consider this, even so, to be a satisfying conclusion.

Interestingly enough, I had always been told that the only Dune books worth reading were the first 3, that after that it got "too weird" but I had the opposite experience. The first three are important building blocks to what comes later, but are certainly not the most interesting part of the Dune universe.

I look forward to my reread of the series in the years to come!

This is probably the best book so far in my opinion. Excellent storyline and well written, and gripping to the end

(1) I like that women are taking the central stage in this volume, but unlike Lady Jessica, so far I don't find any of the main female characters outstanding.

(2) And of course, when sex and power is concerned, there is zero LGBTQ+ relationship being mentioned, and this is getting so old...

(3) I am still at the 200-plus page and see how things will go later...

More to come.

Iskreno, za mene su Hronike Dine jedan od najboljih serijala ikada! Retko u cemu sam ovako uziva i retko sta je od mene zahtevalo toliko ucestvovanja za vreme samog citanja. Genijalni gospodine Hrberte hvala vam na tome! Sa druge strane moram ali moram reci da su poslednje dve knjige na mene, sa strane samog pisanja i odluke kako rasporediti i sta objasniti i na koji nacin od radnje, ostavile malo slabiji utisak nego predhodna cetiri dela. I pored toga okosnica je tu, sve tece ka svom kompleksnom, i opet ta rec - genijalnom - kraju. Malo vise magle i nepoznanica, malo vise pitanja zasto, kako, gde, sta bi ali to je nekako i car ove knjige. I bas na samom kraju kada ste odahnuli i kada vam se celokipni razvoj situacije slegao u glavi opet ce se pojaviti Daniel and Marty i baciti vas u ocajno razmisljanje sta se to dodjavola moglo dalje izdesavati. Ako ste stigli do ovog dela serijala i ovog mog revjua ti znaci da vam je ceo jedan univerzum u glavi, pa vi izvolite izmastavajte dalje i ostanite u svetu Dine, Arakisa, Rakisa, Kapitola koliko vam je volja.

Praise the Divided God, I am finally finished with this wormforsaken series.

This book was a slog, and by far the worst written of the bunch. Herbert desperately needed an editor here to clean things up. His worst offense is stringing together incomplete sentences one after another: "Mentat projection. Scent of cinnamon. Dust on the wind. Worms are back!" In a charitable sense, this is probably supposed to be a way to get into the mind of a character through their stream of consciousness, but it's so pervasive that actually reading it is incomprehensible. And Herbert does it with the plot as well as with the characters. It's like he vomited up a bunch of ideas and vaguely philosophical-sounding phrases and then built a little shack of a story around it.

At this point, I truly have no idea what Dune is about or what it's saying about humanity. It's all gibberish.

It's clear that this book isn't meant to be a conclusion to the series because so much is left unresolved. And it doesn't function as a novel on its own. It's a guy screwing around in the corner for 500 pages pointing at some weird stuff that never gets used. So many pages about Scytale and then, whoops, guess we forgot about that guy and his plans, he never comes up again. Agh god and it's so frustrating that all the characters have secret plans and they never NEVER explain them, god forbid, I hear every other freaking thought in their head but when it comes to their actual plans "Must work. No other way. Risky, but the sisterhood must survive." HOW?????? What was Sheeana and Duncan's secret plan with the hand signals? I guess I'll never know! I guess Odrade's plan was to merge the two factions, well thankfully that was resolved in one page at 99%. Here's some other vision characters who I'll never know what they were doing because I'm not reading another heretical page of this series. Not to mention Herbert just HAS to bring back a character as a boy and then the only way to reawaken his memories is to have sex with him. Yeah we'll just gloss right over that. Frank. People HAVE to die. We have to stop bringing them back lifetime after lifetime for millennia. Other authors have developed a tool for this. It's called they write new characters. What was the point of any of this.

If I could go back in time, I would go back to the moment when I picked up Dune Messiah and thought, "Hm. Maybe I should read the rest of the series." And I would say to myself, "No. You shouldn't." Then I could've walked out into the desert like Muad'dib and died believing Dune was a masterpiece.

As far as I am concerned, this is the last Dune book (besides the Encyclopedia) and should be considered the end. The disappointing tripe of Hunters and Sandworms of Dune by Brian and Kevin are nothing but poorly written fanfiction.

The consequences of Leto's Golden Path are made apparent in this and its predecessor, Heretics of Dune. Sheeana is a intriguing character and so is Murbella and Odrade, as well as the nth incarnation of Duncan Idaho.

Frank Herbert died before he could write Dune 7, so this book was not supposed to be the end of the Dune series. Unfortunately it is, for we have been denied Herbert's genius after his untimely death.

We can assume that with Leto's Golden Path, Siona's 'no-gene' and the Scattering that humans have spread across many galaxies and this would eventually give rise to myriad races and civilizations, which in itself is a more than intriguing thought.

Thank you for sharing this fantastic story with us, Frank Herbert, and may your legacy be always cherished (even if not from Brian and Kevin) We love you.

This is a little disappointing. Honestly, I’d recommend stopping at God Emperor, the threads are tied up nicely and I’ve no problem saying the first four books form a single masterpiece. And then you get the last two and they’re kind of weird and janky and unfocused. Herbert is clearly an incredibly intelligent writer, and you never get the sense that this is really substandard writing. In fact, there are some fine moments of political theory and the usual bon mots, but they’re infrequent at this point; it seems dragged out, very little really happens.

Heretics of Dune I think is a stronger book for sure. If you’re really curious about the Bene Gesserit, they become the focus of the last two books. The books focus on political systems, how corruption and the road to fascism being inevitable. And it focuses on Duncan and Sheeana, potential messianic figures who struggle between the self and their society. As the new governments take over, the systems grow more and more corrupted and empty as they become figureheads of ego. And to a degree this, the final Frank Herbert Dune book, is satisfying in that it seems to conclude the journey of these characters (among others) in a way which feels thematically appropriate. But I just thought it was boring. Not a lot happens, so your really just listening to conversations that are not as interesting as they were in previous books. I don’t know what happened or why the quality would dip like this at the end. I could also completely see why this could be a 4 star book for some as it’s definitely still Herbert, but I expected some big resolution that capped the series to this point and this is more like a meandering to-be-continued space opera.

I’m glad that I stuck it out, but it’s a little odd given the quality of the earlier books that the author didn’t really get to stick the landing. And look, the last two books are sexist. It’s clear that it’s the far-future and this is a fantasy, but the extent of the Honored Matres is ridiculous. I get that this is coming out of the seventies, it’s talking about women’s society and the sexual revolution and I can take it with a grain of salt. It’s intellectually interesting but overdone. The actual way the Bene Gesserit and Matres led government functions wasn’t as clear to me either as it was with Leto. It just didn’t seem as thought out beyond, what would a corrupt, godlike government of women look like? File under: curious but inessential.

Chapterhouse: Dune opens with Mother Superior Darwi Odrade's excitement over the birth of her father, the legendary Miles Teg or rather- a Teg ghola. With Dar's top advisers by her side: the withdrawn Tam and the violent Bell, the novel doesn't waste any time in setting the scene or showing us the principal characters within the Bene Gesserit. After being suppressed by the Divine Emperor/Tyrant, the Bene Gesserit are ready to take on more responsibility and become the key players in Dune's universe again. The Reverend Mothers and Mother Superior are first to 'take the stage' and this is no accident. The sisterhood is in grave danger, threatened to extinction by blood-thirsty Honored Matres. Upon returning from the Scattering, possibly fleeing from something, the Honored Matres have been casually conducting genocide and war in the Old Empire, sometimes destroying billions without much thought. Can one of the unusual Mother Superiors, the romantic Dar, be a match for such a thread?

Besides the above mentioned characters (Teg, Dar, Tam and Bell), there are other important characters finding themselves on Chapterhouse: Dune, such as the youngest ever Mother Superior Sheena and an unusual couple: an imprisoned Honored Matre Murbella, now in training to become a Mother Superior and a Duncan Idaho ghola hiding many talents (that sisterhood is suspicious of). There is also the last Tleilaxu Master Scytale, apparently the only one of his kind left alive after the Honored Matres destroyed his native planet and all of the know Tleixahu civilization. He is now imprisoned by the Bene Gesserit and forced to give up his secrets slowly.

Like in some other Herbert's novels, the planet itself is almost a character. The sisterhood is terraforming the planet Chapterhouse to Dune because they need sandworms (as always the spice must flow). With Dune being destroyed, Chapterhouse must become a new home to sandworms. Sheeana leads this project because of her unique connection with the worms, but she also presents a thread to her sisterhood because of her religious potential.

There are many other interesting and powerful characters that emerge as the story evolves. For example, when the sisterhood's Lampadas planet is destroyed by the Honored Matres, we are introduced to a fascinating character of Reverend Mother Lucilla, carrying with herself the minds of millions of Reverend Mothers. Lucilla seeks refuge with the Jews on planet Gamu. The introduction of Jews in Chapterhouse: Dune is an interesting concept as is their connection with the sisterhood. There seems to be mutual respect between the two. Lucilla meets a wild Reverend mother among the Jews- Rebecca. This is another female character that has fascinated me. Is Rebecca Bene Gesserit or not? To what extent does her memory influence Rebecca? Many fascinating questions there, not all of them answered, but that doesn't matter. I feel like this is a novel that calls us to be active readers and ask questions ourselves, not just to observe events. In words of Darwi Odrade:
...“Confine yourself to observing and you always miss the point of your life. The object can be stated this way: Live the best life you can. Life is a game whose rules you learn if you leap into it and play it to the hilt. Otherwise, you are caught off balance, continually surprised by the shifting play. Non-players often whine and complain that luck always passes them by. They refuse to see that they can create some of their own luck.

When I reread Chapterhouse: Dune in January, I realized how little I actually cared about the plot of the novel. Not that the plot isn't good, the 'action' that takes place is well orchestrated but I principally cared about the characters, their monologues and dialogues- and the topics they discussed. Indeed, I didn't even recall some small details despite the fact that Chapterhouse: Dune is a novel I reread many times, more than any other book in the Dune series. What impresses me the most about this book are the philosophical parts of it, often discussed in monologues and dialogues. The careful examination of power and politics, in particular, is one of the strengths of this novel. As Honored Matres and Bene Gesserit try to learn more one about another, there is much talk of democracy, power and governments. The Spider Queen leading the Honored Matres is another strong female character and it is hard not to be fascinated by her, despite her obvious cruelty. As Bene Gesserit sisters try to communicate one with another, with themselves or with outsiders, there is much talk of power. ...“Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect any who seek it.” Sometimes they repeat and echo lessons learned in the previous Dune novels, but often they get more specific and speak of governments and traps of power in more detail. How fascinating are those moments when power and laws are so discussed. Not many writers are capable of such subtle analysis, of creating a detailed future society we can teach us so much about our own society and its flaws: ... “All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.”
“Clinging to any form of conservatism can be dangerous. Become too conservative and you are unprepared for surprises. You cannot depend on luck. Logic is blind and often knows only its own past. Logic is good for playing chess but is often too slow for the needs of survival.
“Give me the judgment of balanced minds in preference to laws every time. Codes and manuals create patterned behavior. All patterned behavior tends to go unquestioned, gathering destructive momentum.

For most part, Chapterhouse: Dune revolves around female characters. Two societies of women are at war. However, there are two important men in this novel: Duncan Idaho and Miles Teg. The Mentat specialization is also examined in more detail than I remember encountering in any novel. There is much talk of Mentats in this one. I was always fascinated by them so it was interesting to learn more about them. I sometimes wonder whether this whole novel is not a Mentat projection- and you can recognize it is true by the questions it delivers.

Moreover, love is another important topic in this one. What is love? What is duty? Where one ends and the other begins? The cold sisterhood distrusts love, but can it be avoided all together? They must realize that love is one of the things that makes us human. The sisterhood has a cold view of parenting, often taking away the children from their parents. However, look at the love of Teg's mother for him that survives in his ghola, the love of Dar's substitute parents at the sea planet- it's that kind of love that gives Dar her personal sense of sanity. Similarly, the sisterhood distrusts romantic love. However, they tolerate Murbella and Duncan Idaho's love- as long as it serves them. Can such romantic love ever last? There is love in this book, despite the odds. The sisterhood has a strange relationship with love, but there is love within it, even if the sisters deny it. T Perhaps the most important lessons that this novel has to teach us is hidden in this quote: “Revenge is for children and the emotionally retarded.” That's definitely a line that often makes me think as I can sometimes be quite revengeful in a passive sort of way. Revenge (passive or not) is definitely something to be avoided if you possess any maturity. To conclude, I took my time rereading this novel and found much to admire in it. Highly recommended!

P.S. The dedication that Herbert wrote to his late wife at the end of the novel is one of the most touching things I have ever read. It always brings a tear to my eye.

n  

“Oh, you bitch!”
“I prefer witch. Either is preferable to whore.”

n

Legendary.

Chapterhouse continues furthering the reader’s understanding of the Bene Gesserit and mayhaps has brought me around to them. Teg & Duncan are always a joy when on the same page. Sheeana is my favorite Bene Gesserit eVER. Ugh. I love it.

Everytime I finish one of these I promise myself it's the last Dune book that I'm gonna read...

The ending of the final book by Frank Herbert has left me so confused that I feel like I HAVE to read the next 2 books that were written by his son and I'm not happy about it.

I've read 5000 years of made up history and politics in the last 3 months. Please Herbert family, release me from my sandy sci-fi prison I can't take anymore.

Still loved this one though TEEHEE xo

Jak dobrze, że to już koniec!

„Kapitularz Diuną” jest bezpośrednią kontynuacją poprzedniej części. Zakon Bene Gesserit ukrywa się przed Dostojnymi Matronami i śni o przejęciu władzy nad światem. Matka przełożona Darwi Odrade wyhodowała gholę własnego ojca, który był wspaniałym wojownikiem i ma pomóc jej w walce z Dostojnymi Matronami. Gdzieś tam pałęta się też ghola Duncana Idaho, jak zresztą w poprzednich częściach. Ogólnie flaki z olejem.

Próbowałam znaleźć odpowiedź, co mnie tak zraziło do kolejnych odsłon tej historii, skoro pierwsza część trafiła do moich ulubionych. Politykę i filozofowanie jeszcze jakoś bym zniosła. Imprint seksualny wzbudził moją niechęć swoim prostactwem. Ale tak naprawdę gwoździem do trumny (który tutaj to by się akurat przydał) był cały ten pomysł z tworzeniem gholi w tleilaxańskich kadziach. Ja wiem, że to jest fantastyka, ale uważam, że pewnych granic się nie przekracza, że powinny być jednak jakieś zasady. Zmartwychwstawanie (wielokrotne!) uważam za złamanie takiej podstawowej zasady, co mnie przez cały ten cykl uwierało jak kamień w bucie. Amen.
5/10