Chapterhouse: Dune Book

Chapterhouse: Dune was the last Dune novel that Frank Herbert completed and published before his death in 1986. Though he had written notes and the series would continue with his son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, most Dune fans regard the six Frank Herbert publications as the "Original Series". After many books written since his death, pundits have stated that the only notes left is a post it note that says, "write more books."

In this installment the direction taken in Heretics of Dune, the fifth book in the series, published in 1984, continues with the Bene Gesserit front and center. Heretics had followed a thousand five hundred year hiatus following the events in the fourth novel, God Emperor of Dune(published in 1981) and had taken a new direction, resurrecting much of the intensity and charisma of the original. The reign of the God Emperor, Leto II, son of Paul Muab 'Dib Atreides, has ended and the story has been taken up with political and economic intrigue between the Bene Gesserit and the Bene Tleilax and a new power, the Honored Matres. Chapterhouse involves action between the Bene Gesserit and the rising power of the Honored Matres.

As literature, Chapterhouse: Dune is inconsistent and unbalanced. There are sections that collapse into a syrupy space opera melodrama and other parts that demonstrate some of Herbert's best writing. "Power attracts those who are corruptible" muses Herbert and his Dune work represents an accomplished skill that highlights his remarkable powers of observation, detail and complex characterization. It is these talents that keep a reader engaged when the plot wears thin. Though it drags intolerably in places, Chapterhouse ends very well and makes me (almost) want to explore the continuations and explorations of the world building following Frank Herbert's untimely death.

If I had to rate the original six, making a mini-listopia, I would do so as follows:

1. Dune


and a very distant


2. Heretics of Dune
3. Children of Dune
4. Dune Messiah
5. Chapterhouse: Dune
6. God-Emperor of Dune

If I was asked for a recommendation, I cannot endorse the original 1965 publication higher, it is in a rare atmosphere, populated by such classics as Fahrenheit 451, Childhood's End and 1984. If you REALLY loved Dune, by all means read the series, but alas, gentle reader, as great a writer as Frank Herbert was, and he was, he never comes close to Dune again.