Rating: Summary: If only there were more Review: I'm a bit confused by these people that say the ending was that the entire series was made up in the minds of some strange couple. I don't want to spoil the ending for people that haven't read the book, but be assured, it's both amazing and open-ended. And, while tragic, it is true that before his death Frank Herbert was working on a 7th Dune book to finish up a trilogy started by "Heretics of Dune." His son Brian Herbert might have plans to finish that book after closing up his own prequel trilogy. The last two books of the 2nd, unfinished Dune trilogy (including Heretics and Chapterhouse) really are some of the best Sci-Fi of all time. Anyone who hasn't read them is truly missing out. The character development and writing style are simply masterful.
Rating: Summary: A brilliant ending to the whole series Review: This book basically carries on from where Heretics Of Dune hardly stopped. But now the Honoured Matres, instead of simply holding a slight distaste for the Bene Gesserit, are head-hunting, searching out the original sisterhood's home planet: Chapter House Planet. Already the Honoured Matres have laid bloody waste to dozens of Bene Gesserit planets, and the new Mother Superior (an Atreides with wild talent) can sense that the hunters are getting closer. So she hatches a radical plan that puts the entire sisterhood at risk, in the hope of finally punishing the Honoured Matres. And brilliant it all is too. This is easily my second-favourite from the whole series (after Dune). After an initially slow lead up (one of Herbert's defining features, it seems) we get violently thrown into action, watching in breathless silence as the final conflict hits us. As is always the way, you'll never know what is going to happen, never know who next will feel the chill of death, and you'll wow at one shock after another. Suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, this last book suddenly made me stop seing the Dune series as a set of six books. The second-to-last chapter oh-so suddenly made me see the whole series as one story, made me see the pattern, told a story beyond the ending of Chapterhouse Dune. And I enjoyed it all very much. As for the last chapter. Well. I've still no idea what to make of it. It's such an intriguing and unexpected last two pages. If anyone knows what it's about, what the hidden message is, I'd love to know. It's worth reading the whole series just to get to this book. Read it all. The rewards for a sci-fi fan are better experienced than listened to. Go find out. Now. You'll never find a better series of books.
Rating: Summary: Does anybody know Frank Herbert's I.Q.? Review: ...Because, seriously, he was a freakin' genius. Never before have I read books that I truly did not fully comprehend. Yet I still abosolutely adored the series. I think one thing that Chapterhouse proves is that endings are ALWAYS unexpected in some way. I think it also proves that, while 'life is a b1tch,'(or Honored Matre in Dune's case), there is ALWAYS some contentment to be found. Another thing Herbert stresses is that questions beget questions; answers beget more questions. I'm not going to trouble you good readers with more sayings and aphorisms, but instead will fill you in on some things. For one, Brian Herbert plans to write 'DUNE 7' after he finishes his other prequels--including The Battle of Corrin and (I think) the last book in the 'Houses' series. I personnally hope that Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson take a large dose of melange and UP THE BAR for DUNE 7 if they plan on doing a satisfactory, (by that I mean extraordinary) job. I don't want to have to read that silly 'wheels within wheels' dribble all over again. Even I, a mere 14-year-old, could come up with more original material. :P And if by some chance, Herbert and Anderson DO create something sub-par, do not ridicule them, or fear reading their culminations, for "Fear is the mind-killer....
Rating: Summary: Fiction truer than truth. Review: Truth may indeed be stranger than fiction, as the old saying would have it, but fiction has the last laugh: it's truer than truth. This book proves it. First, though, a warning. Don't read this book if you don't like seeing what makes things tick. Remember in The Wizard of Oz when our heroes discover that the Wizard is a sham? That his effects are all put-ons? Remember how the next time you saw the movie the effects were still scary? Even though you knew now what was really going on? The moral is: knowing how powerful effects are achieved is not the death of their power. Knowing that the Dune Series was created within the imaginations of an otherwise-unremarkable couple in northwestern Washington State does NOT reduce the power of the books. If anything it enhances it. And THAT is, believe it or not, what this book is about. That's why there can never be another sequel-- why Herbert's son has produced only prequels-- why so many of my fellow reviewers have been bewildered by the ending of this, the sixth and forever-last book of the series. Herbert is saying-- "Look, these were all puppets. Here are the strings. See? Nothing here was ever real-- the effects were created in my, and now YOUR, the reader's, imagination." And yet, of course, you as the reader, and he as the author, both know that it can never be that simple. Like the title character in Stravinsky's Petrouchka, the sawdust-filled puppet can move us by its 'death' as much as by its antics. And yet, while it's the perfect ending to a wonderful series, that very message is the weak point of this book as an independent book-- the plot can have no consistent resolution of its own, in order that the series as a whole CAN have one. Which is why I can give it only four stars. If I rated the series as a whole, I'd of course award the full five. But the more powerful ending that would have fulfilled the plot of this book AND the whole series TOO was not provided, so that we could be given the truer ending that brings the series to an even more emotionally resonant close. Within itself, with no reference to the previous five books, this one ends in disappointment, but the Dune series as a whole ends masterfully, as only a true puppet-master could end it. The Dune series considered as a whole is certainly the most remarkable achievement in the history of science fiction. It heads my 'top six science fiction works of all time' picks. Goodbye, Frank. May you rest in something even greater than peace. May you go to a place that may be truer and possibly even more interesting than this one. May you go to Dune!
Rating: Summary: Settle the confusion of the ending yourself. Review: This book, which in my opinion sums up the complete Dune "canon" in the way that Frank Herbert INTENDED to do so after the death of his beloved wife. Yes I know there is a supposedly "hidden manuscript" for a Dune 7 that Brian Herbert is going to turn into a book. I am a bit hesitant to believe it was indeed a direct sequel to Chapterhouse: Dune, and let me give you my reason why. The two characters at the end of the book (Marty and Daniel) are analogous for Frank Herbert and his wife Beverly! Read the last chapter again and maybe you will get it. They are saying goodbye to the universe they created, a universe which has now gotten so ingrained in the public mind that it is no longer "owned" by the author. There are even references to our modern day world if you read it closely. Really, I don't think I am the only one who gets this, please tell me I am not.
Rating: Summary: GOod but confusiong Review: This was a good book, However as with heretics, it has a lot of meaningless crap that didn't have to be in there. What made me upset is he never really explained things clearly in either heretics or chapterhouse. For example whats the connections between the bene tleilax and the Zensunni. Why does Sheanna have these powers. What happened to Waff? What was he talking about in Heretics about a Tleilaxu savior coming and conquering all thier enemies. Why the hell are those wierd face dancers at the end of the book. As for the Futars he never explained, rather he just threw them in there and said "they kill honored matres". WHo was the enemy The honored matres were fleeing? Why did Sheanna,idaho and teg leave at the end? If it was Odrades plan why would Sheanna be against it. And most important what the hell weapon did the Honored matres use to be victorious over the Bene Gesserit even though thier armies had been crushed. Also to think that the from 1500 years of scattering, that the universe would become infintely populated by humans is farfetched. Humans would never just leave thier homes and then severe all contact with it. Even if there was amss famine. I would Like to see a series of books dealing with what actually happened right After Leto II died. Like how many people died in the famine. WHich people left the empire and why. How did various factions recover from the Leto's death etc....
Rating: Summary: A very good ending... Review: This is a very good story to wrap up a very good series. It lacks that flair of Dune, Children of, and God Emperor, but is much better than Brian Herbert's (Frank's son and author of the continuation of the series) stories.
Rating: Summary: The Bene Gesserit ride again Review: A wonderous closer to Frank Herbert's work, and while it doesn't complete the saga, at least we have his son and Keven J Anderson to finish it and clear everything up.
Rating: Summary: The Best of the Dune Books Review: For those of you who have never read them, the original Dune series is without equal. Although set in a sci-fi, distant future backdrop, this series is really an exploration of politics, mind altering drugs, power and most importantly, philosophy. Chapterhouse Dune focuses on the most interesting of the various groups from the series - the Bene Gesserit. The Bene Gesserit are a group of women who are astoungingly disciplined; both mentally and physically. They view goals in terms of millenia, not months or years. Although I love the entire Dune series (I've probably read each book at least 10 times in the last 15 years) for me, Chapterhouse Dune is the best. If you have any depth of character or intelligence, you can get something very valuable from this series.
Rating: Summary: Interesting thoughts of the life Review: When i finished to read this last book, i have started to think what the writer was trying to say. 1. Even if you have a wild nature, after learning to control yourself, you could be useful for the human life? 2. If you leave the path of the truth, you would find yourself in the middle of nothing? 3. There is no rule in the universe when it comes to be or not to be? 4. Even your enemy can rule you if you teach her/him the reason of your existence? 5. Just read me and have fun and let some more intelligence go into your brain? 6. we create the God? or God created us? think about it. anyway it was wonderful to read this DUNE series. Enjoy it.
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