Chapterhouse: Dune | Book Review

6/10

A big improvement over Heretics of Dune, the sixth and final instalment in Frank Herbert’s Dune series benefits from its predecessor having already set up the various characters and plot elements. Like Heretics, Chapterhouse: Dune is relatively short on action, at least until the last 150 pages or so when Herbert revs things up and gives us a spectacular battle and dramatic confrontation between the Bene Gesserit sisterhood and their rivals, the Honored Matres. Due to Herbert’s death, the book famously ends on an unresolved cliffhanger. But as with Dune: Part Two, some threads left dangling at the end don’t stop Chapterhouse from being a satisfying experience on its own.

The story picks up after the Honored Matres have effectively destroyed Rakis—formerly Arrakis, the desert planet known as Dune. The Bene Gesserit escaped and plan to breed sandworms as part of an effort to reshape their verdant planet Chapterhouse into a desert landscape similar to Rakis, gaining sole control over production of the spice melange. Meanwhile, in addition to the latest in a long line of gholas—clones harvested from the cells of dead organisms—of Duncan Idaho, the Bene Gesserit have created a ghola of their deceased military leader Miles Teg, who died at the end of Heretics. The book details the usual plotting between the factions until Herbert really brings the action.

While both Heretics and Chapterhouse are heavy on scenes of characters talking to each other and thinking while not doing that much, it bothered me less this time. One reason might be that while so much of Heretics is endless exposition, Chapterhouse is more eventful. Herbert sprinkles just enough action throughout, such as Lucilla’s encounter with the Great Honored Matre Dama, to keep things moving. There’s also a more concrete backdrop to the war between the Bene Gesserit and Honored Matres: the attempt to transform planet Chapterhouse into a new Dune, which is easier for the reader to grab onto and revives some of the ecological themes that were such an important part of earlier Dune novels.

It helps that the characters are more interesting this time, and feel less interchangeable. Darwi Odrade comes into her own as Mother Superior of the Bene Gesserit, which gives her a more defined role than before. I also found Miles Teg more interesting as a ghola, who after gaining access to his past memories becomes commander of Bene Gesserit military forces despite physically still being a boy. This continues the Dune trope of “child who acts like adult due to memories from past lives”, previously seen with twin siblings Leto II and Ghanima in Children of Dune. The sight of a child commanding military forces might come off goofier in live-action if they ever get around to making film adaptations. In print, it’s just another off-the-wall concept in a fictional universe full of them. On the other hand, the way in which Sheanna awakens Teg’s memories through “imprinting”—which in this case means having sex with him—is a bit gross since it’s essentially statutory rape.

Duncan Idaho is back as yet another ghola, older than when we last saw him in Heretics. I’ve been sick of this character for a while and this might be his most boring appearance yet. Mostly Duncan seems to hang around having sex with Murbella, a young Honored Matre who was captured and trained by the Bene Gesserit. Murbella is a more interesting character due to her background in both rival sisterhoods—although she appears to undergo multiple pregnancies in the book as part of the Bene Gesserit breeding program, which Murbella and Herbert alike treat almost as an afterthought. Still, her actions make the ending of Chapterhouse more interesting than those of the past few Dune books.

Chapterhouse: Dune might be more dense than any other Dune book in terms of Herbert’s concepts: gholas, no-ships, Honored Matres, Futars, no-chambers, Mentats, they’re all here. At one point I got lost while reading the first half—not of the book itself, but the Wikipedia plot summary. Call it Stockholm Syndrome, but after a while, I just gave in and lost myself in the universe Herbert has created. Part of that may be what I’ve heard about subsequent novels co-written by Herbert’s son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson, which Dune fans have trashed as poorly written fan fiction that constantly guides the reader by the hand and often blatantly contradicts what Frank wrote. The elder Herbert never dumbs down his ideas, but trusts in his reader to understand the complex world he’s built. Frank’s Dune novels vary in quality, and some are more readable than others. But they are always ambitious and admirably hold high expectations of the reader’s abilities.

I don’t plan on reading the Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson novels, which appear to be Dune in name only. Even the plot summary of Hunters of Dune, supposedly the conclusion to this story (along with Sandworms of Dune) based on Frank Herbert’s notes, sounds awful. I’m perfectly content with the six Dune novels Herbert left us with. The first four are essential science fiction. Despite a steep drop in quality afterwards, by the end of Chapterhouse I was still glad I’d read the last two. This is a universe I enjoy spending time in, which is the best outcome an author can hope for in fictional world-building.