mjn@teddy.UUCP (Mark J. Norton) (04/16/85)
******************** Slight Spoiler Warning ********************** I just finished volume six of Frank Herbert's Dune series. Chapterhouse: Dune takes up where Heritics of Dune left off. A short (for Dune novels) amount of time passes between books (10 years). The book is set on Chapterhouse, the headquarters planet of the Bene Gesserit. For characters, we have Mother Superior Orade, Bellonda, several BG's, Mirabella (ex Honored Matre), Sheeana (speaker to worms), Duncan Idaho (special limited edition), Scytale (the Tleilax Master), and a new Ghola: Miles Teg (too good to let die). In our last exciting installation, Miles Teg, Bashar extraordinaire, defended Arrakis (Dune) to the death. Sheeana, and Duncan were sent off planet in a stolen No-ship and eventually made their way to Chapterhouse. Scytale was a prisoner aboard. The Tleilaxu home planet had been razed by the Honored Matres, who are rampaging through the Empire, killing off whole planets at a time. The plot of Chptr: Dune is mostly concerned with the Bene Gesserit's attempts to handle the Honored Matre's invations. As sub-plots, we have a mentat Duncan Idaho who is concerned that the BG will kill him out of hand because he might be a Kiswatz Haderach, we have Mirabella who is made into a Reverend Mother, we have Sheeana, who is a link to Dune's past and will aid in the creation of another Dune and we have Scytale, who is the last of his race and is schema to gain access to an axlotyl tank to re-create his fellows from tissue samples contained in a no-capsule embedded in his chest. My reactions were blase. Although I read it more or less straight through in a minimum of sittings, I didn't think it was that good a book. Heretics was better. I didn't like the resolution of the BG-HM wars, although it was plausible enough. Finally, there were too many things left hanging. Yes, Dune fans, you lucky people, there will be a Dune-7. My advice? If you like the Dune novels, especially the later ones, you will probably want to read this one as well. It might be a better idea to wait for the paperback, thought, since it wasn't worth the $18 I paid for the hardcover. If you are maginal, don't bother. Dune-7 does have some potential to be intresting. Mark J. Norton decvax!genrad!panda!mjn