Audiobook review: The Finale of the Original Dune Series

Chapterhouse Dune

by Frank Herbert

 

This is the sixth book in the Dune series written by Frank Herbert and I have to say I was getting a little bored during and after God Emperor of Dune.  There is something very different in this volume that brought it back to life for me.  Chapterhouse is the name of the planet where much of the story takes place.

The Honored Martres are waging a war against the Bene Gesserit and trying to conquer the old Empire broken by the Tyrant, famine and the scattering.  Genetic manipulations, Golas, simu-flow thinking all rage through this book and the child-mentat-gola Miles Teg is instrumental in seeming to turn the tide in the war.

The twists came for me in the very end.  Up until then I felt the Tleilaxu face dancers were just a tool used by the Bene Tleilax factions who had the Ixilatal tanks which at some level are explained to be actual wombs.  They had produced all the hundreds of iterations of Duncan Idaho for the Tyrant and then were all but exterminated by the Honored Martres.

This was the final book in the original series by Frank Herbert, he died soon after.  This audio version was narrated by a team of four and produced by Random House audio so the quality is quite high.  I am giving this one a five out of five, well done.

 

http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Chapterhouse-Dune-Audiobook/B002V0K6D8