Chapterhouse: Dune

Comme souvent avec Frank Herbert et son cycle de Dune, le début du roman est un peu compliqué à lire et peut sembler ennuyant. Les pensées et les machinations des Bene Gesserit sont obscures, parfois à la limite de la caricature. Tout s'éclaire pourtant à la fin, et cela me laisse une très bonne impression de ce roman et du cycle original de Frank Hebert. Je vais maintenant m'attaquer à la lecture ou relecture des deux « séquelles » écrites par son fils.

On en apprend toujours plus sur l'univers de Dune mais on reste également avec plein de nouvelles questions. Je vais d'ailleurs m'empresser d'aller chercher les réponses dans les deux tomes suivants.
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We learn even more about the world of Dune but we also have lots of new questions. I will hasten to find the answers in the next two volumes.

The biggest problem with Chapterhouse: Dune is that we never get the story Frank Herbert wanted told to conclude it. Nevertheless, the book ends in such a way that it is still satisfying.

Murbella really comes into her own here, the fascinating mixture of Bene Gesserit and Honored Matre. Dar is again a powerful force. The building menace of the threat that drove the Honored Matres back from the Scattering is intriguingly written. I would have loved to know how Frank Herbert wanted to end this conflict (not the hack attempts from his son and KJ Anderson), but am content with my own vision of how it ended, based on what Frank wrote. All in all, a good ending to the series.

I felt a lot better about the pacing of this book compared to Heretics. I also think the ending was handled better, and the plans within plans felt more solid and follow-able than in Heretics. Although Herbert planned for a seventh and final book, I think this ending of several important characters and ideas going out in their own Scattering is very poignant, and it works. This also may be the fastest I read a Dune novel.