Well, I’m finally reading the “last” one, if that’s what it truly is. I thought Chapterhouse was a magnificent ending, mostly because I felt completely perplexed after reading it. For years I have wondered whether I really got Frank Herbert’s point. There was one moment in the old Dune saga in which Leto II mentioned that the Bene Gesserit almost understood it. And I have ideas, but I never really definitively understood what “it” was.
Frank Herbert did not plan to write a sequel to Chapterhouse. He had thought of it, but when Chapterhouse was written the sequel wasn’t in plan. So Brian Herbert had no notes to work by, which is very disturbing. He tells us this up front. It didn’t give me a good feeling about the book. This happens to be my favorite series so there is a lot at stake here.
So as I began to read, right away I noticed that the Hunters of Dune takes place only 3 years after Chapterhouse. If you look at Frank Herbert’s pattern, you’ll notice that the length of time between books increases exponentially as each book in the series progresses. The Hunters of Dune should be like 10,000 years (or more!!) after the Chapterhouse. Am I right?
Tags: books, chapterhouse, dune, reading
Darcy, just to warn you beforehand, there is one more after Hunters of Dune: Sandworms of Dune.
I am actually 3 back from where you are: still haven’t read the 3 books from way way back in time, Battle of Corrinth, Butlerian Jihad, and Machine Crusade. I really should get on that sometime, but I always feel like I should be rereading the entire series before I start again… but now I’d have to read 9 books!
Another! How many sequels can there be?