| Title: | Arcana Caelestia |
| Notice: | Directory listings are in topic 2 |
| Moderator: | NETRIX::thomas |
| Created: | Thu Dec 08 1983 |
| Last Modified: | Thu Jun 05 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 1300 |
| Total number of notes: | 18728 |
Chapterhouse: Dune -- Out of the 460+ pages, the first 300 nowhere fast. To put it simply, "All talk & no action". Only in the last 3rd or 4th of the book does it start to get interesting, but even then not so much. Mostly it is filled with prattle about Herbert's views of human nature as seen through the eyes of the B.G. The basic concepts are there but are very loosely explained or are not much more than filler. This book could have easily been done in about 300+ pages, keeping the plot, etc. much tighter. There is a very touching dedication at the end to his recently deceased wife. I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that she became very ill and passed away during the writing of this book. It may have something to do with the way it was written and why. I would still recommend reading it though. Its not really a "bad" novel, it just isn't up to par with some of the better ones in the series. Especially after "Heretics" which I thought was terrific. ........mike
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 199.1 | MRADM::CASELLA | Thu May 23 1985 14:33 | 16 | ||
I agree with the previous review about Chapterhouse Dune being mostly talk and little action. But as I am a Duneophile, i ripped right through it anyway just to see what happens. The story takes place a few years after "Heritics" ends, and is concerned with the Bene G's response to the return- ing Honored Matres from the Scattering. They still have the ghola Duncan , the captured Matre Murbella and the Bene T. chief hidden in the no-ship.a (sorry about that, my terminal zapped out) I won't tell any more of the story for those who haven't gotten that far in the series. I will say that Miles Teg (the old Bashar) shows up again in this book. It has seemed to me that all the even numbered books have not been as good as the odd (Messiah, God Emperor, and Chapterhouse vs. Dune, Childen of, and Her- itics.) That's just my view of it anyway. I also agree that this isn't a bad story, just boring at times. The best thing about it is that the next book will be odd (number 7), and it will surely make up for any of Chapterhouses' shortcomings. john c. | |||||