There may be spoilers in here if you don't know the stories.... This is a short comment on all the stories I've read relating to Dune and mentions of others I've heard of. It seems appropriate to write this relating to Chapterhouse, the last of yet most mysterious of the original Frank Herbert books which isn't a finale, but instead another staging post on the great story of Earth and Dune and the Empire.
All the original 6 Dune books by Frank Herbert (2 x trilogies, I would call them), are fascinating. It's a long time since I read the series but now I see there are comments on here, I must add a few words. None of the second trilogy quite capture for me the magic of the first trilogy where Dune Messiah is always my favourite of the whole series - so poignant after the massive hope generated in the first, amazing story. I loved the movie and do wish more could have been made, though I have seen quite a good long TV series of the story which is made quite differently. It doesn't quite match up to the movie but is well worth seeing.
Unlike I believe many readers, I found God Emperor of Dune very intriguing and not boring though I can imagine it's a heavy read if you aren't quite taken with Leto as he becomes a gigantic worm. I too found his transformation a bit too much to try to imagine nor could I imagine how he bore yet, but hey this is SF and he had taken the choice to become God Emperor!
Much as I loved Paul Atreides, there is something about Leto that really grabs me. When I started reading Children of Dune, I though, oh dear, it's another "Children of...., isn't this a bit trite?" "Children of...." had become a bit too much of a fashion.
Well, I was very pleasantly surprised. Leto and his sister are truly extraordinary, especially Leto who of course in the 4th book becomes the despotic dictator/Emperor of all and Children of Dune is as good a read as the earlier two books - Herbert didn't let up! But what's so especially fascinating about Leto is how he know what will happen to him in book 4 and it will be far more shocking and perhaps even more unbearable than what happened to his father, but he is willing to let it happen for the good of the people. Paul Atreides, so great in the first book in which he saves and starts to terraform Dune, ends up in the second wandering in the wilderness and then dying, a St John the Baptist figure gone mad with all he has had to endure in his quest to keep his people safe against powerful forces of evil. Leto must be more than his father ever was in order to not only survive, but take over the Empire.
In God Emperor, Leto unlike his father does not become crazed in spite of all the horrors he must endure and the terrifying creature he must become - infinitely more dramatic and frightening than any Navigator. Yet inside that creature's obscene, vast body is the same Leto, a decent but clever and driven spirit that once was a man and who has learned that in order to rule the Empire his father left in his care, he must be a despot. Much of God Emperor is philosophising and if you don't want to read Leto's lengthy thoughts and pronouncements you may well find God Emperor a trying read. But at the same time there's a wonderful love story between this ghastly monster and a lovely girl who can see past the obscenity to the needy soul inside because Leto's words and thoughts are what make him still human and eminently lovable, and wonderful. I was so sad when eventually he was killed, although I would think after thousands of years of being a despotic worm even Leto had had enough and inevitably absolute power corrupts absolutely, and he couldn't do any more for his people.
The following two books are still exciting, but not in my view nearly to the same extent as the earlier ones. Indeed, the whole of the second trilogy is far more thoughtful and far less exciting action, but there's still more than enough action and intriguing events to keep anyone reading and enthralled and long long since Leto the Despot has died the Empire, descendants of earlier main and loved characters and villains carry the story on through more millennia.
Chapterhouse Dune, the last of the series, is more reflective than any of the others and decidedly mystical. You might expect it to finally answer many of the questions that still await answers......... and some are answered. But mostly it's mystical and the story still ends with the most extraordinary cliffhanger - a couple who are mystically waiting... For what? Whose side are they on? Heaven knows.
We finally find out in the ensuing stories written by Herbert's son and another, or others. I am grateful they took Frank Herbert's notes and expanded on this grand original series, but their writing quality is plodding and their stories are rather lacklustre, especially as they spin out "a few facts" into longwinded tales that are a bit boring. On the other hand, let's be pleased to have their enthusiasm and they do have plenty of ideas to take their stories along so you get a strong background story. It just needs more inspired prose. Their prequels to Dune are interesting from the point of view of "What could have happened before Paul Atreides?" but aren't nearly as well written and are longwinded - spining what I'd call one book out into three and I couldn't read any of them a second time, indeed the copies I bought I passed on to others. The sequels are based as I understand it on notes left by Frank Herbert re what would come after Chapterhouse Dune. Yet again, the son and colleague(s) spin out the notes into a whole new series and it soon became very trying reading. I still haven't read what's said to be the very last story in the series. The one before the last one was interesting in "what happens" and at last we start to have some idea what Chapterhouse Dune was actually about (!) but again the writing isn't up to Frank Herbert's standard.
I shall read thefinal story when I get around to it. At last we have some idea who the strange couple are at end Chapterhouse, whose side they are on, what they are about, what will happen, good or bad I won't tell, if they succeed in their own mission.
It seems the son still hasn't finished with notes from his father, or new ideas of his own and I believe there are yet more spinoffs - prequels re the atomic age or the machine age ..... events involving Earth long before the Dune story starts and another book about Paul Atreides I think.
This story is one of the most ambitious I've ever read - millennia and yet more millenia of the history of Earth and its descendants and an empire almost beyond imagining. Even Asimov's wonderful Foundation Series isn't quite on this scale.
