A noticeable return to form, I would say this book is a mix of Dune and Dune Messiah. The political intrigue plays the main focus of this book which is a good thing, they were my favourite parts of the original trilogy, but I found this book quite confusing which retracted from the intrigue and enjoyment of the politics.

I'm glad they're finally utilising Duncan, Teg is an incredible character, same with Otrade. The character work in this book is up there with Dune Messiah I believe.

Why isn't this a 4 star like I gave Messiah? Because there was so much information thrown at you in this book with little or insufficient explanation, I found myself at times feeling like that scene from Pulp Fiction with Travolta holding his coat and looking around in total confusion. 

Herbert always has incredible ideas and brilliant world building, but he tends to rush too much and overlook the importance of prose and exposition. The ideas are solid, I can see the setups for the next book, but boy oh boy was this difficult to read, it read as fast to medium pace, but it felt unbelievably slow because of the amount of time I spent going back and forth trying to understand the concepts he's trying to convey or new information about a particular faction.

Chapterhouse Dune, here I come 😎