wolvenbolt's reviews
214 reviews

Gods this book was wild! My favourite fantasy series is The Stormlight Archive and this book felt so ooooooo very much similiar to that series!
It was filled with intrigue, action, emotion, plot twists that subverted expectations and I didn't see coming but made sense.

The magic system was a bit complex to wrap my head around at first, I spent a bunch of time at the beginning constantly thinking "What the hell is Luxin???" but once I understood it I was like "Jesus this is some fun as feck magic!".

The twist about 30% into the book was completely unexpected and brilliant, it made me question everything for a while, who's good, who's bad, what motivates this person and that person, why can't this person do this thing and what's holding them back etc.

There's so much overpowered magical ability balanced out with great drawback, which is something I love to see with a magic system, some semblance of balance. There's a very rich world being built here, all the factions, the history and grudges in play, the hard choices and difficult sacrifices that go against certain characters own beliefs. Kip, Liv, Corvan, Gavin and even Ironfist were all incredible characters that quickly grew on me. I will be fair and say I think Karris is a character I'm kinda "meh" about in this book, she's one of the four main perspectives on the book and she's and it's nice that she's a badass in combat and has skills etc, but I'd have liked to see her character fleshed out a bit and see her strength not from combat but from character

(She's lived 16 years in the dark, she's always wondered why Gavin called off the wedding, why he suddenly became good, she mourned Dazen who she truly loved while also dealing with the fact he killed her family)

We did see some of her past revealed and the effect it had on hardening her

(the birth of Gavin son and having to send him away and never see him again)

, but this was for a short enough chapter and was about it.

Overall, the book wasn't flawless, but I'm certainly nitpicking and it doesn't deserve to be docked any marks, this but was a thrilling pleasure and has reinvigorated my love of reading after finishing the last couple of Dune books 😂

It started off really strong, the characters were interesting, the magic was intriguing, the world was different enough to grip me but familiar enough for me to not be lost. This book is mostly character driven, the plot leaks in from time to time. However, when a certain character was killed off

Remy

, the book kinda derailed from there and seemed like it was improvised as it went on, instead of planned out properly. An unsatisfactory ending, that makes reading the book almost pointless. The book became very dumb and smooth-brained at the end, almost like the author just gave up.

I've been told if I did not enjoy books 5 and 6 than I should avoid reading Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune, well I will not be reading those books.

This is definitely my least favourite of the series, I found it mind numbingly boring and an absolute chore to read. Heretics at least was trying to return to the golden standard of Dune Messiah, with political intrigue and interesting characters such as Teg we haven't seen since the earlier books. So where did Chapterhouse go from Heretics? Feck all anywhere it felt like. I think the Honoured Matre were an interesting group in concept but a series killer in execution. It's really annoying seeing a series that was so rich with philosophy and glimpses of the human condition, produce these boring empty barbaric sex obsessed antagonists that will Christiano Ronaldo your head off if you offend them even slightly, which could be anything because they're hyper sensitive.

It actually became uncomfortable reading chapters with the Matres in it because I realised they are quite relatable to how a lot of people are right now: hyper sensitive and insecure, seeking power for power sake, unwilling to compromise or take on responsibility, they are right and everyone else is wrong, they take what they want and are almost completely devoid of empathy. The Honored Matre are a large amount of humans right now. And here's another reason why them as antagonists are awful, there is no way for them to last and be sustainable as they are, the fact they've attained such power after all these years is completely unbelievable as they'd have eaten eachother and destroyed eachother pretty early on in their order's inception. I suspect Herbert knew this and that's why

he had the Bene Gesserit merge with them under the new leadership of Murbella.

Murbella automatically being accepted as leader of both factions was so far fetched and bullshit, it felt like it happened with unrealistic pushback and acceptance time.

I suspect the enigmatic characters Marty and Daniel might either be an ancient offshoot of Ix or a cybernetic advanced intelligence driven away to the furthest parts of space because if the Butlerian Jihab we've kept hearing about thought the whole series, personally I think the latter idea would be cool because what threat could be greater to organics than synthetics, that's why the Honored Matre are so afraid of them. That's how I'd do it anyway. Maybe I'll spoil the next two books for myself since I'm not gonna read them.

At the end of the day, I loved the first 2 books, the 3rd book I thought was bad at the time but now I see it better since reading the 5th and 6th books. The 4th book was technically bad in comparison to it's previous books, but for some reason it holds a special place in my heart, it's hard to explain.

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 😎

Well I am honestly finding it difficult to put into words how I feel about this book. The philosophy and ponderous nature of this book was fascinating and oftentimes illumanting.
However, I find this book to be quite a slog, there was a story that was present, but it was captivating so few times that I can't even recall any such moments.

There was some character development but I did not care about any character except Moneo, for me he was the best character in this book.

Duncan

was a massive disappointment, I thought the book was going somewhere with his character, but he's the exact same as

his former iterations except he succeeded where they failed

.

Siona

was bland, unexceptional and one-dimensional, perhaps Herbert will improve on her in the next book, but I was expecting something significant to happen with

her considering Leto's belief in her

.

All in all, a mix of deep and complex characters with bland and one-dimensional characters, all heading down the road of an unimportant, unimpactful and overly-prolonged narrative.

There so much confusion, filler, contrivance and bullshit that came in this book, but oh boy was it a ride! I very much enjoyed Leto's character, he is complex and tragic, an imperfect character but someone deeply understandable and iconic. Despite that, again, it felt as if nothing happened at all with him. This was merely a small window into his life

and the events leading up to his death.

As with the previous book, it was not as enjoyable as the first two books. There were moments of greatness, swimming in a puddle of mud and grime. Trying to sift through it all to find the hidden treasures was a hassle but rewarding at times.

I will not read this book ever again tho, which is exactly what Leto would want of me, to keep going forward in pursuit of the new, the fresh, in hopes of a surprise.

Farewell Leto II ✌️

I shall start off this review by simply saying:
What the fuck???

The philosophy in this book is some of the best in the series, the buildup was quite good....until Leto started rolling around in the sand with Sandtrouts and

making himself turn into a wormboi

and somehow knowing how to do it, and then we got good old-fashioned

brother marrying his sister.

The portrayal of

Paul

was excellent for a good while, It felt like he had grown wise in his

self-exile

and had come to despise the corruption of the world

he sought to bring into fruition

in the first 2 books and preached out against

his own creation

in hopes of tearing it down and

his children

fixing things...but no. As soon as he meets Leto, he becomes a dumb dumb and

sacrifices himself

in a shitty way in equivalence of stupidity of how Dune 1 had the Baron killed off-screen by the 4 year old side character.

Ghanima seemed pretty interesting there for a while too, the twins were at their strongest character-wise when they were together,

the second they seperated is when they went down hill

. Leto became so self-indulgent and spouted out philosophy in rapid-fire that it became exhausting, despite throwing some interesting notions and questions at the reader, I believe such things should come in moderation. And then Ghanima simply got dumber and more emotional and one-dimensional, she got the Chani treatment but with more rage.

Dont get me started on this

wormboi

business. What the actual fuck Frank Herbert. What the actual fuck. Whatever you were smoking during the creation of this book, I beg of you to cut that shit out and have a cup of tea instead. Like sure I get the symbolism and how the Freman will immediately

accept him as God

as they already worship Shai-Hulud, the Maker, the Worms, and so now that

Leto has worm powers they think him Shai-Hulud.

I get it. Congrats, it fits into the mythos, but why the hell did you go down this route? Have you learned nothing from the first book? You can't make your main character extremely powerful without any consequences or a delicate balance they must contend with!

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I'm moving onto God Emperor of Dune, wish me luck 👀

This book was a massive step-up from the first book! One of the biggest issues I found with the first book was Paul's omniscience was too powerful and barely without flaw or consequence and when the book reached a certain point he relied on that ability almost completely without question.

This book, however, fixed it! It took that overpowered god-like ability and flipped it upside and gave it consequences, drawbacks and allowed for human error! It was perfect! I feel if Herbert had these in the first book, then it could have fully reached it's potential.

I do believe this book needed more action scenes, it was almost entirely lacking, but that is not a huge issue, this was a beautiful work of fiction that really leaned into the philosophies and dangers of religious fanaticism and the mixing of belief and law. 

Paul went from being a man believing in his own myth, filled with ego and arrogance in the first book to a man enwisened by time and experience, who questions his own existence and the concept of choice itself. He sees so many futures and so many consequences now that he constantly questions why things are and why things must be.

The introduction of

these Steermen that are immune to Paul's Sight

finally introduces danger, tension and a sense of stakes! Which was sorely lacking in the first book. While I feel Herbert did not sufficiently explain the mechanics

of why they are immune to the Sight

, it was a great addition to the world.

What I loved the most was, while there was now a possibility of Paul being hurt or killed, there was a larger focus on Paul's family and friends being in danger too. This was largely possible due to Herbert exploring and fleshing out the characters more in this book and making us empathise and care for them more.

This book was small, but somehow larger than the first book. The ending was superb,

it might have been a tad bit predictable as Herbert loves to mirror elements of Chistrian religion, but it was a satisfying ending regardless. Especially the part where Paul could kill Scytale despite being blind because he could see through the eyes of his newborn son, who was born aware and fully conscious.

Positives:
The world building is incredible, it is well thought out and vivid. The characters and story had great potential and was just enough to hold interest.

Negatives:
The book breezed through and brushed over a lot of things, a lot of telling instead of showing, Herbert neutered the entire book by giving the main character

an almost omniscient power

and having him totally rely on it too much, which created an unbelievable amount of plot contrivance.

This also meant most of the time the story (after a certain point) completely lacked any tension or sense of stakes.

The baron was killed off screen by a 4 year old without any confrontation and a mere mention of him being the grandfather of Paul and Alia.

Final Thoughts:

I believe if Herbert created more drawbacks and gave more consequences of Paul's newfound god-like omniscience and how it wasn't something to be relied upon and instead used as a guide for Paul's already finely attuned observational skills, it would have created more stakes as there was room for human error.

I would have preferred to see Paul grow over the years

spent with the Freman

, instead of a time skip. It would have been more enjoyable to either extend the length of the book to include this part of the journey, or spend this book showing Paul's growth from a boy to a man without it being glossed over and expedited, instead leaving the

end battle

for the next book.

I am dumbfounded why people call this the Lord of The Rings of science fiction. It certainly had the potential to be, but I do believe this was rushed and leaned into the prose too much at the trivial moments and held back with the prose at the vital moments. Show, don't tell. It's a brilliant saying and it's because it works.

Tldr: