Not as bad as I tought it was gonna be, but not nearly as good and well written as Frank Herbert's novels.

The plot seems a bit exagerated. In various moments it feels like they're trying to reach the same level of depth and complexity than the original novels, but overall it's not well balanced.

But in the end, i think that the story flows quite well and it did kept me wanting to know what was gonna happen next. It's also good to revisit this universe and it's charachters,...more Not as bad as I tought it was gonna be, but not nearly as good and well written as Frank Herbert's novels.

The plot seems a bit exagerated. In various moments it feels like they're trying to reach the same level of depth and complexity than the original novels, but overall it's not well balanced.

But in the end, i think that the story flows quite well and it did kept me wanting to know what was gonna happen next. It's also good to revisit this universe and it's charachters, altough not in their best form. ( )

The magnificent climax of the Dune cycle is somewhat the miraculous knot solver this twisted story desperately needed. In the previous novel ‘The Hunters of Dune’, Sheena and her band of rebellious Bene Gesserits and the refugee Jews stole a no-ship and run from Chapterhouse in order to escape the merging of the Bene Gesserit and the hated Honored Madres. For almost a quarter of a century on the run, the no-ship and its mixed crew encountered several obstacles, like the anonymous enemy for whom apparently the new and almost undetectable Face Dancers were working. With the crew is one of the maybe last Tleilaxu masters, Scytale, who is forced to present his only bargain chip in this game: a nullentropy capsule which contains genetic material of all the great figures of history, which are subsequently resurrected one after another. Sheena hopes that they might bring about the turn in this battle, no one relly understands.
Knot solver may be a little overstated, since a few plot twists are not solved so obvious. Only now, when I thought about what to write in this review I stumbled across on thing I did not get throughout the entire book, why, on earth, were two particular ghola babies killed? The no-ship had an saboteur on board, who for no apparent reason killed of two unborn ghola babies including the axlotl tanks that were carrying them. Now, to give some hints: what do they have in common? What makes them different from the other gholas? And what is their relation with the enemy?
This dilemma may indicate the special appeal of this particular novel: the reader has to think for him- or herself. Not everything is as it may seem. Only the unknown incarnation of the great Duncan Idaho gets a little annoying after a while. Close to the end, it seems like his entire personality is changing in an instant, as is Erasmus’.
The novel as such is a neat performance and though it requires the reader to use his or her head for more than just store the just read information but also to rearrange it in such a manner that is makes sense, it is still entertaining enough and not only ‘work’. (

This is the second 'final book' (# 7B) in the original Dune series.

I would probably not have picked it up, but my RL book group picked the first 'final book' (#7A) Hunters of Dune . I am a completist and I just couldn't read only half the ending. I was also surprised that I didn't hate book 1, and that their writing had improved. Still not in Frank's league, but better.

Supposedly Frank left the outline and these jokers 'filled it in'.

This book still has the No-Ship and its inhabitants fleeing from the invisible great Enemy that the Honored Matres lead back to the old empire when they came running back from the scattering.

On the ship are Duncan Idaho and the last group of conservative Bene Gesserits, a group of Jews (?) and the last Tleilaxu master, Scytale. He has a capsule of cells and from them they make Gholas. They start resurrecting many of the old characters from 1000s of years ago (first books). That intrigued me, because I am a sucker for the original characters.

Unfortunately, they do nothing with the characters for hundreds of pages. They pop in an out of different places and planets, having adventures, but nothing to advance the story. Most of the book was a slog (another 500+ pager) and it took me 12 days to read it. I just couldn't pick it up a lot of the time.

The book did pick up starting around page 300. They started to deal with the battle at the end of time with the Enemy.

I liked how they wrapped it up. I was happy for the good things that happened to the characters, and sad for the bad things. ( )

I was highly gratified to be upheld in my opinion that Duncan Idaho is actually the most important character of the whole Dune saga. I couldn't help but feel, though, that this was a weak ending to such a behemoth of a series. It was too neat, and too saccharine. Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson didn't maintain the very cold atmosphere of the original books - part of their brilliance was the constant tension between the characters' desires and duties. Now we are left with no conflict at all, and since a good story relies on conflict, the whole thing fizzles out like a shrivelled balloon. I'm very happy for the characters in their final situations, and I'm very happy for myself that I don't have to read about them there. ( )

I liked it better than I thought but am glad the series is over. It does bring a lot of threads to their end and it gives a sense of finality. If you like the Dune series this is a good one to read. ( )