Average Rating: 
Rating:  - 3 pages that rock my world
Just when you think you have it all figured out, Frank messes with you mind. I finished reading this book while I was stationed in South Korea in 2001, and after I was done reading it, all I could do was stare at the wall and ponder what had just happened. In three short pages he had changed the dynamic of the entire Dune universe. I have never seen 3 pages of one book be so hotly contested as to what the reader was trying to convey. Even though, the ending left me yearning for more and changed the way I thought about the previous stories. In the earlier books, we are make to believe that humans were the center of the universe and it was there's for the taking, but after the last two chaper of Chapter House, we see a more dynamic universe of infinite possibilities. I am desperately looking forward to Dune 7, even though it will be writen by Frank's son. I don't care much for him as writer, being that I've read all 4 prequels that he has writen, but he does have a talent for peaking the readers intrest. As long as Dune 7 can give us even a modest idea of what was going through Franks mind when he wrote Chapter House, it will be a book worth waiting for.
Everyone should read all of the Dune books, there insites into politics and religion will change the way you see thing around you, thank you Frank for opening my mind to new possibilities
Rating: - waiting vainly for the sequel...
I read the first of Dune series 14 years ago, and had no conception of the breathtaking distances that the author would take towards the "last" book of the Dune Chronicles. While it is conceivable that someone with sufficient patience can read Chapterhouse Dune and fully appreciate it with no other Dune Chronicles exposure, it would seem criminal to recommend this book to someone without ensuring they had read the first five beforehand. Or, for something of a treat, read Chapterhouse, and then jump to the first five as "prequels"! I recently did something similar when I read the second and third Dune Chronicle books for the first times in 14 years, having reread the last two books in the last few months: quite an enthralling effect! The hardest part of reading this book was coming to the ending, and feeling selfishly deprived regarding the prospect of finding out What Will Happen Next as a result of the author's death, which in turn came shortly after the death of his wife following a long fight with cancer. Herbert created an astonishing world of breathtakingly evolved characters and contexts to appreciate them in. I have reread this book and others of the series numerous times. As is the case for meeting interesting characters in real life, it is poignant getting to know these characters only to lose the ability to anticipate being in touch with them later on, to find out how they're doing... The formidable detail and richness of perspectives is such that while reading it I was at times fearful of discovering a gimmick or a cliche to undo the trance worked by the book. This never happened. The publishing of the Dune Prequels is quite exciting in itself, and I hope that somewhere in the late elder Herbert's notes, are some detailed indications of SEQUELS, future Atreides audacities, Bene Gesserit contemplations and plotting, and passionately drawn characters to fall in love with and be fascinated by all over again.
Rating: - The end of a triumph of humanity...
For almost half a year I read Frank Herbert's six DUNE books. When I started out with DUNE, I only read it because I loved the David Lynch movie. But I was hooked. Now, it's all over. No more DUNE for poor me. Oh sure, there's the Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson DUNE books, but they're nothing compared to the brilliance of Frank Herbert. Don't get me wrong, they're good in their own respect, but they lack the depth & meaning that the original six had. I wasn't sure what to expect from this novel, as one of my favorite DUNE characters Miles Teg had been killed, and Dune itself destroyed. But thankfully, Frank Herbert's magic is readily apparent. Not only do you get to read an incredible story, but you get to amass a wealth of knowledge about humanity that no Humanities class could ever teach. I would've loved so much to find out more about those people Duncan see in his visions, but I probably never will. It's too bad, that would've made a great book. Many people have talked about how unfinished the DUNE legacy is because Frank Herbert died before he could write another book, but I think it better this way. Frank Herbert's imagination gave us the DUNE universe, and by not finishing it, I think he gave us a doorway into that universe, to interpet as we see fit. We can use our own imagination to finish what Frank Herbert started, and that's perhaps the greatest gift Frank Herbert could ever give.
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