Heretics of Dune 5

This book picks up the Dune saga 1500 years after the reign of Leto when Dune, now known as Rakis, is turning back into a desert planet. The traditional forces, the Bene Gesserit, the Tleilaxu, the Ixians and the Guild are caught up in power games once more, but are joined by new factions, the Scattered ones and the Honored Matres that have spread over the known universe after the fall off the God Emperor and are now returning to Rakis to reclaim their elder secrets. When a young girl is discovered that seems to have control over the giant sandworms of Rakis she is recognized as the new prophet and the long awaited sign for everyone to deploy their schemes. At times ‘Heretics of Dune’ feels more like a new start of the Dune saga than like a continuation of the previous novels. Almost all powers of influence that existed before the time of the God Emperor have returned to their old ways of manipulation and devising plots within plots against everyone else. This sense is further reinforced by the fact that there is no overlap in the cast list with previous installments (the only possible exception being a young version of Duncan Idaho). In addition, the questions that are raised at the end of the previous book ‘God Emperor of Dune’ (what is arafel? what/who is The Oracle?) are not further addressed here. In fact, only new questions are added that remain unanswered. However, these things are not really drawbacks and they don’t prevent this from being a very enjoyable book. Perhaps this novel does not reach the unattainable depth of ‘Dune’ or ‘God Emperor of Dune’, but it is more suspenseful than its predecessors and will grab the attention from the very first page and remains to do so throughout. As in all previous installments the characterization is very strong and all characters are well worked out individuals. With this book Frank Herbert proves once again that he is capable of creating an engaging book like no-one else can.