Heretics of Dune (1984)

Author: Frank Herbert
Publisher: Ace

Synopsis:
Over a thousand years after the death of the God Emperor, the balance of power in the Old Empire is upended as humans from the far-flung Scattering return with dangerous new abilities. Meanwhile, the Bene Gesserit train up the latest ghola of Duncan Idaho, who has secrets of his own, and mysterious girl appears on Arrakis with the ability to command the sandworms.

Impressions:
We make another big leap in time from the previous entry and the universe is both significantly changed and familiar at the same time. The latter is thematic as stagnation in the Old Empire is one of the main reasons why people from the Scattering are shaking things up so much. I can't say I'm a fan of the Honored Matres in concept or execution, but I guess they make for a decent foil for the Bene Gesserit. Now, speaking of the Bene Gesserit, we get a lot more insight into their inner workings as most of the story is from their perspective. This is also the first time we get to really see what the Bene Tleilax are all about.

While the payoff for the current Duncan won't be fully realized until the next book, it is interesting seeing a younger ghola being trained. Miles Teg is particularly interesting as a highly respected military genius who has a number of parallels to Paul (even though he's usually compared to Duke Leto). Then there's Sheeana with her mysterious connection to the sandworms and how that plays into the post-Leto cult that has grown up on Rakis (what they call Arrakis at this point in the timeline). All these pieces on the board with the various manipulators who aren't all on the same page even if they belong to the same faction. Classic Dune plans within plans and wheels within wheels. Good stuff.

Amid all this is the theme of love as a dangerous destabilizing force (at least in the eyes of the control freak Bene Gesserit). It's an interesting notion, but I don't know how well-executed it is in the end. (I would argue it gets played to better effect in the earlier books, but you could draw the previous works into this one for a larger illustration of the concept.)

There's a lot of stuff here that should stimulate the old grey matter for fans of the series. More than enough reason to want to add this to the collection, I'd say.

Rating:
Own It