Taj’s Reviews > Heretics of Dune > Status Update

Twists and turns that shift the entire Dune universe. So good! Gholas are not made in axolotl tanks but instead are birthed from enslaved surrogate mothers. The Bene Gesserit makes this discovery and are enraged.

The powers of the universe: the Bene Tleilax (genetic monsters), the Bene Gesserit (aristocratic witches), the Ix (the tech innovators). The heresy and shadowy plots to kill people in power are numerous. There are almost too many to keep track of when reading.

I am amazed every time I pick up a book in the Dune series how the plotlines span around 7000 years in total. I am reading how a Bene Gesserit finds a message inscribed in an ancient cave when I read less than a year ago that same message being written. It's cool to have this memory of what things used to be like in the first and second books, as the current characters discover relics and artifacts from that age.

Wow! This book is so entralling, it got started slowly and I put it down for a few months, but now I'm in the thick of the action and I can't seem to put it down. It is hard to remember the complex and layered universe at times. But, concepts discussed and acted on by the characters always circle back to 19th and 20th century political and religious commentary. The plot and heresy around it surround history on Earth

I am returning back to this book after a little pause. I was tired of Sci-Fi, but after coming back, I am inspired to finish the series. It is beautiful how elaborate the universe is, even around 4000 years after the first book. It's cool how Herbert followed the historically proven pattern of languages' words shortening over time. In this book, Caladan is now Dan, and Arrakis is Rakis, following speech over time.

This fifth institution of the Dune Series takes place 1500 years after the death of God Emperor Leto Atreides. After all this time since the first book the Bene Gesserit Missionaria Protectiva is still around and working to manipulate the universe.