So just finished book number 5: "Heretics of Dune", and going to start the last of Frank Herbert's books "Chapter House Dune" tomorrow.
I have come to the conclusion that The Dune Sequence may be one of the grandest, most thematically explorative stories I've ever been told - I'm pretty sure that this is the only series I've read with a story that spans something like 5000 years (so far). Simultaneously, it is a series that may be one of the worst at telling me its story...
So much of the fifth book very opaque or obtuce ruminations by characters, which lead to a style of storytelling that is like taking the "show don't tell" method to such an extreme that it horseshoes round to the over explaining of reactions and thought processes in a completely "tell" fashion (sometimes it feels like reading inner monologues from a shounen anime!?!?). Because the thoughts of characters are so difficult to understand sometimes, it is hard as a reader to infer things like logical thought processes or emotional reactions etc, or to even just follow dialogue between two characters - sometimes it feels like they are just talking one-liners at one another and not actually engaging in conversation. There is already so much esoteric rambling in these books that it really did not need extra stuff slowing down the pace and really not even taking the exploration of themes very much further in my opinion... I thought the balance was better in the previous book "God Emperor of Dune". Or maybe not; just that almost all of the ruminating was by Leto II, who's mind was just more compelling to understand, meaning that it just didn't feel as much of a slog - In fact, I actually rather enjoyed God Emperor. I feel like book 5 could have been cut by a third, by ommitting some of the lengthy and repetitive rumination by characters that pretty much amount to little (Taraza's and Waff's viewpoints really didn't need such depth...), and nothing would have been lost... Frank Herbert even limited his third person perspective a lot more for this book, but I feel like he just abused it because of how much time was spent in the head of characters and achieving nothing for the narrative or emotional response in the reader!
The other weird thing was the focus on sex in Heretics... I kinda understand it from a thematic perspective - attachments, love, sex and the power dynamics involved in these things are actually quite compelling themes... but the way it was written came across a bit like a H*ntai plot or something, with unecessarily graphic scenes to boot... I would've really liked some heavier use of metaphor here, considering that most sex scenes in previous books had just been time-skipped to pretty decent effect. It can be hard to tell where the thematic exploration here is going at times too (i.e. what message Herbert is trying to get at). Obviously people are products of their time and so Herbert came across as a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to relationships and sex, although I think his son described him as attempting to become more progressive about these things - especially in relation to homosexuality, which was explored... sketchily... in book 4. So I am not too keen to say that Herbert was intentionally making any moral statements with any of his writing here, just that the books feel a bit dated in the understanding of relationships, sexuality and their dynamics in society.
Another thing I noticed when reading Heretics is that I find it odd that the Bene Gesserit are sort of set up in protagonist roles, despite the nature of their manipulations. With Jessica it made sense to a certain extent, but the general perspective seems quite odd. That said, I suppose it is interesting because the evil religious organisation as the enemy trope is a little over-played, so an insider perspective feels a bit fresh despite its seeming "wrongness".
Lastly, the scene-cut-time-skip towards the end of Heretics where they just are all together and land on Rakis felt super Janky!
I think I just find it all a little... annoying, because there is some actually really good story material hidden in this grand narrative, and Herbert was definitely capable of writing some really really good scenes. Two absolute standouts for me were the redemption of Gurney Halleck to Jessica in book 1 and Ghanima's fairwell to Leto II in the crag in book 3. It just makes me wish that all of the storytelling was as good as those moments... Past them I also enjoyed a lot of Leto II's back and forths with characters throughout book 4, and I have enjoyed Miles Teg a fair bit in book 5. Miles Teg in particular stands out because he was such an impactful character even though he was only just introduced in book 5, and a lot of characters in The Dune Sequence are casualties of the extraordinary time-frame of the series, meaning that they come and go and readers don't really form strong interest in them (e.g. Siona - I actually found Moneo way more interesting - Hwi, Feyd-Rautha, Irulan and Farad'n. Even Ghanima really...). It is really hard to say how much of this is meta-manipulation by Herbert to get us to empathise with Leto II though... Aside from all this, the ephemera passages at the start of every chapter are pretty much always a pleasure, and I even miss the poetry from the first few books. There is so much here that makes me want to get invested and immersed in the story and the universe of Dune - there just seem to be several barriers blocking my way in.
And so I continue my love-hate relationship with The Dune Sequence! In all honesty, I do think overall I have enjoyed the experience so far, even Heretics despite the slight slog, and am excited to be continuing the journey through the aeons.