Chapterhouse: Dune (Dune Chronicles #6) ★★★★☆

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Title: Chapterhouse: Dune
Series: Dune Chronicles #6
Author: Frank Herbert
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 452
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

The Honored Matres are wiping out Bene Gesserit worlds while on their search for Chapterhouse, the nerve center of Bene Gesserit'ness.

Duncan Idaho and Murbella are on Chapterhouse and Murbella is being trained as a BG Sister to see if Honored Matres CAN make that transition. Duncan is just doing his thing and staying in the no-ship so nobody can find him. He becomes the Teg ghola's weapon master [as he has visions of face dancers and somehow steals info about super advanced weapons from their minds] and in the end takes off in the no-ship with Sheena, Scytale and others.

Scytale continues his bargaining with the Sisterhood but is pretty much stymied.

Darwi Odrade is now Mother Superior and has plans to tame the Honored Matres by melding them with the BG. But to do this she must kill the High Honored Matre and convince the rest of the BG to accept Murbella as a synthesis of the two sisterhoods. She succeeds and dies and Murbella is confirmed as leader of both groups.

It is revealed that the Honored Matres have been fleeing something even more powerful than them and it is now up to Murbella to guide humanity to survival against whatever this “other” threat is while combining the best of the Bene Gesserit with the best of the Honored Matres.

And some Jews. I don't even know why Herbert put them in, but they are shoehorned into this story like nobody's business.

My Thoughts:

This really felt like 2 books. One of those books I liked, the other I thought was a steaming pile of poo poo. And I mean really stinky poo poo.

One book was about sexual obsession (by the author) and child rape and pages and pages of philosophical gobbledy gook that was batted back and forth by cardboard characters like a badminton birdie.

The other book was filled with planets being wiped out by super weapons and the discovery of eternal life through ghola memory being awakened and threats so large that they might be the end of all humanity all across the universe.

I enjoyed the first 10% of this book, then went out of my mind for the next 45% and finally enjoyed the last bit, thankfully. All of that is just to show that I don't hold it against anyone who hates this book, doesn't like it or just think it stinks (like really really really stinky poo). But being the man I am, I was able to go beyond Frank's weaknesses and still enjoy the strengths this book has to offer.

But I had the mantra “why Frank, why?!?” running through my head the entire time. He has huge awesome plot material and tons of cool action stuff and he focuses on conversations about power and sex and religion? For phracks sake man, let it go and just tell a great story like you did with Dune. I think that is what each book after Dune lost out on, telling a good story. Each sequel became the vehicle with which Herbert drove us around his little personal psychology museum and bored us to tears with his ramblings.

One thing about this re-read that I enjoyed, or at least noticed without feeling like I needed to pass judgement, were terms and conditions that ended up being used in the Dune 7 duology by Baby Herbert and KJ Anderson. Noticing those things made me a little more forgiving of them and made me wonder if perhaps they weren't the total wankers I think them to be. Yeah, that'll last until I start reading the Dune 7 duology. Don't worry, there will be no good feelings of comraderie and brotherly love then. Nothing but cold scorn and derision for ruining such an epic as the Dune Chronicles.

So why the 4stars? I'm beginning to wonder myself!

1. The Action. When it happened, it happened fast and furious and there was NO messing about. Death and carnage and billions snuffed out in a heart beat.
2. The Ideas. Once you got past Herbert's obsession with power and the really weird ways he expressed that obsession, some of the points on humanity and how humanity acts and interacts were quite intriguing. I suspect they're not very original, but in SF, it really works.
3. The Direction. This series had moved beyond the Atreides family directly and towards the Gene Gesserit as a whole being a shepherd to humanity. Humanity had gotten larger and so the need for some guidance had gotten larger. Where this was leading was great.

Of course, it ends on a cliffhanger with Duncan and the No-ship in unknown space just hanging out. Like, duuude, where's my spaceship? If you read my initial review from '12 you'll see how I reacted to that. This time around, knowing I had the completed story, no matter from who, that made a difference.

★★★★☆ 

• Chapterhouse: Dune 2012 Review
• All the "Dune Chronicles" Reviews

Consider Phlebas (The Culture #1) ★★★★☆

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Consider Phlebas
Series: The Culture #1
Author: Iain Banks
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 545
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

There is War between the Idirans, a culture of 3 legged beings with religious mono-mania and The Culture, a decadent collection of self-serving beings who live for pleasure and are ruled by AI and their machines.

We follow the story of Horza, a humanoid with the ability to change his face and body, a Changer, who is allied with the Idirans, as he attempts to capture a Culture Mind that has done the impossible and * insert super science term * jumped onto a planet, against all known rules of everything.

The Iridians want to capture the Mind to learn it's tricks or at least to prevent The Culture from learning how it did what it did and The Culture wants it to learn how it did what it did. Unfortunately, it chose to jump onto a Dead World, a world that is supervised by a vast, intellectual non-corporeal being. One that brooks no interference or even cares about the differences that the Iridians and The Culture have.

Horza goes from one bad situation to another right up unto the end where he is betrayed by the Iridians, who view the Changers as no more than vermin even while using them. In the process he loses his lover and newly conceived baby and most of his Changer compatriots.

The book ends with everyone involved dying in one way or another and a history of the war and it's conclusion. Bleak stuff.

My Thoughts:

Whereas the Player of Games really struck me as a dishonest take on the idea of Utopia, this book felt more honest and how humans would actually react. This was a novel about The Culture from it's enemies perspective. That allowed us the reader to see things that we couldn't in Player of Games. I would definitely recommend reading this one first just so Banks can't sell you on the idea that The Culture is a true Utopia.

I ended up feeling bad for Horza for most of the book. He's rescued from a death sentence only to be tossed out of an Iridian spaceship that's about to go into battle. He's then captured by pirates and has to kill a crew member to join. He then participates in several failed piratical ventures and in the final one is stranded on a Orbital that is going to be destroyed by The Culture in 3 days. He does escape and make it back to the pirate ship and takes it over as it's captain. But a Culture agent is on board. The same agent who got him the death sentence at the beginning of the book. He then makes his way to the Dead World and gets permission by the Overmind to land. Only to have Iridian Covert Ops teams try to take him out even though he's on their side. And while all the Iridians die, they also manage to kill everyone except Horza and The Culture agent. And it gets better. Horza dies just as he's taken to a ship with the medical facilities to heal him. The Culture Agent can't handle the guilt and so she goes to sleep for 300 years only to commit suicide when she wakes.

Now normally that much bad stuff would depress me. But this time around? It simply re-affirmed my faith in human nature, ie, that we're a bunch of no good sinners who can't pull ourselves up by our bookstraps. I love it when Utopia minded people get a good dose of fallen nature. Wake up and smell the coffee you idiots.

So far, all threats to The Culture have been external. I'm wondering when Banks will write about some local, internal threat that wants power. While the AI's might be in charge, it's definitely not as pronounced as it is in Neal Asher's Polity series. I'm also still not convinced of The Culture as something real or viable. No central authority, no defining characteristics. It just doesn't jive with my understanding of humanity.

What makes this a 4star book is the fact that the author is aware of everything that I've mentioned and takes it into account. I might think he's wrong, but he's not oblivious and it takes some good writing to promote something even while mainly showing its flaws.

★★★★☆ 

• The Player of Games (Book 2)

Midnight Tides (Malazan Book of the Fallen #5) ★★★☆☆

^{This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, Librarything & by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission}
Title: Midnight Tides

Series: Malazan Book of the Fallen #5

Author: Steven Erikson

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 684

Format: Digital edition

Synopsis:

We follow the Tisti Edur [grayskinned Tisti] as they come into the world of Malaz. Fast forward several thousand years later and they have dwindled. They attempt to gain back their pre-eminence by declaring Empire and going against the only other Empire in the region. The main Edur stories center around the Sengar family. One of whom becomes the Emperor and the pawn of the Broken god.

We follow the human Letheri Empire as they attempt to subjugate the last remaining pocket of resistance to their Empire and way of life, the Tisti Edur. The main Letheri storylines follow the Beddict brothers. One is the King's Champion, one is a dissolute genius who can manipulate money with barely thinking about it and the final Beddict was a former envoy whose knowledge was used for conquest and not peace.

Lots of little stories interweave between them all and a little more is revealed about the Broken god.

The conflict between Edur and Lether is the framework of the whole story.

My Thoughts:

This was a 4star story that was dragged down with the chains of Erikson's pointless soapbox philosophizing hijacking his characters and turning them all into despair filled, spineless, wusses.

Why can't the man just shut the phrack up and tell the story?!?!?

Gardens of the Moon was a fantastic story and there was very little pontificating. Maybe a small dab in the corner. This book, Erikson took a 5foot roller and bloody whitewashed the story with the crap. Every time you turned around another character was whining about their forsaken feelings and how they weren't even worthy of having such degrading feelings because they were such infinitely unworthy motes in an infinite universe. It was pathetic and ruined the book for me.

The story, the clash between Edur and Letheri was great. A couple of magic battles, some mundane battles and then a showdown in the palace itself. All the while the Broken god is laughing to himself and furthering his own plans.

★★★☆☆ 

• Midnight Tides (2010 Review)
• House of Chains (Book 4)
• Memories of Ice (Book 3)
• Deadhouse Gates (Book 2)
• Gardens of the Moon (Book 1)

Heretics of Dune (Dune Chronicles #5) ★★★★☆

^{This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, Librarything & Tumblr by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission}
Title: Heretics of Dune

Series: Dune Chronicles #5

Author: Frank Herbert

Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

Genre: SF

Pages: 484

Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

1500 years have passed since Leto II, the God Emperor of Dune, has died and relaxed his iron grip on humanity. After his death came the Hard Times and the Scattering. Humanity spread out to stars beyond count. Only now, they are returning and they want control of the Old Empire. Ix has produced mechanical space navigating machines and the Tleilaxu produce the Spice by the ton from their axlotl tanks.

The Bene Gesserit are still playing their genetic game. They have been continuing the line of Duncan Idaho gholas through a connection with the Tleilaxu. They have also been keeping their hand in the Atreides gene line and their top protector, Supreme Bashar Miles Teg, is an Atreides who's mother was Bene Gesserit. She also trained Teg in the Bene Gesserit ways.

At the same time, a young girl named Sheena starts communicating with the worms. She comes under the Bene Gesserit's control and they're plan is for her and the latest Duncan Idaho to mate and have lots of little worm talkers. Things don't quite go as planned.

Honored Maitres, some of the returning forces, attack several Bene Gesserit worlds and put Sheena, Duncan and Teg all in danger. Teg is captured, levels up under torture and escapes. He rescues Duncan and eventually Sheena and they go off in a No-Ship. No-ships are invisible to guild navigators and other prescient beings.

The book ends with the Bene Gesserit planning on being conquered by the Honored Maitres and planning on subverting the Tleilaxu for their own purposes.

My Thoughts:

I was able to appreciate just how this is the beginning of a new Dune trilogy. The first, Dune, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune all form a tight weight on one side of the see-saw. God Emperor of Dune is really the pivot point and here we begin to see the other side of the balanced weight. It is almost exciting to realize such a literary device.

There is a lot of talking going on in this book and I mean a lot. Monologuing, diatribes, half-finished sentences, blah, blah, blah. Herbert gives us all the unnecessary in excruciating detail while completely ignoring a fantastic action story. But hey, that's typical Herbert for you. In many ways, this could have been as exciting a novel as Dune with its huge scope and action scenes. Teg and Duncan are running from a planetary invasion of Honored Matres for goodness sake. Sheena is balancing between the Sisters and the Rakian Priesthood and the Bene Gesserit are dealing with Face Dancers that can mentally imprint and BECOME that person, to the point that the Face Dancer loses its own self-identity and forgets that it is a Face Dancer. Those are all completely awesome ideas.

And Frank shoves them off to the side to talk about control and sex and government and esoteric religious ideas. Don't get me started on the sex. Not graphic, but it is underlying everything. Reading my review from '12 when I last read this, it was obvious that that was what stood out to me then. This time I was able to look past it a little, but still, it is like the Spice. It is in everything, it is everywhere and you can't get away from it.

It doesn't get much more Freudian than THAT!

The main reason this gets a 4star rating and not a 4/12 or 5, is because so many of the ideas are cloaked in half-sentences and unfinished thoughts. That kind of writing infuriates me. If you have a clever idea, or a big idea, or just a plain old hum drum idea, state it! Don't hint at it, don't take an upskirt photo surreptitiously, don't hem and haw around the edges. Grab that sucker, throw it down on the bed and ravish it! As you can tell, Frank's freudian obsession with sex has overcome me and now everything I say or do will have some sort of sexual connotation.

So I'm going to end this review. Read this book ONLY if you've read the previous 4 and liked them all. Not liked them a little bit, but liked them a lot. You're going to need that “like” to get you through.

★★★★☆ 

• Heretics of Dune (2012 Review)
• God Emperor of Dune (Book 4)
• Children of Dune (Book 3)
• Dune Messiah (Book 2)
• Dune (Book1)

The Player of Games (The Culture #2) ★★★☆ ½

^{This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, Librarything & Tumblr by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission}
Title: The Player of Games

Series: The Culture #2

Author: Iain Banks

Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars

Genre: SF

Pages: 417

Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Gergeh, the greatest game player, of any game in The Culture, is bored. His materialistic and hedonistic lifestyle is wearing thin and since the Culture is all about materialism and hedonism, he's in for a bad time.

Thankfully, Gergeh gets in touch with Contact, a branch of the non-government that deal with contact between The Culture and other spacefaring races. A newly contacted race is an actual Space Empire, something the Culture doesn't want around because an Empire is full of violence and dangerous ideas. Thankfully, this Empire is completely bonkers over a Game.

Gergeh is the Culture's Representative in the Game that will decide who the next Emperor will be. It is a purely symbolic gesture for Gergeh, as he cannot become Emperor. But the Empire wants to show its citizens that no outside “Culture” can tell them what to do or beat them at their own game.

Of course, Gergeh beats them all, by the skin of his teeth, sets in motion the downfall of the Empire as its very psyche is shattered and once back in Culture Space, suddenly all is well with Gergeh and he's satisfied with his inane, empty and completely meaningless life. Score one for The Culture!

My Thoughts:

First, Neal Asher's Polity Universe has been likened to Banks' The Culture novels and after reading this, I can see why. However, where Asher gives us characters who are in the thick of things and have a brain and have a modicum of moral backbone, Banks gives us characters who have been coddled since before birth and live a life of ease and pleasure so stultifying that it made me feel stupid just reading about it.

Now, onto what I really thought of this.

This is all based on the assumption of humanistic materialism. Basically, there is nothing but matter and the interactions of matter. There is no God, there is no soul, there is no afterlife, there is no Meaning. Everything is pointless drivel in the end because you just die and become somebody's snot. If I was a believer in this, I'd just go around and kill as many people as I could for the pure thrill of it and the adrenalin rush.

Gergeh, the main character, is just about at that point. But he's had all bad things removed from his genes, because obviously anything bad must have a material cause and it must be in the genes.

I was told over and over how great the Culture was, how so many advances had been made, how gene-tweaked everyone was to make them better people in all ways. And yet Gergeh is a bored, selfish, narcissistic (I like that word and use it a lot) bastard. His every thought, desire and action gives lie to what we're told about the Culture. At least Asher is a bit more honest in his Polity books about people wanting to swan off after about 300 years or so.

I was recommended this as the first Culture book to read and I'm glad I did. It was engaging and fun once Gergeh started playing the Game in the Empire, But that didn't happen until almost the 40% mark. That first 40% was a killer for me.

I plan on reading more, but if I continue to react to the rest of the books like I did this one, I probably won't last the entire series. I feel like I broke out in a bad case of “Righteous Judgement” while reading this.

Maybe I completely read this wrong and Banks is being a satirist about The Culture? But I don't get that vibe.

★★★☆ ½

Encounters (Mobile Suit Gundam: The ORIGIN #12) ★★★★ ½

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Title: Encounters

Series: Mobile Suit Gundam: The ORIGIN #12

Author & Artist: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko

Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars

Genre: Manga

Pages: 400

Format: Hardcover

Synopsis:

Amura and Char continue and finish their fight. Char ends up taking a rocket launcher and blowing up the spaceship which Kycillia is on, thus completely destroying House Zabi and the leadership of Zeon. Everyone gets out safely and a bunch of the kids exhibit newtype mental powers, ie, they have a connection with Amuro while he's escaping. The main story ends at page 160.

What follows for the next 100+ pages are 3 smaller stories. One taking place in the past, with the birth of Char. One after the peace agreement between the Federation and Zeon in which Sayla is almost abducted to be used by Zeon loyalists as a new rallying point. The final story is of one of Amuro's friends being engaged to Fraw and begging Amuro to not take her away from him. Amuro realizes all his ties to the past are now cut and decides to go back to space and begin the work of helping humans, spacenoids, earthers, newtypes and oldtypes to all get along as one united family. Thus ends the ORIGIN manga.

Then there are 10-20 pages of interviews with various people involved in the manga. I skipped those, as I didn't care one bit.

My Thoughts:

First, it's been over 18months since I read the previous volume. Way back in March of 2016. I think I stopped because the library didn't have this final volume yet and I was slowly buying them. So they sat on my shelf. But now I've read the whole series and I have to say, Good Stuff to the series as a whole.

This ending volume got bumped down a 1/2star because of the pie in the sky utopian idealism exhibited in the storyline. I know that is the foundation for the Gundam franchise, starting with the original series back in 1979 but to see it so plainly stated here kind of made me cringe. The underpinning of it all is that Newtypes won't have war because they can understand each other through their shared mental connections. It is based on the idea that Man is basically good. Sadly, as a Christian, I know that isn't the case.

When the story ended at the 160 page mark, I was kind of shocked. I was barely over half way through the book and bam, the main story is done. Thankfully, the 3 other stories fill in a good bit. The prequel story about Char's birth I was really “meh” about, as I didn't care about the past. But the other 2 stories that took place after the ending, they were good wrap ups. Pretty much an Epilogue and I was satisfied with the story closing on them.

I think I would have enjoyed this final volume a little more if so much time hadn't elapsed since my last read. The tension, the impact, the “what will happen” feeling, that were all building up in the previous 11 volumes had gone. Kind of like a bicycle tire that has sat in the garage for 18months. Whenever I re-read this in the future, I'll definitely make sure to read the whole series at a regular pace and I hope that would make a difference.

Once again, I would have bought these even if I hated the story just for the quality of the books themselves. The hardcovers are sturdy and the pictures on them are fantastic. The paper itself is a joy to turn. It is heavy and glossy and it was made to be felt as you turned the pages. The color artwork mixed in with the regular black and white was balanced perfectly. I never felt thrown when it switched from one to the other. I also liked that this was oversized and so could see the detail of the artwork better. This was not your typical manga sized released. This was a very high quality release and I'm glad I've got them.

I recommend this for the story, as the Gundam franchise is so quintessentially “manga/anime” and I recommend the books from an artistic viewpoint as well. It is always good to have a high quality production to judge everything else by. They are expensive though. MRSP is $30 and some volumes are as low as $20 but still, you're looking at a couple hundred of dollars. That is an investment. Borrow them and if you are as smitten as I was, then starting buying a book at a time.

★★★★ ½

• A Cosmic Glow (Book 11)
• Solomon (Book 10)
• Lalah (Book 9)
• Operation Odessa (Book 8)
• Battle of Loum (Book 7)
• To War (Book 6)
• Char & Sayla (Book 5)
• Jaburo (Book 4)
• Ramba Ral (Book 3)
• Garma (Book 2)
• Activation (Book 1)

Dark Matter ★★★☆☆

^{This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, Librarything & Tumblr by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission}
Title: Dark Matter

Series: ------

Author: Blake Crouch

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars

Genre: SF

Pages: 354

Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Jason Desson, a once up and coming scientist [which type, I forget. It doesn't matter to me or any normal person who reads this book. It would be like describing which handgun some hero used. It only matters to a very small segment] chose his family life with his wife and son-to-be over his career and now teaches at a local college.

He is kidnapped one night and wakes up in another world. He figures out he's in a parallel universe and with the help of one the scientists from Jason2's world, attempts to get back to “his” world. And 'his' Daniella.
After much experimenting and whining and other bs, he makes it home. Only to find that what makes the whole paralell universe thing viable is that there are over 70 other Jason who all made it back too. Our Jason thinks of a clever plan, rescues his wife and son, outsmarts all the other Jasons and uses his son to find a new world to start a new life on.

My Thoughts:

I wanted to enjoy this more than I did. Part of it is that everything is predicated on an athiestic outlook, ie, there is no Supreme Being, no Supreme Observer. Schrodinger's Cat razzle dazzle means diddly squat if there is one all knowing, all seeing, all powerful God. Dark Matter, too. The second issue is where is all this energy coming from to create all these branched universes? Parallel worlds being created with every choice we make sounds great and if you're 25 is a great idea to bat around, but when you look at it through the lens of universal constants, it is as pie in the sky as the moon being made of green cheese. The third ramification is that of the soul. That is theology and once again, it is completely bypassed and ignored. For me, that as actually more important and the lack of thought about it pushed me out of the story.

Ok, with all of those out of the way....

Ha, who I am kidding.

I enjoyed this. BUT...

Sliders. Stargate SG1. Other tv shows I can't even remember off the top of my head. I kept getting flashes of those while reading this. I felt like I was re-treading an old trail.

It was fun. It was interesting. It wasn't original though and I have to admit, from all the rah, rah, rah I'd heard about Crouch, I was expecting something original. Crap, maybe I'm getting old. I can handle unoriginal ideas. I thrive on the Hero's Journey, Coming of Age stories, the Underdog Winning against Impossible Odds, the Evil McEvilson getting his Just Rewards [of death!]. But this was like those conversations I had with my friend Isaac when we were in highschool, bibleschool and shortly after. As soon as the guy in the mask showed up, I knew every major plot point that was going to happen and that disappointed me.

This was not a bad book by any means. I would recommend it to “New to SF” readers, it'll blow their minds. But my mind's already been blown by this idea, 15-20+ years ago. Timothy Zahn explored this in his short stories. Go read his short collection Cascade Point and Other Stories.

I just wanted to like this more and I couldn't.

★★★☆☆ 

House of Chains (Malazan Book of the Fallen #4) ★★★★☆

^{This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, Librarything & Tumblr by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission}
Title: House of Chains

Series: Malazan Book of the Fallen #4

Author: Steven Erikson

Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 1044

Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Plot Line One:

Karsa Orlong, a young Teblor, sets out on an adventure with 2 of his friends. They discover out in the wide world that the Teblor are enslaved and an insular people. Karsa vows to become the warleader his people needs, even if he has to fight each and every Teblor. Along the way he gets involved with Leoman of the Flails and becomes Shaik's bodyguard. Read Deadhouse Gates to see how that turns out. At the same time, the Teblor gods reveal themselves to Karsa and he bursts the bonds holding his people enthralled. Karsa's plotline ends with him becoming the Knight of the House of Chains and everyone who knows him saying that the Broken god will regret doing so.

Plot Line Two:

Adjunct Tavore sets out with a green army to subdue Shaik's Rebellion, not knowing that Shaik is now her younger sister Felisin. The green army has a handful of seasoned warriors, one of which is Fiddler, who is now going by the name Strings. Shaik the goddess is trying to control some bit of magic and in the process control the desert Raraku. The desert rebels and lots of ghosts rise up and destroy Shaik's army. Tavore's army does a tiny bit of fighting, but more mop up than anything. Tavore kills Shaik in single combat, never realizing it was her sister Felisin.

Plot Line Three through Fifteen: (actually not kidding, really)

Tisten Liosan, white skinned bastards, are looking for their god Osric/Osserc/etc. They get they're butts handed to them on several occasions and decide to go home.

Various Imass do various things, like chasing after renegades, fighting with Liosan's and defending the true Shadow Throne.

Cutter and Apsalar take service with Cotillion and end up going their own separate ways because they love each other too much to hurt the other with the duties they have to perform.

Lots of other stuff that had no immediate import and might not have any at all. Impossible to tell.

My Thoughts:

I am at the point where I am disgusted at Erikson's choice of storytelling mode. He is fragmenting his overall storyline just because he can. I can't assign a real motive to this mode of telling, so I'm going to call him out for just being a jerkwad.

Each successive book that I go into this Malazan re-read it gets harder and harder to overlook how deliberately obfuscated Erikson makes his story. A good story will only go so far and he's fast approaching that breaking point where I give up in disgust. When I was originally reading this back in '10, it was at this book that I basically gave up trying to keep track of what was going on for a synopsis because the story fragmentation really started to spread here. I am no longer seeing this approach as a positive thing like I originally did.

This was an engaging story and that is the only thing going for it. Part of that was because the first 23% of the book dealt strictly with Karsa Orlong and getting him from when he was a wee young lad of 100 or so to where we met him in Deadhouse Gates. He's not a particularly bright or likable fellow but at least I was able to follow one complete story narrative for a long period of time.

I was having a hard time giving a crap about some of the storylines because they were such small fragments of the overall book. How do they tie in? You mean I have to wait for 3 more books to find out? No thank you.

The philosophizing got a little ridiculous. Felisin the younger, an adopted waif by Felisin, is kidnapped by one Felisin's major allies, a twisted wizard. He destroys her. Sexually, emotionally, psychology. And when she gets rescued and is secretly recovering, she waxes loquacious on the subject of how her mother needs the wizard and so her rescuer's vengeance needs to be put on hold. And she is 14. I just about threw my kindle on the couch at that. Girls who are raped and tortured don't calmly discuss why their attackers are justified or how the greater needs of a geographical area outweight their own personal needs.

My main issue now is when does the story no longer outweight the twin sins of soapbox preaching and story fragmentation? I am going to do my best to read the whole series, but will definitely be noting the point where the balance finally does tip.

★★★★☆

1. House of Chains (2010 Review)
2. Memories of Ice (Book 3)
3. Deadhouse Gates (Book 2)
4. Gardens of the Moon (Book 1)

God Emperor of Dune (Dune Chronicles #4) ★★★★ ½

^{This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, Librarything & Tumblr by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission}
 Title: God Emperor of Dune

 Series: Dune Chronicles #4

 Author: Frank Herbert

 Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars

 Genre: SF

 Pages: 436

 Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Dune is transformed. The worms are gone. The Spice is a dwindling product handed out each decade by the God Emperor from his private stores. Leto is now a pre-worm and 3500 years old. Mentats are outlawed and gone. The Fremen no longer really exist. The Tleilaxu grow Duncan Idahoes for Leto. Leto has taken control of Bene Geserit breeding program. The Ixians supply Leto with technology while experimenting on their own.

There is peace. The Great Houses are gone. Populations reside on their own planets and enjoy a level of living that has been unheard of before. Leto's Fish Speakers, an all female army, provide whatever force is needed should a situation arise.

Leto is fermenting humanity. Trying to change it from the inside out. He sees the glimmer of this in Siona Atreides, who is currently leading the rebellion against him. She can fade from his pre-sight, which means that her descendants will free humanity from the curse of prescience and prophecy.

Of course, Leto has enemies. The Tleilaxu plot his overthrow with their face dancers. The Ixians are breeding a human who is the perfect fit for Leto, and who they will control. Siona co-opts the current Duncan and they are figuring out how to kill Leto.

Leto knows.

Leto also knows that when he dies, his body will release sand trout that will begin the desertification of Dune once again and bring back the worms and the spice in a couple of hundred years.

My Thoughts:

This version that I read had an introduction by Frank's son, Brian. While I normally hold my nose at the travesty he and that son of a goat Anderson created with the Dune prequels, I did find this introduction extremely enlightening and helpful. It prepared me for the kind of book this would be.

This felt like a play, with Leto II being front and center and soloquizing for most of the book. A lot of action happens, a lot of information is told, but it is all off stage, as it were. Leto talks. A lot. With his Major Domo, Moneo Atriedes [Siona's father], with The Duncan, with Siona, with the love of his life Hwi.

Hwi. Now there is pathos. To have someone built to love you and to have them built so as to attract you. It is redeemed from pablum by Hwi knowing all of this and still choosing Leto over her Ixian masters. She does love Leto, willingly and unwillingly.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read, yet again.

However. If someone were to read this book and call it boring, dialogue heavy or unenjoyable, I would not try to correct them. Leto constantly tries to push other characters into understanding by asking them questions instead of answering their questions. Leto does that a lot and it can be frustrating. There were a couple of times that I wanted to shake him and shout “Just answer his question, you gigantic jerk!”. This was an idea book but those ideas were not all nicely queued up like bowling pins in an alley. They were disguised, hidden, scattered. It was frustrating and I will not deny that. I don't think it is a weakness of the book or the writing though. It was deliberate. Herbert wanted his readers to think and thinking can be hard work at times.

This was a re-read book, like all the other Dune Chronicles books I'm reading. My first recorded instance of reading it was only back in '12. However, I know I read it in highschool and in Bibleschool at least 3 times. So this is my fifth time? The fact that I'm still frustrated with it and yet enjoying it so much says a lot about the quality of the writing.

★★★★ ½

1. God Emperor of Dune (2012 Review)
2. Children of Dune (Book 3)
3. Dune Messiah (Book 2)
4. Dune (Book 1)

Memories of Ice (Malazan Book of the Fallen #3) ★★★★☆

^{This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission}
 Title: Memories of Ice

 Series: Malazan Book of the Fallen #3

 Author: Steven Erikson

 Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

 Genre: SFF

 Pages: 945

 Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

The Pannion Domin is a threat both martial and magical and it will take the combined forces of the outlawed army of Dujek Onearm, former High Fist of the Malazan Empire, and their former enemies in the guise of the combined might of Caladan Brood's army and the sorcerous might of Anomander Rake and his floating city of Moonspawn.

At the same time, Silverfox [the fully grown woman encompassing the souls of 3 other mages] has called the T'lan Imass together again for the first time in over 300,000 years. She is the physical embodiment of an Imass magician and has the power to reverse the oath the Imass took in their war against the Jhagut. She refuses and this has fallout for her personally and for the forces of Dujek and Brood who were counting on the Imass to counter the undead forces of a race thought to be extinct, the K'chain Ch'maile.

All through this, the gods continue their own war. The fallen/broken god has declared war on the pantheon and he wants to destroy them all for bringing him to this world. Fenner, the god of war, has fallen and a new risen god, Treach the Tiger, has ascended. Old lost gods are finding their thrones and each god is choosing for or against the broken god. And amid the total destruction and war on the souls of the men themselves, it is revealed that this part of the story is but a small part of the overall narrative.

Now THAT is depressing.

My Thoughts:

First thing I noticed was that with this 3^rd read, I was able to not focus on all the shiny little bits and put the story together as a whole. In previous reads I found a huge disconnect from the leadup to the battle of Capustan to the final showdown at Corel. This time around there was no disconnect and the story naturally flowed without any jarring. It was really nice to UNDERSTAND the slightly bigger picture.

Erikson shows once again that he is a freaking master of writing. The battle scenes were incredible. Vivid, intense and brutal. You can feel the slippery blood, the complete exhaustion, the fear and the adrenaline rush. The interactions between characters was excellently done as well. There was NO cardboard, only flesh and blood come to life on paper. What's more, everyone was “distinct”. They weren't archtypes, or ideas, or variations on a theme. They Were People.

And that leads into the start of my issues. With the characters being so real, the hearbreak and despair and utter desolation that they one and all suffer is wrong. In previous reads, I was taken up with the story, trying to figure out how everything fit together. In being focused on that, the emotional side of things were glossed over. Not this time. The death of main characters hit hard. They weren't alone but had made connections, so when those threads were cut, it was like a spiderweb quivering all over. No on person was ever alone in their anguish or loss. It hurt to read as it was so real to me.

The second, and far bigger issue for me, was the wholesale injection of existential philosophy in a huge way. Existentialism is one of the most depressing philosophies, in my opinion. In small doses, it provides a way for men to show their true grit against completely overwhelming odds. However, in larger doses, it can overwhelm the reader with utter despair and destroy your psyche.

It is probably apparent which happened to me.

By the end of the book I was dreading every instance where I saw italicized walls of text. That meant that some character was thinking and every thought of every character was nothing but despair and hopeless angst. It wore me down.

On my first read through of the whole series, it took me until Book 8 to feel this way. Since then, I've had some “experience” with the hard side of life and reading about despair and suffering isn't theoretical anymore. Reading about suffering isn't so fun once you've had a taste of it yourself. I think I'm going to be taking an extra cycle before dipping my toes into this series again.

More specifics about the story itself can be found in my Memories of Ice Readalong Updates.

★★★★☆ 

1. Memories of Ice (2008 & 2010 Reviews)
2. Gardens of the Moon (Book 1)
3. Deadhouse Gates (Book 2)