| Author: | Frank Herbert |
| Copyright: | 1984 |
| Date Reviewed: | 4/11/86 |
| Rating: | 5.0 |
Synopsis: On the planet Rakis, formerly named Arrakis, a child is born who has the power to control the worms. She is a descendent, 1500 years removed, from Siona, the Atreides who plotted the death of the God Emperor Leto II. On the planet Gammu, once the Harkonnen home world Geidi Prime, another Duncan Idaho ghola is being trained by the Bene Gesserit for some purpose. There are plots within plots. After the fall (no pun intended) of Leto II, most of the population of the Old Empire went further out into the galaxy. The remnant of the Old Empire was left to stagnate. In the last hundred years some of the people of the scattering have begun to return. Some of these are Tleilaxu who tell their cousins of the immense power that the Honored Matres have over men. The Honored Matres are like Bene Gesserit, probably started from the same seed, but they are pure evil.
Taraza, the Revered Mother Superior of the Bene Gesserit is plotting a deadly plan that not all the council members are in favor of. Very few members know the full details of the plan but it has been in preparation for a thousand years (like most of what the Bene Gesserit do). The plan is to train the ghola and then take him to Rakis for some purpose. Many believe the purpose is to mate with Sheeana, the girl who controls the worms, but that is only a small part it. Those against the plan fear that another Kwisatz Haderach could be created and no one wants to unleash that kind of power on the universe ever again.
The Tleilaxu meanwhile have their own plans and secrets that they hope will culminate in their dominating the Empire. These little men (no one has ever seen a Tleilaxu woman) appear stupid but that is only a pretence to hide their capabilities. They are a religious folk whose theologies date back to the pre-fremen Zensunni and Islamic tribes. The axlotl tanks do not really exist. Grotesque spice-saturated Tleilaxu women with wires and tubes hanging out of their bodies give birth to the Face Dancers and ghola to perfect specifications. The ruling class of the Tleilaxu is old. Through the use of ghola clones, they have existed for thousands of years. Scytale, one of the youngest, was once involved in a plot to kill Maud'dib.
For centuries the Tleilaxu have delivered gholas to the Bene Gesserit and then had them assassinated. They tampered with the current Duncan giving him advanced human powers that were not available 5,000 years ago when the original model was born. They tampered with him in some other way the Bene Gesserit is not aware of.
Just as plans are being readied to transfer Duncan to Rakis, the Honored Matres attack the Gammu hold. Duncan, his teacher Miles Teg and a Bene Gesserit imprintor Lucilla are forced to flee. They make it to an old Harkonnen no-Globe (which was not supposed to have been invented in the time of the Harkonnens) where Duncan's training is completed. Before Lucilla can do her imprinting, Teg brings out the pre-ghola memories in the boy.
The three are rescued by Berzmali, Teg's successor as Bashar, but the enemy is everywhere. Teg is captured and tortured but the pain brings out a new double vision and incredible speed and power. Teg is a Mentat and an Atreides (from Ghanima's side) so no doubt his double vision is a rudimentary prescience. Escape becomes easy for Teg. He escapes his three torturers, is captured by an Honored Matre and escapes a fortified building killing 50 armed men with his bare hands.
When Duncan is captured, we find out the true power of the Honored Matres. Using sex as a weapon, far more capably than the Bene Gesserit ever could, they can control any man. Duncan is raped by an Honored Matre but then begins to respond and control her. This is the power that the Tleilaxu have bred into the ghola and it makes him a weapon more deadly than any imaginable to the Honored Matres.
Duncan escapes to Rakis but never makes it to the surface. Sheeana, on her way to becoming a Reverend Mother, coaxes a worm into the hold of the no-ship Duncan is on and all the parties still alive head back to Chapter House. Since the Honored Matres think Duncan is either on Gammu or Rakis, they utterly destroy both planets. This was the plan all along. To get out from under Leto's Golden Rule, which is stagnating the Empire, Rakis must be destroyed. Leto's consciousness is still trapped in the worms and their secret language is controlling the Empire. By the time Chapter House is transformed into a desert planet and the worms multiply again, they will no longer have any power over humanity. And the Bene Gesserit will have a supply of spice, although its deflated value, now that the Tleilaxu can manufacture the drug, will not make them wealthy.
Sheeana is given the freedom to join the Bene Gesserit but Duncan must always be confined to a no-ship where his presence in the universe can not be detected by the Honored Matres. They must believe he is dead.
Review: "Heretics of Dune" matched the pattern of the last three Dune books: too long and too boring. As with the others, this one was very interesting for the first hundred pages while the plot line was set up and the characters were being introduced. As with the fourth book, I could not put it down. Then the plot is forgotten. From the beginning we know that it is important to get Duncan to Rakis but that only happens in the last 20 pages. There is no build up of plot or suspense. Most of the book is about the escapades of Duncan and Teg outwitting their pursuers and sometimes being caught by them. The ending came much to quick. Duncan and Teg are still separate when all of a sudden they are joined on Rakis. Pages later the true plot is revealed and the book is ended.
In some ways this book reminded me of "Robots of Dawn" by Isaac Asimov to which I also gave a low rating. In that book, the detective goes around collecting clues for 400 hundred pages and only in the last two chapters does the truth come in from left field. While it was an interesting ending as in this novel, the rest of the plot did not lead up to it. Also, I could not quite believe the power the Honored Matres had over men. Sexual intercourse takes too long and there is too much involved. Where as the Voice can be used to control many people at one time in a few seconds, sex can only control one person and takes several minutes (or hours depending on how good the Honored Matre is).