Chapterhouse is the sixth and final book of the Dune series. Rakis has been left a burning cinder and Teg is dead. The Honored Maters are destroying every Bene Gesserit planet in their path. Odrade has been made Mother Superior and now must decide how to save the sisterhood and what’s left of mankind.
The outlook for humanity looks pretty bleak during this story. Duncan was supposed to have been bonded to Sheana, but a latent sexual ability left him bonded with Murbella, an Honored Mater who was captured on Gammu. They’re imprisoned on a No ship so the enemy can’t sense them. They inhabit the No ship along with the last surviving Tleilaxu master, Scytail.
Duncan had his memories restored, but not just from before he was killed by the Harkonens, but from all of his former Ghola lives. The Tleilaxu had manufactured him to have the same sexual powers as an Honored Mater. This was something the Maters hadn’t counted on and Murbella is attached to Duncan the same way the Maters attach men to themselves; they’re addicted to each other.
Odrade has spent the past 10 years or so letting the new Ghola Teg grow up. Things grow more dire, and they end up having to restore his memories a lot sooner than they had wanted to. The need to take the fight to the Honored Maters on Junction before it’s too late.
In the meantime, they had saved a sand worm from Dune just before it was destoryed, it split into sand trout which were released on Chapterhouse to begin the long transformation from a mild, lush climate to moistureless desert. Sheana’s job is to monitor the transformation to ensure the sisterhood has a lifetime supply of spice going forward.
The sisterhood is hanging on by a thread because the Honored Maters have been systematically wiping out all of their planets. In the end, Odrade takes a gamble and tries to wipe out the Honored Maters on Junction. Unknown to the sisterhood, they have a bloodless weapon that can instantly kill people where they stand. Odrade is killed and Murbella has to stitch the Bene Gesserit and Honored Mater societies together for the sake of humankind.
The ending was a little bit of a letdown as Duncan and a revanent of the sisterhood scatter in the No ship. It seems that Face Dancers far in the future were pulling the strings all along. That’s the way the story ends. Frank Herbert’s son, Bryan, has written more Dune stories, but they are not considered canon.
