The final installment of the “Dune: House Trilogy”, this offering rounds it out acceptably and *does* tie up many loose ends that had been created by the previous two books. However I found the final third of the book to be a rush of bring-up-issue, resolve, repeat.
Also disappointing is that the richness of the characters was neither exploited nor acknowledged. Characters folded into single dimensional entities that acted and re-acted to situations in a way that was simply expedient to move the story along to its conclusion rather than with the greater depth and complexity that Dune readers would expect.
If you have read the preceeding two books of this trilogy then you’ll definitely want to read this book to wrap up the series. I would not recommend this as a standalone read, but as a cap it is quite adequate. If you’re a die-hard Dune fan, then I expect you’ll still enjoy this prequel that leads directly to the original “Dune” book. Personally I found the “Legends of Dune” trilogy vastly more epic and entertaining than the “House Trilogy”.
My recommendation? Read Dune first, then any of the other post-Dune books, *then* “Legends of Dune”. Only read the “House Trilogy” if you find you are so “Dune” mad that you begin suffering withdrawal without some kind of Dune fix. 🙂