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The National
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The National
Project Hail Mary and six other audiobooks that are better than the originals
Not all books are meant to be read. Audiobooks, with authors or stars as narrators and high production values that include music and sound effects, have become more than mere vocal adaptations. They offer new ways of experiencing a story that are sometimes so effective that they surpass the original. Below are some of our favourite audiobooks, arranged alphabetically, and why we think they are better than the original. 1. Project Hail Mary: Written by Andy Weir, narrated by Ray Porter (2021) Project Hail Mary, the third novel from The Martian scribe Andy Weir, has shot to the top of the charts as of late, thanks to love from the BookTok community, its upcoming film adaptation starring Ryan Gosling and a rip-roaring audiobook read by voice actor Ray Porter (Zack Snyder's Justice League). If you've never listened to an audiobook, there are few better introductions to the format, as Porter brings warmth and humour to the story of a man who wakes up at the edges of space and slowly remembers he's there to save Earth when the sun mysteriously begins to die. And without giving anything away – it's best to go in cold (avoid the film trailer!) – sound becomes integral to the story. This one will hook you – and keep you guessing – until the very end. William Mullally, arts & culture editor 2. Dune: Written by Frank Herbert, full cast narration (2020) Dune, the seminal sci-fi novel by Frank Herbert, is set in a distant future where rival noble families battle for control of the desert planet Arrakis. First published in 1965, the novel is famously dense and considered challenging for new readers. The audiobook is narrated by a full cast including Scott Brick, Orlagh Cassidy, Euan Morton, Simon Vance and Ilyana Kadushin. The production includes atmospheric sound design – wind, echoes, ambient textures – that enhances immersion without overwhelming the narration. The shifts in voice and sound design help you move between scenes and storylines more clearly, making it easier to stay engaged and retain information. Fadah Jassem, head of data visualisation 3. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: Written by JK Rowling, narrated by Stephen Fry (1999) Like much of the world, when the first Harry Potter film came out, I rushed to read the books. I lugged Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone around London despite finding it hard to get into, but was assured by friends with small children (who were reading it on repeat at bedtimes) that it was worth persevering with and I would soon be captivated. So I struggled on, and even made it to halfway before I gave up, baffled by the storyline. I tried to connect with the film, but was also unmoved. Then, earlier this year while recovering from a migraine, I stumbled upon the audiobook version narrated by Stephen Fry. Locked in post-migraine misery, Fry's soft voice and the magical, wizardly story became my lullaby, softly carried me back to the world of the living and showed me why the world loves Harry Potter. But, despite having listened to it, I am still not ready to tackle the books. Sarah Maisey, deputy Luxury editor The voice of the maverick, iconoclastic science fiction writer Philip K Dick is difficult to capture. He's best known now for adaptations of his work – Blade Runner, Minority Report, Total Recall – but no reimagining has quite captured the totality of his genius. The closest anyone has got is Paul Giamatti 's 2006 reading of the 1977 novel A Scanner Darkly, a dark satire about a world controlled by an illicit substance shrouded in conspiracy. Giamatti was supposed to play Dick in a biopic. While that project never came to fruition, this audiobook proves that no one could play him better. It's funny, thought-provoking and morbidly comforting. William Mullally, arts & culture editor 5. Me: Written and narrated by Elton John, with Taron Egerton (2019) While the physical book was fun and zipped by, the audiobook version of Elton John's best-selling memoir felt like a fully fledged album. The format includes additional song snippets, used to explain the creative impulses behind tracks such Your Song and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Incorporating Elton John and actor Taron Egerton, who played him in the 2019 biopic Rocketman, also works. John reads the prologue and epilogue, and Taron the rest, showing the passing of age vocally and making the book feel richer and more immersive. Saeed Saeed, features writer 6. Pet Sematary: Written by Stephen King, narrated by Michael C Hall (2018) Who would have thought there was a way to make Stephen King's Pet Sematary even more creepy. In a brilliant reading by Dexter star Michael C Hall, the audiobook captures the enveloping dread and emotional weight of a story about Louis Creed, who moves with his family to rural Maine, where a nearby burial ground can bring the dead back to life. Hall's measured pacing, tonal shifts and ability to embody different characters make the listening experience immersive, adding a chilling layer that heightens King's already haunting narrative. Evelyn Lau, assistant features editor 7. Talking to Strangers: Written and narrated by Malcolm Gladwell (2019) Malcolm Gladwell 's Talking to Strangers is a more creative way of doing audiobooks and deals with how we miscommunicate with each other. In an era of social media and WhatsApp, when we're messaging constantly, we're not hearing the tone of individuals. That is one of the clinch points of the book: we are talking to each other without hearing tone and therefore we're not fully understanding each other. At the beginning of the audiobook, Gladwell uses sound bites from the people he has interviewed. This gives you an idea of how these people sound and how we often miscommunicate, which is the main point of the book.
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
I watched every Star Wars film ever made – here's what I learned
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. "What's that film that you love? The one about the space hairdresser and the cowboy? He's got a tin foil pal and a pedal bin. Lego. They're all made of Lego". Peter Capaldi, speaking as Malcom Tucker in the BBC's evergreen political satire The Thick of It, really did provide a perfect summary of what Star Wars is like to people who don't live and breathe that fabled galaxy far, far away. Star Wars is a baffling, often impenetrable behemoth, and that's even if you happen to love the material. Whether you're a philistine or an acolyte, it's a crazy cosmic world that George Lucas, with a little inspiration from Frank Herbert and Akira Kurosawa, has created. I'm somewhere in the middle. Like practically every human being raised outside of North Korea or the frozen Arctic wastes, Star Wars has always been there, as perennial and enduring as The Beatles, Coca-Cola and online cat memes. Now, if anything, it's stronger than ever thanks to backing from Disney and its small mountain of shiny simoleons. The problem is, I'm not sure I've ever quite 'got' it. Hence, my friend and I decided to run the full Star Wars gauntlet, to go from Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (already confusing, it's the fourth filmin the series) through to Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker, taking the occasional pitstop and detour at the shores of Rogue One and Solo: A Star Wars Story. Plan-akin Sykwalker To do so, I enlisted the help of the only friend I knew (he'll remain anonymous) would have the time, patience and desire to dedicate over 20 hours of his life to sitting through more than 10 instalments of Lucas' beloved franchise. That's a lot of time – thank goodness we didn't try to sit through the entire Clone Wars series while we were at it. Let's be clear: this isn't just about finding out whether the biggest movie franchise of all time was ever any good. When a media juggernaut gets this big, trying to assess its merits is like trying to tell people that the lettuce in a McDonald's burger isn't offsetting the potentially detrimental health effects. No one's ever avoided a Big Mac because of saturated fats, and no one's ever binned their Obi-Wan Kenobi robe or replica lightsaber because a movie critic said that George Lucas can't write good dialogue. The point, if there is one, is to see how well these movies hold up in an age of mega-money Marvel money-spinners and Christopher Nolan epics, and if they do hold up, how do we get the definitive galactic experience? Are the originals as exciting as I remember them being as a child and, if not, is it the fault of the movies, the setup or, quite possibly, with me? How are you holding up? When I was a nipper, my first exposure to the wacky world of Star Wars came courtesy of a 'Special Edition' boxset of the original trilogy, rendered lovingly in plastic via the magic of VHS, featuring some of the first major changes to the movies via Lucas' own in-house digital studio. This is the 21st century, of course, so we'd be watching the original and prequel instalments, as well as the subsequent sequel trilogy, in 4K resolution via Disney Plus. I had a couple of Blu-Ray discs for reference, even if getting the whole saga was a bit above my pay grade, and Disney's streaming service is probably the way most people will choose to go if they, like me, hold a relatively ambivalent viewpoint. In fairness, the older flicks don't hold up too badly. Famously, the Star Wars movies have been through endless retouches, remasters and rejigs, yet the editions that find themselves housed on Disney's dedicated platform are a long way from a disgrace. Watched side-by-side, the brighter, cleaner online version of Return of the Jedi is certainly a vast improvement on the grainy, slightly faded VHS version from the '90s. The ones that didn't need much of a clean-up are also in good nick. Even if you'll get a better experience via DVD or Blu-Ray and a dedicated player capable of doing them justice, the likes of Rogue One and the seventh, eighth and ninth 'Episodes' have enough visual 'pop' to be reasonably satisfying. Via the 55-inch LG C4 OLED tasked with completing our cosmic marathon, the climactic Battle of Scarif from Rogue One felt alive with colour, from shimmering blue waters contrasting with the near-white sands of the beaches of Scarif to the pops of smoky orange every time a spaceship met its end in the black of space, rarely did we feel as though we were being visually short-changed. Scenes from the classic trilogy, including the opening vistas of Luke mooching around his moisture farm on Tatooine or Princess Leia confronting Darth Vader on the Death Star, have clearly benefited from layers of digital tweaking and remastering. On Blu-Ray, meanwhile, they're another step up – the latter scene of Leia and Vader having a barney is far more alive with detail and colour, be it the more naturalistic lighting in the background or the different shades and hues across Carrie Fisher's face and hair. A 21st Century Digital ploy Clearly, then, the versions and platforms on which you choose to watch the films, especially the earlier ones, make a vast difference. While the quality across Disney Plus remains solid, you have to accept that these iterations are often plastered with many of the tweaks and amendments for which the Star Wars saga became so notorious. That has its benefits, but it also comes with some noticeable issues. The amount of obnoxious CGI that George Lucas has retroactively added across the various special editions, reissues and remasters renders some movies, or at least portions thereof, almost entirely unwatchable, even if you don't fully know or remember just what the originals looked like in the first place. This isn't just touch-ups of older scenes; rather, it's retroactive editions using anachronistic technologies. Return of the Jedi, which really is just a Jim Henson movie in space with a bigger budget, suffers particularly from sequences in which mid-2000s and early-2010s effects are crowbarred into a movie which first hit cinemas in 1983. The bit where a bunch of mutant space aliens break into an impromptu burlesque performance at the behest of dirty old Jabba the Hutt? It was bad when it was puppets, but janky CGI in a mostly practical '80s movie? Utterly unwatchable. All of this can, regardless of your system, make given moments feel utterly bizarre as older effects, many of which are often analogue or practical, collide with incongruous digital inserts. It can often feel as though you're watching various movies slammed together, like trying to enjoy an episode of Sesame Street directed by Michael Bay. Other elements of jiggery pokery fare much better, it has to be said. Upon commenting on just how impressive some of the shots of various imperial planets looked, not to mention the final "It's a Trap" space battle, my friend was kind enough to tell me that such sequences had indeed resulted from some much-needed technical wizardry. Those bits when they're all celebrating on Coruscant and Naboo at the end of the original trilogy and it's a perfectly rendered CGI cityscape? Yeah, they couldn't quite do that in 1983. Ok, I'll admit it, many of the tweaks to the original trilogy are not only welcome, but downright necessary. Watch the scene of Darth chatting away to Emperor Palpatine in The Empire Strikes Back and you'll see the benefit of a well-rendered retroactive fix. In the 1980 original, Palpatine looks like a cutscene from an unlicensed PlayStation 1 game. In the remaster, you don't have to squint to realise who's actually speaking (Gandalf, is that you?). You may have a great deal of affection for the true originals, yet is there anything wrong with going back and fixing things that you didn't, or couldn't, get right the first time? It's a (space) age thing This is all a bit telling. I've been told time and again that the reason Star Wars continues to be held in such esteem, especially from older generations who were there at the start, owes much to the technical marvel of a franchise pushing the boundaries of what was possible from a major cinematic series. This is a series relying heavily on its technical prowess – little wonder every effort has been made subsequently to keep them looking their best. No one had ever seen firefights in space before, never mind a little green alien with a funny voice jumping around like a wizened grasshopper. The point of the films wasn't to go heavy on great writing or dialogue, but to present a colossal cosmic canvas the likes of which few viewers in the 1970s could ever have imagined was even possible. So, were we simply doing the movies a disservice by not finding the best screen and system on which to enjoy them? The 55-inch LG and a pair of stereo-linked HomePod 2s did the job just fine, but when they're so reliant on special effects and communicating the scope of that intergalactic canvas, were we really doing them justice? For whatever reason, they were leaving us feeling just a little bit cold. That's no Vader watch a movie I think part of the problem is that, in the gap between being a kid in the early 2000s and an adult in the mid-2020s, a lot of progress has been made in terms of cinematic technical wizardry. Expectations for what a film can do, how it can look and even how it can sound have gone through the roof, meaning that looking back at more primitive work can render it somewhat uninspiring. Once you know what a film can look like, it's incredibly difficult to look back and be impressed by what essentially preceded it. CGI, as we all know, peaked in 2006 when Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest revealed Bill Nighy's Davy Jones to the world, a CGI masterpiece who, Josh Brolin's Thanos possibly notwithstanding, has never been topped. Your dad will still tell you, "Yes, but this was so impressive in 1979", but he's given the game away with that key qualifier. It's not 1979 anymore, and I can't convince my jaded brain that once-impressive effects haven't dated somewhat in the intervening years. Less of a problem for the newer instalments, but a hurdle the older classics must inevitably overcome for younger viewers who weren't there at the very start or who grew up with more impressive visual effects. Attack of the Groans So if you're not impressed by how the earlier Star Wars movies look and sound, what are you left with? You're left, inevitably, with all of the rough edges and bum notes, and that includes all of the grot that earlier audiences might have overlooked as their brains melted at the sight of zipping X-Wings and Boba Fett's wrist-mounted flamethrower. Without going full Mark Kermode, it's hard to ignore the glaring faults in a series that, at times, has felt beyond reproach. The whole franchise is one massive, flawed giant, so much so that it can be hard to know where to begin when listing the narrative faults that, once the technical spectacle wears off, begin to creep in. The dialogue, for instance, is frequently atrocious. There's a more naturalistic brio to the exchanges of the original trilogy, but even then, snappy dialogue was never Lucas' forte. By the time we arrive at the prequels, it's hard to fathom how some of the lines manage to get past a mere table read, let alone cement themselves in the final script. "I hate sand". Shocking. "From my perspective, the Jedi are evil". Unfathomable. Everything Jar Jar Binks ever, ever says. Unbearable. Then there's the plotting. If the first two films feel like they're moving snappily towards some kind of overarching conclusion, the near-hateful Return of the Jedi is a bizarre misfire which spends all of its time languishing on the planet of the giant teddy bears. I'm sorry, I don't buy the fact that the all-consuming Galactic Empire, with all of its might and resources, was felled by some blokes in furry bear suits wielding wooden clubs in what looks like the back-end of a Center Parcs resort. The first prequel, which is supposed to introduce us to the young Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader, feels like an elongated Futurama episode. Pod-racing? An hour in and we're pod racing? How does this get us closer to explaining the origins of the most iconic villain of all time? Don't look on the Dark Side For all of my apparent negativity, I completely understand why Star Wars has resonated, and continues to resonate, with such a wide-reaching and devoted fanbase. When it first appeared, audiences simply had never experienced something so visually spectacular and boundary-pushing before, and those impressions are bound to remain powerfully formative no matter what you experience in the following years. Obviously, though, there's more to it. What Lucas and others have done, with more than a little help from various cinematic and sci-fi influences, is to create a world that seems to run parallel to our own, one to which viewers can continually escape when our own seems a little too much, or indeed, not enough. They're movies which, thanks to their carefully curated aesthetic and broad moral themes, bypass most of your critical faculties and plug into that part of your brain that responds to the joy of pure spectacle. That, surely, was never more true than when they were first unveiled in the 1970s. Think of the iconic white Stormtrooper armour, or Darth Vader's helmet, or the different-coloured lightsabers, or X-Wings, or the Millennium Falcon, or Yoda's ears, or the Death Star, or those blaster noises. There's some substance to be found in Anakin's turn to the Dark Side or when clunky parallels are drawn with the Roman Empire, but this is style first and substance second, and there's little wrong with that if you're in the right place at the right time with the right setup. Hence, the movies work so well on a system or format that can do them justice. It's no surprise that one of the movies I enjoyed the most – The Force Awakens – was first experienced at a cinema. I imagine it was the same for most of the older generations who first glimpsed the twin suns of Tatooine at their local multiplex. A VHS copy of Return of the Jedi, with its mediocre picture and sound, was never going to set the soul alight. Watching Rogue One, by way of a comparison, on a 50-inch Samsung QN90A, was a far more satisfying experience. As I said before, you don't watch these movies for the dialogue, you watch them for the spectacle. Quite appropriately for our celebration of Home Cinema Week, the whole experiment has demonstrated that it's everything around it, not just the movie itself, that can make or break your viewing experience. Nowhere is that more true than when it comes to Star Wars. MORE: My local cinema recently closed down – now I really wish I'd visited it more often I watched Dune: Part Two in a virtual reality cinema, and it rekindled my love for the silver screen Read our KEF XIO review Solve the daily Crossword
Geek Culture
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Culture
'Dune: Part 3' Revealed As Official Title, Won't Be Shot Fully On IMAX Cameras
It's messiah no more, as the official name for the forthcoming Dune threequel has been revealed. To nobody's surprise, it will be called Dune: Part 3 , replacing the previously thought title of Dune: Messiah , after the second novel in Frank Herbert's beloved sci-fi series. The film is also set to feature sequences shot on IMAX cameras, but not to the same extent as Christopher Nolan's big-screen adaptation of literary classic The Odyssey , which marks the first and so far only movie to be entirely filmed with IMAX cameras. As announced on X/Twitter, production on the trilogy-capper has begun, with a first-look image showing off the vast expanse of Arrakis. While story details remain under wraps, Dune: Part 3 is expected to adapt the second book and explore Paul Atreides' rise to power. Little Women star Timothée Chalamet plays the character in the Denis Villeneuve-directed movies, alongside Florence Pugh ( Little Women , Black Widow ) as Princess Irulan, and Zendaya ( Euphoria , Spider-Man: Far from Home ) as Chani. The Batman 's Robert Pattinson is also rumoured to join the cast in an unspecified role, with Jason Momoa, who was absent in 2024's Dune: Part 2 , reprising his role as Paul's trusted aide Duncan Idaho. Villeneuve will return as director, while renowned composer Hans Zimmer has already made headway with scoring for the threequel, slated for release on 18 December 2026. It likely serves as the filmmaker's final send-off to the franchise before he starts work on reviving James Bond under the Amazon MGM Studios banner. The Dune universe continues to enjoy strong audience interest, cementing its place as a cult classic. A second season of HBO's Dune: Prophecy spin-off is currently in the works, and Funcom's Dune: Awakening MMO made history as the developer's fastest-selling game with over one million copies sold in two weeks. Dune: Part 3 opens in theatres on 18 December 2026. Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth's theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia's greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
News18
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- News18
Denis Villeneuve's Return To Arrakis Gets Official Title, Dune: Part Three
Last Updated: Denis Villeneuve is working on his return to Arrakis which is reported to be an adaptation of Dune: Messiah. After earning $700 million at the worldwide box office along with critical acclaim, Dune: Part Two was one of the biggest and most successful movies of 2024. Both Dune and Dune: Part Two were adapted from Frank Herbert's first novel, Dune. Now, Denis Villeneuve is working on his return to Arrakis which is reported to be an adaptation of Dune: Messiah. It is officially titled Dune: Part Three, as listed in Rentrack. According to Variety, some of the sequences in Dune: Part Three will be shot with IMAX cameras. However, it will not be entirely shot with IMAX cameras, just like Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. FYI, Nolan's film was the first and so far only film to be filmed that way. Talking to CNBC, Imax CEO Richard Gelfond was earlier asked whether Amazon MGM Studios hired Denis Villeneuve to direct their reboot of the James Bond franchise. While answering, he also opened up about the director's plans for Dune: Part Three at Warner Bros and Legendary Entertainment. He said, 'From a personal point of view, I was really happy. I like him. I think he's a genius filmmaker." Further, he added, 'He's so creative. He's making the next 'Dune' — with Imax cameras, he's filming the whole thing. So we haven't started talking yet, but I'm praying that that's the case with Bond." Dune: Part Three is set to go on floors soon, with Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya returning to reprise their roles. Along with them, Jason Momoa has also confirmed to be returning for Part Three. Momoa was a part of the cast in the first Dune but was not featured in Part Two. The much-awaited installment is expected to release in December 2026. Shortly after Dune: Part Two's release, Denis Villeneuve sat down for a chat with The Wrap and shared that he is grateful to have worked on the Dune movies but also eager to return to Arrakis. In an interesting revelation, he also said that Dune: Part Three will not be the conclusion of a trilogy, but rather an adaptation of the second novel in a long series of books. First Published: Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
The Independent
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Dune 3 release date has been unveiled – here's how to read the books in order
The third instalment of Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune book series has officially got a title, and fans and critics alike have some questions about the choice. For the uninitiated, the first two Dune films are based on the first novel in Herbert's seminal sci-fi series of the same name. It has, until now, been expected that the third instalment would be based on Herbert's next novel in the series, Dune Messiah. But owing to the fact that the movie will not share the same name, fans have questioned whether it will draw on the novel at all or if it'll be an adaptation of the third book, Children of Dune. Titled Dune: Part 3 and reportedly in production already, it's expected that Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya will reprise their leading roles. With a scheduled release date of 16 December 2026, we've got a while to wait. But luckily, if the anticipation is getting too much, you can kickstart your Dune reading voyage. With 23 titles to get your teeth stuck into, there are a few ways you can tackle it – and we're here to help. Firstly, you could choose to read the books in the order that they were published, or you could pick them up in chronological order. And, of course, you can also just read the first book as a standalone and stop there, if you wish. Published in August 1965, the first book in the Dune series introduces us to Arrakis, an inhospitable desert planet. Here, rival factions are vying for a precious, psychedelic drug called 'spice' – created by enormous sandworms, this coveted substance can extend human life and enhance consciousness. Expect to explore themes of religion, technology, and our relationship with our environment in this seminal sci-fi tome. 'Dune Messiah' by Frank Herbert, published by Hodder Paperbacks: £8.97, The second book of Herbert's Dune saga, Dune Messiah, was published in 1969. Following the conflict in the first book, House Harkonnen has been defeated, and Paul Atreides – now named Muad'Dib – is the immensely powerful emperor of planet Arrakis. But with unrest still raging across the universe, he must deal with the threat of being dethroned, and hopes to lead mankind to a future less doomed. This is the title that the third film is expected to be based on. 'Children of Dune' by Frank Herbert, published by Gollancz, £7.40, The third book of the series is Children of Dune, published in April 1976. It's nearly a decade since Paul Atreides has vanished, lost to the barren Arrakis deserts, with no reason. His two children, twin siblings Leto and Ghanima Atreides, are able to foretell events. This is a prophetic skill which their aunt Alia, the new ruler of the empire, hopes will help her to hold down her reign, while she faces uprisings and treason, and a revolt, led by a mystifying figure, 'The Preacher'. 'God Emperor of Dune' by Frank Herbert, published by Gollancz: £7.45, Herbert's sci-fi epic continues with God Emperor of Dune, the fourth book of the series, published five years after Children of Dune, in 1981. We're now thousands of years on, in the wake of the happenings of Children of Dune. Paul Muad'Dib's son Leto, the God Emperor of Dune, is now almost immortal, but at the cost of his human morality. In a bid to preserve the human species, which he knows to be doomed unless they follow his plan, 'The Golden Path', he becomes a tyrannical ruler, and an uprising ensues. The plot explores themes of politics, total power and the human condition. 'Heretics of Dune' by Frank Herbert, published by Gollancz: £7.78, Published in 1984, the penultimate book in Herbert's six-book original Dune series is Heretics of Dune. Hundreds of years on from the previous book's events, planet Arrakis (which is now called Raki) is thriving no longer, now barren and desolate once again. Many people left as civilisation collapsed, but now, they're back, fighting for whatever is left. Featuring a supernatural sisterhood called the Bene Gesserit, and a girl named Sheeana, who can control Arrakis's sandworms, the book touches on religious themes. 'Chapterhouse: Dune' by Frank Herbert, published by Gollancz: £6.82, That brings us to the final novel in Frank Herbert's six-book series, Chapterhouse: Dune, which was published in March 1985. Arrakis lies in ruin, and a violent matriarchal cult called Honored Matres has been chasing supreme power, conquering every planet and faction to get it. The novel's name refers to the planet Chapterhouse, a secret base for the mystical sisterhood Bene Gisserit, as the group won't be giving up so easily, with the spice-producing sandworms at their disposal. How to read the Dune series in order of publication: Dune (1965) Dune Messiah (1969) Children of Dune (1976) God Emperor of Dune (1981) Heretics of Dune (1984) Chapterhouse: Dune (1985) House Atreides (1999) House Harkonnen (2000) House Corrino (2001) The Butlerian Jihad (2002) The Machine Crusade (2003) The Battle of Corrin (2004) Hunters of Dune (2006) Sandworms of Dune (2007) Paul of Dune (2008) The Winds of Dune (2009) Sisterhood of Dune (2011) Mentats of Dune (2014) Navigators of Dune (2016) The Duke of Caladan (2020) The Lady of Caladan (2021) The Heir of Caladan (2022) Princess of Dune (2023) How to read the Dune series in chronological order: The Butlerian Jihad (2002) The Machine Crusade (2003) The Battle of Corrin (2004) Sisterhood of Dune (2011) Mentats of Dune (2014) Navigators of Dune (2016) House Atreides (1999) House Harkonnen (2000) House Corrino (2001) Princess of Dune (2023) The Duke of Caladan (2020) The Lady of Caladan (2021) The Heir of Caladan (2022) Dune (1965) Paul of Dune (2008) Dune Messiah (1969) The Winds of Dune (2009) Children of Dune (1976) God Emperor of Dune (1981) Heretics of Dune (1984) Chapterhouse: Dune (1985) Hunters of Dune (2006) Sandworms of Dune (2007)
