There are a few things this book did right, and I won't say you get sucked into the worldbuilding and universe (luckily), but there were so many issues as well.

Namely, good God is this book pretentious. The series is as well, let's be honest and I don't think it's a surprise to anyone, but it usually has enough stuff: actions, tensions, intrigues, etc., to balance it so it doesn't just feel like people sniffing their own fart for too long. And boy does this book is long. Sure, there are a lot of pages, but a good book should feel long. Once you're out of the tigers attack, the enjoyment has mostly left the building, and everything is dragged out (except the ending conflict, but I have other issue with that). I get that scifi and existential reflection or philosophy or wtv are closely linked, but at some point, this felt like the characters(/author?) were mainly just yapping and having long-winded intellectual masturbatory monologues in their head or at each other. There was some kind of proselytizing vibe to it all, and if anything, that is NOT the vibe ™ 

I knew there was going to be some sexism. Dune is a product of its time, but also it was never unproblematic. That being said, at some point, I'm going to try to find an article or a study about how many times women are portrayed as cunning-dangerous or some kind of potentially malicious being (when they're not just fukin kinda stupid-ish and/or more prone/fragile to becoming evil, if not straight up evil) instead of the many misunderstood geniuses, unknowing prodigies or intuitive and capable brutes of the series. It is kinda so funny to me that this series is build around the Messiah trope and everything, yet it doesn't subvert it that much. It does dance and battle with the trope, sure, and it's not copy-pasting it, but sometimes, I do feel like it gets lost in its own sauce. Anyway, regarding the oppressive issues, I guess at the very least, the queer and fat people have been left alone in this one.

Now, when you add to that the few pages at the end where the author talks about writting the books, and put it next to last book's intro from Frank Hebert's son (I'll never forget this level of clownery), I have to say I think both of them are cringe and weird. We'll see if I still read what they write in the other books of the series or if I can look away instead of being morbidly curious.

Last thing, the ending conflict was a bit boring. The issue I had with it is that, usually, you'd expect a cool showdown, an over the top fight, a conveluded "feint within a feint within a feint", some kind of explosive stuff. I would have been fine with a subdued Poirot-like "ah-ha" moment as well tbh. But it was a bit... too easy? There is a fight, kind of an echo from the first book ending, but the tension isn't there. There's no wondering if things will turn out fine, no space for doubt that would keep things interesting. The die had been cast a bunch of chapters beforehand, and the result are already in. The main enjoyment was the pathos in Alia's situation + her mother's reaction. But that stuff has already been hammered in a few times before, so it felt kinda flat.

Now, if the book has that many problem, other than the universe being what it is, why did I give it a 3 still? Mainly because the first few chapters were amazing. The showdown between Alia and Lady Jessica was absolutely my shit. The tigers conspiracy was also very good, including how the "behind the scene" stuff from the conspirators (knowing and unknowing). I'd even say there are a few chapters after the attack that were good as well, like the whole interogating scene on Salusa Secundus, with the wires. What the book did good, it did great, and I cannot disregard that. I just wish it would have kept at it a little more, keeping this kind of treasonous tension up high instead of giving it to smaller player doing their master's bidding. The level of danger got affected by that choice. And hey, I understand it cannot always be high-stakes all the time, but I'm pretty sure Leto's PoV could have been cut in half without losing that much of the plot.

So yeah, I'm at the point where I'm going to read the next book in 2025, but if it drops lower than a 3, I might reconsider finishing the series.