Yes, the exclamation marks are needed, this is after all the 'final' book of the Dune series.
And I have to admit that I liked it, perhaps if someone else had written it, it might have been better but who knows?
After the rather abominable "Legends of Dune" trilogy, my hopes were very low to say the least. But all in all they didn't do all that bad, sure there were three Deus ex Machina's when Omnus was just plucked out of existence by an all powerful Oracle of Time (and why on earth didn't she do this before? No, just wait till trillions of people are dead why don't you?), the Face Dancers were just eliminated by one switch (now that one was even cheaper than Omnus, the ultimate and highly intelligent threat just gone in a second, it would seem the authors like doing things that way) and there was one other I thought but can't seem to recall. (oh yeah, Paul magically sucks back the blood he lost after being stabbed in the heart, I always thought that kills in seconds really)
This ofcourse would raise the question just what exactly I liked about the books then, well that's actually a very good question. I guess it's more a return to the characters from book 6, after having to read the two older trilogies finally something they just can't pull out of a hat.
It made me wonder just how much Frank Herbert ideas were in the final two books though, but the books do seem to fit a bit after parts 5 and 6. Which were rather different than the first four, fast paced and more action than words and thoughts on religion and politics. Brian and Kevin simply continued that way, making the final two books lack a bit of depth, along with the characters.
Surprising really, as a large part of the cast were old characters. Bringing back the cast from the first 6 books wasn't that bad, but it made for predictable reading. Realising that the confrontation between all the cast would take place in a very short part of the book, it actually reminded me a bit of the final Harry Potter, yes blasphemy to refer to that book whilst debating a Herbert science fiction book but I can't help it, it should have been more. Too smooth and too easy, it didn't feel like the deciding chapter of about 20.000 years of war and Kralizec. I blame the writers for that though, the ingredients were there but the result didn't take well.
There was something in the final book that made me read it in one large sitting. Hasn't happened to me in a while now. For that alone I do thank Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson for writing the books.
Now I only hope they don't ruin the actual series by adding too much of "between" tales, like "Paul of Dune". Perhaps the smell of easy money will lead to some good books?