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68 of 81 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
series continues downward spiral, November 1, 2004
One steps into this series not expecting the achievement of Dune, an unfairly high standard, but a good read with maybe some flashes of Dune's complexity of character, plot, and philosophy. The first book of this trilogy, the Butlerian Jihad, failed in the latter two areas but the plot was a good enough read to overcome those flaws. The second book was a step backward, with the same weak characterization, but this time not balanced by a strongly told story. The Battle of Corrin, unfortunately, continues the downward trend. As in the other books, characterization is almost uniformly shallow, which is tough to do since some of these characters we've seen over the course of several long books now. Those characters we've seen in prior books don't seem to have developed much and the new characters are mostly two-dimensional. The plot is weak, mostly an episodic narrative of battles among the three major groups at war (the humans, the cymeks, the robots). The weakness of the plot is exacerbated by the "been there, done that" sense of repetition. It seems the three books could easily have been combined into two, making for a more streamlined, less repetitive narrative. Not everything needs to be a trilogy (Tolkien be damned). Another flaw affecting involving both plot and character is that too many actions seem arbitrary or contrived, done more for a plotline than developing out of character. Some, in fact, seem wholly out of character or simply unbelievable. Finally, whereas the first book mostly avoided the prequel problem of rote action meant to connect the dots of later books, this one is rolling in it, filled with awkwardly introduced or clumsily handled events/phrases written in so the reader can go "ahh, so that's why they call them xxxxxxxx in Dune". Admittedly, it's a tough problem to overcome for any prequel, but seldom have I seen it so poorly handled. If this were book one I'd definitely recommend against starting the trilogy. But chances are, if you've reached Battle of Corrin, you're going to read it no matter what just to finish the series and see those connections to later Dune books. So all I can say is don't expect much, don't feel bad about skimming, and have a good book set aside to dive into when you're done; you're going to want to recapture a good read quickly.
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41 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not as Good as Previous Novels, September 19, 2004
Where others have attacked this series of books for not living up to the original Dune, I've tried to give them the benefit of the doubt. Sure, they don't compare with Frank Herberet's masterpiece, but then I never expected them to. On their own, the first two novels were good "Star Wars"-style space opera; however, this book was just not as good. It was almost as if the authors wanted to get the series done and over with so they could move on to other ideas. I think it also lacks in continuity between the other novels. The first two books featured the same characters and followed within several years of the Jihad timeline. This book jumps ahead several decades and introduces and entirely new cast of characters, with the exception of Vorien Atreides who survives because he received life extending treatments from his father. Near the end, the book seems rushed and falls flat. What started out as an OK continuation of the Dune saga fell flat with this novel.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The Power of Proofreading, November 28, 2005
Like so many others, I did not expect this series to equal or surpass the original Dune series. I have been quite pleased with this series until now, enjoying the opportunity to view the world of Dune from a new perspective. Watching Herbert's universe take shape has actually been quite entertaining. This particular book, however, falls short. The writing feels forced and rushed, the dialog completely inane, the characters stripped of any complexity. The villians are stupid and easily manipulated. The characters make rash decisions with vast, universe-shattering consequences but do not even pause to do a bit of soul-searching for the benefit of the by now befuddled reader. The sentences are often redundant and obviously barely edited, if at all. The book is readable, but the poor writing intrudes constantly. If you're a follower of the series, you might rent it from the library to find out how the conflict ends, but I'm not sure it's worth the 7.99. (To add insult to injury, my copy, at least, is poorly printed.)
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