Customer Reviews

Legends of Dune Trilogy [Box Set] - (The Butlerian Jihad/The Machine Crusade/The Battle of Corrin)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I can't recommend this trilogy for anyone other than the die-hard fans that wants a (possible and ultimately not very satisfying) backstory to the original series. Brian Herbert is not his father as a novelist, as represented by this work. It was almost a chore, drudging through page after page of mediocre prose, searching for a few choice nuggets.

Meh, so so.

Brian is clearly not nearly the writer his father was, (seems to always be the case when two writers collaborate, doubly so when one of the writers is the son.) and some of the names/concepts/plot lines are totally ridiculous. "Omnious Prime" - Seriously? (I thought he was a transformer?) But it gets better; He controls multiple planets and the way he keps all his brains synchronized is to send a ship around to each planet and have it update and be updated.

Just the one ship.

Just the one single ship that the enemy, (us humans) could maybe intercept and load with a virus? I mean I don't wanna wreck the plot but really? that's the plot? Still, it's nice to get the back story and know the whys and wherefores behind that Jihad and why there are no computers in Dune.

The major problem I had with this though is that I constantly felt as if they kept rehashing and stretching the book out. It's as if they where getting paid by the word. Perhaps if because the original books where so thick, these should be thick too, and just like the student that double spaces their essay, it doesn't really work . Instead it drones on and on. Their editor should have paired it right back and it would have made for a less painful read.

In the end I liked the closure and history these books provided - but these, and the Houses of Dune series little more than the Scifi equivalent of a beach book. Also these prequels help set up the final ending books of the original Dune saga that where never finished because of Frank Herbert's death.

My advice; buy them used or listen to the books on CD.

This trilogy is a better read than the two horrid books that the Hacks Twain wrote for Dune 7. Despite that, this trilogy contains a good amount of retcons from the original Dune Novels and the Encyclopedia.

Here in this trilogy, the foundation of the Bene Gesserit School of Thought and the Suk Medical school doesn't quite work. If the Sorceresses of Rossak valued psychic powers so highly, you'd have thought that the BG of Dune and afterwards would have telekinetic ability passed down through at least some of their bloodlines. Franky, Brian and Kevin's version of the origins of the BG just did the BG no justice at all.

The Titans were an unnecessary addition to the Butlerian Jihad saga. One would think that people would still become cymeks after this, since they don't count as AI. There are other inconsistencies between the Butlerian Jihad trilogy and Frank Herbert's Dune books. The only thing that really worked for me was what the Tleilaxu did, and how that gained them a poor reputation among the other races.

The Arrakis-centered storyline also didn't swing for me. Too much was put in personal drama, and not enough about spice. The entire storyline did not feel well-thought out to me.

What bothered me most about the trilogy was the character of Serena Butler. Canonically, this character should be named Jehanne. What is wrong with Serena is that she carries the traits of a Mary-Sue... just about one of the worst things you can do in fanfiction. That's right, FANfiction. This trilogy, along with the other Dune books that Brian and Kevin wrote are all fanfiction and should not be regarded as any higher. I mean, come on. Beautiful? Purple eyes? Young and intelligent? Talented? Serena has all of these traits, and later on she suffers a horrible loss and becomes a martyr and everyone mourns for her, just like how crappy fanfiction authors write their Mary Sues. (even the name Serena is typical of a Sue!)

Don't even get me started on Norma Cenva (a character with a lot of potential who ended up being mangled by Brian and Kevin) and Aurelius Venport. (In God Emperor of Dune, Leto mentioned Norma and Aurelius, but what the God Emperor reveals about them is considerably different than the one presented here in the BJ trilogy) More hogwash. And the whole Butler family sidestory was another huge and unneccessary side-addition to this story.

Frank Herbert could have written about the entire Jihad in ONE book. Maybe two, if Frank had a lot of ideas. But whatever he would have done, it would have been a thousand times better than what his son and supposed number one fan have written together, or will ever.

horrible, just horrible. Frank Herbert's son is simply milking his father's work for the money, not producing a great piece of science fiction. I don't mind at all that he's fleshing out the backstory to Frank Herbert's original works, in fact it's great that there is now a backstory to the fantastical world created in Dune. But the quality is far from there. The originals plunged you immediately into a world which truly existed. Brian's books are a run of the mill story, coddling the reader along every step of the way, explaining within the book what a word means. One of the greatest things about the original dune was that if you didn't know what a word meant, there was a dictionary in the back, if you needed to know the meaning of something you looked it up; it wasn't pasted in the middle of the book for the reader. The first three here, honestly weren't that bad. However you can feel the creative juices dwindled as you progress through these books and onward through the rest of the "prequels." At the simplest, the books have been dumbed down as to make them more accessible to a wider audience, but at the same time made the series lose that which made them great.

I seem to be in a minority here, but actually I enjoyed these (listening to them on audio). The original Frank Herbert books I really struggled with, trying to understand the slow, intricate interweaving of the plots. Some of them \i got to the end thinking, what was that all about? These ones by contrast are just straight simple narrative entertainment. If that's what you like (like me) then you can go for these.

When I first heard that Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson were writing "prequel" books to Dune, supposedly using Frank Herbert's notes, I admit I was excited. I thought about the works that J.R.R. Tolkien's son had finished and published after his father's death, and was looking forward to books that, though not as good as the original works, would answer questions about parts of the back-story, and be thoroughly enjoyable.

Was I ever disappointed.

After reading the first book, I was trying to keep a positive view, despite the flaws in writing and the sci-fi clichés. This attitude was harder to keep up after the second book, and I only finished the third because I am stubborn about finishing books.

The original "Dune" had a complex galactic civilization, with institutions and societies that each are implied to have their own history (it's implied that other schools for "true humans" existed, but that by the events of "Dune" only the Bene Gesserit and the Spacing Guild still exist). Here, all the major institutions - the Spacing Guild, the Bene Gesserit, the Suk doctors, the Mentats, the changes in religion to prohibit Thinking Machines, the Fremen, not to mention House Atreides and House Harkonnen - all emerge from this time and continue unchanged for 10,000 years. No other schools emerge or are discussed.

The major flaw faced in the third book is that Frank Herbert had already supplied an ending - the Battle of Corrin results in a victory for the League, and afterwards an Atreides has a Harkonnen banished for cowardice during the battle. This exhibits a large flaw in characterization. The Atreides in question has been very close to the Harkonnen in question, who has been a good officer to this point (if a little hard-headed). In the final battle, he violates direct orders and sabotages a battle plan, even if it was for a good reason. Atreides takes a nasty turn, and in a particularly nasty turn has Harkonnen banished for cowardice (a trait that he had to know was not present). Bad characterization isn't only present in this book, even if it is one of the most blatant examples. In the first, a slave on machine-controlled Earth is idealistic and clever. By the second book, his idealism has completely vanished and the character has become self-serving, power-hungry and utterly unsympathetic with no explanation.

In conclusion, what could have been an entertaining look at the back-story of Dune was instead a series that was poorly written and developed. My final recommendation is to avoid it.

Really enjoying these prequels. Don't listen to the negative reviews, this is a great series. Have not read Frank yet. Going through the series from first to last. I hope Frank is as good as his son. Could Brian and Kevin be better than the master himself? I think they both will compliment each other well. Gonna read them all, I think 16 of them. Have fun with this series to the max! Peace, donald

This trilogy set in Frank Herbert's world of Dune is one of the best in the whole saga. I personally had to earn the right to read it, as I was borrowing all the books initially from a friend. So after zipping through Dune 1, 2, and 3 and then trudging through Dune 4, 5, and 6 (all written by Frank) I was surprised by the fast pace and easy writing style of Herbert's son and Anderson. This tale exceeds my expectations by light years. After having been teased with hints about the machine wars and Butlerian Jihad for 6 books I feel I was rewarded by this trilogy. I highly recommend this series and strongly urge the reading of the first 6 books ( certainly the first 3 at least) to truly appreciate what happens in these three books. In any event, this story will keep you up reading long into the night, its that good.

Wow, just wow. This has to be one of the worst books I have read. As a Dune fan, I never expected the book to be on the same level, but never did I imagine it would be so bad. Let me break it down:

*****SPOILERS**********





1. Plot

a. Evidently, the populations and military leaders have the intelligence of a 2 year old. Even from the first chapter, the people are insultingly stupid. If you have a planet, and its sole defense is a shield generated but a single tower, and the enemy lands a small force on the planet, where do you think they will strike? Evidently, only one of the main characters had the intelligence to figure this out.
The first things that occur to me when the shield that prevents AI from passing through is described is: the machines will strike at the generator, they could easily use simple ballistic weapons, you should at least have backups if you whole defense relies on a single piece of equipment, and you should figure out a way to carry the field to the robots as an offensive weapon.. However, it took both the human and machine side to figure these things out. The 15 year old dwarf who had the idea (didn't figure out how to do it, just had the idea) is treated as a super-genious.

b. The improbability that most of the defining characteristics of a society 10,000 years later (FH's Dune)such as the founding of the Bene Gesserit, the Suk, Mentats, CHOAM, suspenser fields, personal shields, fold-space generators, the discovery of all the qualities of spice, the founding of the Landstraad system, the Butlerian jihad, founding of worm riding and the Fremen, and the conflict between House Atreides and House Harkonnen, all happened within a span of a century.

c. Even more improbable that all these actions take place on a couple of planets out of thousands supposedly inhabited planets.

d. Even more improbable is the fact that all of these developments are by a small group of about a dozen people all connected with each other. (Agamemmnon's son is the founder of the house Atreides, who is friends with the founder of house Harkonnen (both saving day multiple times), both of which are in love with Serena Butler (who founded the Jihad), who worked closely with the Sorceress that would found the Bene Gesseret, who was the lover of the man who would found CHOAM and the discover of the special properties of spice, who, not only was the business partner to the man who was friends with the tribe of the first wormrider and found of the Fremen, but also was the companion of the woman that discovered suspensor fields and fold-space travel, who worked for the man who created personal shields and various other technologies vital to the Dune Universe. Oh yeah, and among those characters, the mentats, suk, and whatnot are founded.

e. The linear, predictable, action-by-the-numbers plot.

f. The bad science. Reminds me of the horrible science of the pulp comics. Spaceships flying in the same manner as planes, no realistic action in relations to distances, etc.

g. No plot twists or surprises.

h. Foreshadowing as subtle as a brick to the face.

i. The Horror Movie Syndrome (people acting totally stupid and contrary to common sense in order to further the plot)

j. Clich s abound.

k. Deus Ex Machina every other page.

l. Not able to realisticlly handle the size of the universe created.


2. Characterization

a. No growth of the characters.

b. The characters are as deep as rain puddles.

c. They all seem there just fulfill their purpose.

d. The reader feels no attachment to the characters at all. You really don't care who dies or what happens to them.

e. Again, clich s abound.

f. The characters are all one dimensional (and incase you forget what dimension that is, the authors will repeat it over and over and over again)

g. The characters are all either good or bad.


3. Writing style

a. Easy sentences devoted mostly to actions instead of description and ideas.

b. Vocabulary about on the same level as the Hardy Boys books I would read in 1st grade.

c. The authors probably thought they were being deep by giving certain characters names that would relate to their actions and fates, but it just ends up being trite.


4. Validity in the Dune Universe (matters only to Dune fans such as myself)

a. Differs GREATLY from the Dune Encyclopedia which had FH's endorsement and presented a much more plausible and thorough explanation of the Dune Universe and history.

b. Nowhere is an of FH's books does it refer to telekinesis and psychic bombs.

c. The 1000 year rule of Omnious is never mentioned in FH's books. When talking about the Butlerian Jihad, it just mentions that humans became to reliant on machines, not of a brutal 1000 year reign of a machine overmind on the majority of the worlds.

d. The origins of the Fremen are explicitly different in FH's books than described in the prequels.

f. Seemed that the authors just wanted to cram the basis of the entire Dune Universe into one short series, probability, believability, and common sense be damned.

The book is so bad it is insulting to your intelligence. The only reason I didn't put it down after the first chapter is my love of the original novels and the fact that I had nothing else to do (was stuck with this as my only book for a day while traveling.) Save yourself the time, money, and feeling of actually losing intelligence and don't read the book.

Honestly guys, don't even try buying any dune book that is written by Frank Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson . Frank want's to out-do his father, and Kevin J. Anderson is an amaturish author, hmm i think the word "author" is too much for these two.
I have so much to write about, but i'll keep my peace.