The Battle of Corrin (Legends of Dune, Book 3) (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Kevin J. Anderson (Author) "Erasmus found the pecking order among the dying and hopeless humans fascinating, even amusing..." (more)
Key Phrases: combat mek, preservation canister, sensei mek, Supreme Bashar, Vorian Atreides, Grand Patriarch (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Dune addicts will happily devour Herbert and Anderson's spicy conclusion (after 2003's Dune: The Machine Crusade) to their second prequel trilogy, Legends of Dune. A fearsome robot-engineered plague opens the tumultuous Battle of Corrin, climaxing the century-long galactic war between humans and the computer Omnius's robotic Synchronized Empire. Vorian Atredies, supreme commander of the human Army of the Jihad, initiates the no-holds-barred feud between House Atreides and House Harkonnen by exiling Abulurd Harkonnen for cowardice, while Vorian's granddaughter Raquella molds the Sorceress survivors into a biochemically based sisterhood and Ishmael leads his people into Arrakis's sandwormy desert to become Fremen of Dune. All the Dune themes-religion and politics, fanaticism, ecology, opportunism, totalitarianism, the power of myth-exhaustively prepare the way for Frank Herbert's sweeping classic of corruptibility and survival.
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From Booklist

What appears to be the end of the Herbert-Anderson Dune prequels opens 56 years after the death of Serena Butler. The Jihad offers hopes of victory over the sentient machines and peace on human terms to a war-scarred galaxy. Unfortunately, the machine leader Omnius conceives a final, desperate, and, coming from a machine intelligence, ironic plan: biological warfare that spreads devastating plagues across scores of human-settled worlds. Herbert and Anderson vividly depict the plagues' effects, although given such a large cast of characters, some readers may feel the emotional impacts of particular characters' fates are rather blunted. The action rises to a thunderous climax in the account of the Battle of Corrin, which occupies a good third of a long book but more than makes up for previous deficiencies in pacing. At the end, we understand why House Corrino sits on the imperial throne, why House Harkonnen is out of favor, why House Atreides is where it is, and why Ishmael has led the ancestors of the Fremen into the desert wastes of the planet known as Arrakis. Thence on, or back, to Frank Herbert's perdurable classic. As before, a job well done. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 624 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1 edition (August 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765301598
• ISBN-13: 978-0765301598
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (99 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #444,628 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 3 in The Dune Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars series continues downward spiral, November 1, 2004

By	B. Capossere (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars trying to be objective...., August 20, 2004

By	DAW "stormstaar" (OHIO United States) - See all my reviews

Honestly,the Butlerian Jihad Prequels are hit and miss to a large degree.The overall story is engaging and entertaining but not presented well,in my opinion.As the reviewer below mentions,the characters are all pretty one-dimensional and hard to get inside of.The novels seem to read more like a history than an actual storyline.Kind of like watching Gettysburg as a stage play instead of a film.But then again perhaps that was the intent.It does have a sweeping span to it,but it is more akin to short chapter-like Star Wars episodes than the original Dune novels.
And to respond to some of the loose ends that another reviewer mentioned...As most of you probably know,Anderson and Herbert also intend to finish the Dune Chronicals with two more novels that take place after Chapterhouse:Dune.These novels are going to come directly from Frank Herbert's outlines before his untimely death.In Chapterhouse,it was implied that the Honored Matres and others were coming back to the empire because they were fleeing another power.It was never explained what they were running from.It would make sense that according to the Butlerian Prequels,since Omnius sent out the copy/probes of itself and "uploaded" himself into deep space,that the Thinking Machines may be returning to Imperium space after 14,000 years.This is also implied by a sequence in the novel House Corrino where a Guild heighliner accidently jumps out of known space and the navigator senses an intense hatred of humanity in that unknown area.That could be consistant with the Machines still being in existance.Since aliens or other intelligences have never been in the Dune dogma,this fits as well.
So I think the loose ends will end up playing a part in the Dune finale novels.As to the fate of certain characters,it's rather refreshing to leave the story a little open ended as far as the Atreides and Harkonnen dynasties.Perhaps for the readers imagination or future novels/short stories.
As far as being disappointed with the novels,I'm not.They are entertaining (if not somewhat predictable) and good reading material if you love the Dune saga.Are they on par with Frank Herbert's epic novels?No..unfortunately not.But these are different authors with their own styles and storytelling methods.One can't forget that.But I think the saga is still in good hands..who better to continue than his son?...and I'll still look forward to the next installment....

38 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not as Good as Previous Novels, September 19, 2004

By	Avid Reader (Willow Springs, MO United States) - See all my reviews

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.