Rating: 
Summary: Evidence of a disturbing trend
Review: I had the highest hopes for this book, and cut it as much slack as I possibly could, and yet...It is difficult to sit idly by and compare this work to the Dune parent. The "hack" style of the writing and plot give us a clue as to what has gone wrong in science fiction literature these past thirty years. "Butlerian Jihad" shows clear evidence of contamination by the "Trekkie" fiction genres, Star Wars, and even nerd Internet culture. The assumed names of the "cymeks" appear to be derived from their "screen names",and the Titans "Juno" and "Agamemnon" are given a back story which seems to indicate they first met in a "role-playing game" chat room. The Dune Encyclopedia, produced some twenty years ago, contained different and far superior prequel stories of the Butlerian Jihad, Holtzman's inventions, and the like. The story setup arraying the robot culture vs. the human culture totally misses the mark in assigning relative advantages and disadvantages to either side. The "thinking machines" do not demonstrate any thinking or the processing power of a collective mind. While promising many "insider" looks at the origin of Dune institutions and technologies, the action in this book takes place ten thousand years prior to the time of Paul Atreides. The Bene Gesserit, Holtzman field effects, mentats, the Spacing Guild and Suk doctors would have developed into their "Dune" forms gradually and over long periods of time, as would the Jihad itself. This book's compressed timeframe does not do justice to these Dune gems by forcing them to form spontaneously before the reader's attention span gives out. Part of the two-star rating is an award for the chutzpah of the authors, to have so eviscerated a promising literary premise in the name of the mass market. Also, I thank this book for warning me to keep my distance from modern sci-fi writing in general. I will start today on my version of the Butlerian Jihad prequel, in an attempt to forget all about this unpleasant reading experience. Couldn't be any worse than what these guys wrote.
Rating: 
Summary: Could Not Put it Down - military scifi at its best!
Review: First, this is a great book on its own. I have read all of the prequels written by the son and they are all good books. I liked every one of them. Were they classic literature? No, but they caught the spirit of the story and gave the classic Dune a starting point. This book tells us about the Titans, the thinking machines and the humans who fought them. Is is perfect? No, it is not, but it is very readable and the characters seemed real to me. Quit complaining... this is stil a mile better than most stuff written today. I put it up there with David Weber and his like, if not better than most of the current military sci-fi, which it is. Dune and its sequels was more hard-core sci-fi; this is military sci-fi at its best.
Rating: 
Summary: Frank Herbert's hand evident in prequels, but not his soul
Review: The influence of Frank Herbert's inspiration is obvious in the plot and characters of this novel. The intellectual challenge and philosophical ramifications of cymeks and intelligent machines are set up with the same Herbert believability that challenged our preconceptions with the Tleilaxu (descendants of the the Raelian's, perhaps?). The delivery, however, lacks some of the spiritual detail which it seems Herbert's son, Brian, cannnot provide the way his father did. The original novels were artfully connected to history, literature, and both western and eastern thought in a way that was alive. The philosophy contained in the prequeles lacks such life, and is more often than not just material from the original novels shoe-horned awkwardly into place. Brian Herbert has been able to present the conflict set up by his father, to reproduce the sound of the original, but not the feeling. I find myself wishing he had spent a little more time with the writings of the great minds of the ages before taking up his pen. All in all, for fans of the original novels, it is still well worth the read, but don't expect an intellectual challenge on a par with what one would expect from Frank Herbert.
Rating: 
Summary: Overwritten
Review: Give this one a pass! The authors crammed this title full of useless detail and failed to connect most of the story with the beginning of the parent novel. Seems that they are building a prequel trilogy to link to the parent story. This was built on a great idea but failed to follow through.
Rating:
Summary: I happened to like the book!
Review: I noticed that quite a number of people were complaining about the quality of The Butlerian Jihad. Many are saying that it can't hold a candle to the original books. My response to that is at least the damn thing is readable! I've read the first four Dune books and the characters are severely two dimentional. The futuristic babbling is to Dune what technobabble is to Star Trek. At least Star Trek uses it effectively. They've never had a whole episode dedicated to it. While reading the Dune series I couldn't have cared less about any of the characters! I have no idea why people have declaired this one of the greatest sci-fi series ever. I find the Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Andersen novels more rich and alive than any of the original Dune novels. If you want a good read, I recommend The Butlerian Jihad.
Rating:
Summary: Brian: Stop doing this to your father's work!
Review: The first three books these guys wrote were bad.
But this one's stupidity is beyond words.
Brian and Kevin: There are other ways of making money without destroying a universe loved by so many fans.
Rating:
Summary: Written just for the money.
Review: I am a big fan of the original Dune epic. I found this book wanting. I could not wait until I was done reading it.
I believe that the Dune books being written now are only being written to make someone some cash. Why else
is there going to be so many more?
Rating:
Summary: Soo bad -- the Dune series is now trapped in sequel hell!
Review: Like many of the other reviewers, I'm so disgusted -- and above all, SAD -- after reading this book. For me, the only saving grace was that I checked it out from the library rather than buy it. The Dune books have been a reoccurring part of my life for the last 15 years -- every year or two I go on a Dune jag and read them all, one after the other, a wonderful, excessive spice binge that never gets old. My wife thinks I'm so weird to do this, but in a way that I can't well explain, they are very integral to my way of thinking. Heck, they even make me dream up ideas for conserving water. But I digress. The first 3 books herbert jr and anderson wrote were not bad -- not the polished gems of the original series, but also still clearly their progeny. But this new Butlerian Jihad book, such a bastardization...there's plenty of science fiction that's pure shlock, and that's ok, as Shel Silverstein would say, "after you've been having steak for a long time, beans beans taste fine"...but this is frank herbert, DUNE!!, we're talking about here and the boys should not have gone and produced such literay defication in our beloved Dune universe. Yes, I'm ranting, but that's how gross and without redeeming virtue Jihad is...I remember thinking during one particularly superficial section that this was just bad Dune parody. I remember back when I learned that Brian Herbert would continue the Dune series after his father's death -- I was so glad because I wanted to know what happened next, I didn't want it to end...now after this most recent book, I'm hoping that they never decide to risk telling more of the "future" of Dune. That's one prescient vision I can do without.
Rating:
Summary: It's just plain lacking.
Review: This book could have been so much more. The subject matter is so rich with possibilities that it should have taken up a trilogy in and of itself. It takes a lot of time introducing characters. I liked the idea of the characters, but found they weren't very well developed- they felt one-dimensional, as if they were only there to hold up the plot line, or satisfy a reference made in a later book. The authors lay out this whole grand plot line of the butlerian jihad, and just when it starts to get interesting they wrap it up. The whole last quarter of the book feels like strung together a bunch of vignettes. It leaves you very dis-satisfied. Disappointing, lacking, ...ugh! I don't have the right words for this. I wanted so much more.
Rating: 
Summary: The Butlerian Jihad: Space Opera
Review: Never compare any of the Dune prequals to the original Dune series. The original can be considered the epitome of Science Fiction literature, while the prequals can be considered space opera. Sometimes, a science fiction reader may need space opera. If the reader keeps remembering that Dune prequals like "the Butlerian Jihad" are written by different authors in different styles, he won't set himself up for disappointment. The Butlerian Jihad may be the weakest of the Dune prequals. In an attempt to explain the beginnings of elements from the original series, the authors may have focused on plot over character. As a result, some of the characters are puppets, thrown here and there just to explain the beginnings of favorite Dune relationships and icons like the Space Guild or the Bene Gesserit. If the reader can get past some of the common cliches found in science fiction--like robots taking over--and keep in mind this is not Frank Herbert writing this book, he will probably enjoy this interpretation of Dune history.
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