Rating: 
Summary: this rules
Review: i have always liked Herbet's dune books better than his fathers. he is just simply a much better writer and he also has the added bonus of Anderson on his team. People who say these books have nothing to do with the dune universe are just whiny nerdy fans. they have everything to do with dune. this begins to tell the formation of the freemen and it tells of how spice came to be and it talks about the human robat war that was alwasy talked about in the orginal dune novels. it also features the invention of the holtzman field or whatever. buy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Its just not real Dune
Review: Again, as with House Corrino, this doesn't really belong in the Dune series. Die hard Dune fans will read this a rave as James Bond fans do with Never Say Never Again. Brian Herbert should have just started his won series, completely unrelated to Dune, and that appears to be exactly what he has done.
Rating: 
Summary: What's the big deal?
Review: I grant that this book has little relavence to the main Dune story line, nor is it on par with that storyline's writing, but it's a decent way to kill time. While a bit underdeveloped, the characters managed to stand out somewhat. The story, while rushed at times, was good, and while it did jump around, the writing style was o.k.
Rating:
Summary: Butlerian Jihad is Cotton Candy
Review: Sometimes I enjoy cotton candy; sometimes I enjoy a salad. If the original Dune is a salad, then the Butlerian Jihad is cotton candy. It tastes good to me at first, but eventually leaves me wanting something healthier to eat. The sad thing about The Butlerian Jihad is its potential, or actually, its lack of achieving it. The premise itself is intriquing, the plot gripping, the characters interesting. When I finished reading this book, I really wanted to like it, but I didn't feel close to the characters. They were like puppets being manipulated by the plot, racing across space just to show Dune fans where the Spacing Guild came from, how the Bene Jesserit was formed, or why the Atreides and Harrkonens don't get along. Let's face it: Dune is a publishing marketing plan. The writers probably had a contract to fulfill, a deadline to meet, money to make. I felt like I was reading the first draft of a potentially good novel. I wish the publishing company would realize the reading public would rather wait until something has been written and rewritten to make it the best it can be instead of offering us cotton candy.
Rating: 
Summary: Bene Gesserit analysis of "Butlerian Jihad"
Review: The Sisters pouring over the archives on Chapterhouse have discovered..oh wait..I can't do it..I just can't do it!
I have written my reviews of the prequals in the "manner" of the Bene Gesserit, it was my way to honor the memory of the great Frank Herbert and to point out the errors in his son's books. I am not a writer, but I think I did a better job that these two. I cannot understand the massive amount of errors in all of these books, didn't they read the origionals?
I just cannot get past the first few chapters, it is soooooooo poorly written it is painfull.
I will now move on to something else and leave this silly series in the garbage can.
Rating:
Summary: A good attempt
Review: Overall this was a page-turner, but it was more like eating McDonald's french fries really fast -- i.e., before they get cold. The characters were a bit "over-the-top" and not well developed, except for a few. Judging from their past efforts, I think Herbert & Anderson can do better, but they are likely relying on their own previous success than they are on their skills as writers -- which pale in comparison to Frank Herbert's genius.
Rating:
Summary: Thinking Machine Age Far Worse Than Previously Suggested
Review: Setting aside the other commentaries on the length of the story, the number of characters, and the writing style, I'd like to focus on how the main story has been substantially changed from what readers had previously been told (this is an observation, not necessarily a complaint). This story describes a situation far, far worse for humanity than had ever been suggested in previous Dune books of all sorts. What we had before (from the The Dune Encyclopedia) was a human universe that depended on computers for considerable rote calculation work, and some humans discovered a small, subtle murderous trend in the computers that they decided could only be solved by getting rid of the computers entirely. The movement quickly grew and humans who would not relinquish their thinking machines were killed. The resulting problems of living without computers forced humanity to develop the amazing skill sets described in the human universe of Dune. Humanity is left with a primal, negative attitude towards computers for the next 10,000 years and more. As with Dune, a critical decision by a disobedient Bene Gesserit started a series of events that engulfed all of humanity. This latest book throws that story into the garbage bin. Forget a subtle computer threat, we're now facing outright domination and potential extinction. Thinking machines rule most of humanity, and that humanity is left in a severely servile and primitive state. The machines don't need the humans in any way (unlike the Matrix situation). Like the Terminator series and unlike the Matrix, there is really just one ruling machine mind, and the rest of the artificial intelligence (AI) enhanced machines are simply taking orders. This one mind, Omnius, is an accident that no one planned on. Unlike the Terminator series but like the Matrix, we can clearly see how the AI machines were able to take over since they were already ubiquitous throughout society, and most importantly, manufacturing. That society, a stodgy, lazy Old Empire, is taken over by a rebel group of 20 who reprogram the AI robots to be aggressive but still subservient to these 20 rebel "Titans." The Titans forget about invigorating humanity and apparently settle on becoming brutal dictators. Some human planets remain free by military force while others are simply not important enough for the Titans to bother with. The Titans extend their rule by putting their brains into mechanical bodies and further alienate themselves from humanity. Ironically, one of the Titans becomes so lazy that he turns over most control of his planet to the AI network. The AI network apparently achieves the equivalent of mental critical mass and decides it should run everything. The AI change spreads quickly and the Titans rapidly find themselves in a junior ruling capacity underneath the unified AI network called Omnius. A thousand years of AI rule pass for the bulk of humanity which becomes horribly subservient to the machines for no better reason than the aggressive programming in the AI Omnius. Some of the free human planets organize into feudal societies and join with others in a confederation that manages to fend off the occasional AI incursion into their territory. The stale status quo is set to change as the result of a wager between Omnius and a uniquely independent robot of his about the ability of humans under Omnius control to rebel against the machines just as the "wild" and free humans still do. During this story and the following book The Machine Crusade, we see the precursors to the amazing human power groups in the original Dune series. These include the Bene Gesserit, the Spacing Guild, the Fremen, the Tlulaxu, the Suk doctors, the Ginaz Swordmasters and the Laansrad. What we don't see yet are the Mentats and the Sardaukar. If there is one tragic element in this story and the more immediate precursors, it is how common humans have virtually no human rights and can be physically abused at will whether by AI machines, machines operated by human brains or human nobles. Does it matter much if you are being wantonly tortured to death by Erasmus the robot, Agamemnon the Titan or Baron Vladimir Harkonen? Either way,Butlerian Jihad and the next book The Machine Crusade make it abundantly clear how the humans in Dune had such a visceral response to the concept of thinking machines. Anyone wondering anymore about the impetus to develop Mentats instead of backsliding to a threatening technology?
Rating:
Summary: Wretched
Review: The last twenty years have seen two dismal trends. First is the size of books: instead of expressing a story succinctly and effectively, publishers commission operatics of 500, 750, 1000 pages and more. This creates meandering, formulaic storylines that take forever to get to the point: it's kind of pornography for the masses, the literary equivalent of a brain-and-time-killer. Recent history also sees the imbedding of mindless action derived from the visual media. Long, complicated narratives of action scenes. This is probably the publishers thinking they have to compete with video games. Care for a game of quidditch? This book combines the worst of both trends: it is long and boring, a combination of Battlestar Galactica meets The Matrix. It has too many characters one does not care about, multi-page action scenes which don't work on paper, contemporary Star Wars shoot-em-up scenes. Part of the appeal of Dune was its future pre-history aspect: anything connecting it to "us" was lost in the vague mysts of time. There's a reason it's often compared to the Tolkien books. The authors' previous attempts to resurrect Dune were much better. But no longer do they claim to be working from Frank Herbert's original notes. And perhaps this pedestrian output is the result. Some things are perhaps better not explored. I don't have much hope for the next two scheduled books. Perhaps it's time for the literary franchise to stop.
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best S.F.
Review: After reading some of the other reviews; I was reluctant to buy this book, but I have rarely put it down since I started it. I realize I read the original Dune Series in the 1980's and may have lost some of the technical direction theorized by some of the other reviewers, but if you simply enjoy good writing, plot, and viable characters YOU WILL LIKE THIS BOOK!
Rating: 
Summary: doesn't measure up
Review: The problem with trying to follow someone's footsteps, is that you must step carefully to stay on the path. This is critically important in a prequel, especially when following a work like Dune. Dune was not space-opera. The Butlerian Jihad is 100% space opera, with all the, "Wouldn't it be cool if we threw this in' stuff," that seems to be the accepted formula for making prequels and sequels. Other reviewers have touched on the obvious things, like an actually inefficient and short-sighted Omnius, and the shallow, reactive charachters. The uninspiring battles and bloodthirsty robots are all something we'd expect to see in mainstream pulp sci-fi. This is not what we're looking for in something intimately tied with the universe of Dune.
I think that Brian and Kevin both took liberties with the timelines suggested in the original Dune series, and their interpretations of many Frank Herbert's hints are far too literal (the sorceresses, for example).
More distracting is the obvious and unimaginative interpretation of 'slavery under the machines'. I think it was pretty clear that the slavery referred to in Dune was a voluntary dependence upon thinking machines that increasingly weakend the human race--something that irritated a large, but scattered religious core of humans. That is the basis of the religious connotation implied in the Jihad--not an afterthought intended to make a potentially unpopular war more appealing to the people. The characters of Dune remembered that the Great Revolt was headlong and uncontrolled, a blurry and bloody time in history that vented unimaginable excesses of violence and terror. Not the lackluster, even boring battles described in "The Butlerian Jihad". This history is not the kind of history that would give birth to the Great Convention, solidify the already existing Great Schools, or build the conventions of the Dune universe. I really was entertained by the "House" trilogy (although there were many liberties taken there, too), but I was very disappointed in "The Butlerian Jihad". I doubt I'll buy the next book, but I'll probably check it out of the library just to see how bad it gets.
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