Rating: 
Summary: * Nearly Finishes the Prequel Storyline *
Review: Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson come close to wrapping up the Dune prequel series with a climactic edition in "Dune: House Corrino". This story takes place in less than a year's time, beginning after the conception of Paul Atreides, and finishing just after his birth. The book starts off a little slow; it takes the authors a while to build up the suspense, but the last 150 pages of this work are well worth the wait. The details regarding the Corrino famliy are also enjoyable.The authors set the stage in the two previous prequel stories ("House Atreides" and "House Harkonnen") and really didn't need to build up interest over such a long novel. FYI, both previous works are musts for devoted Dune fans. However, this is the best book out of the three editions. New readers will find the style smoother and more modern than the original Frank Herbert series, but not quite as creative. These stories fill in the many gaps in Frank Herbert's background, almost as if reading historical fiction. The final third of the book is excellent, even difficult to put down as the action reaches a crescendo. Though every fan knows what is going to happen, we have been shielded from the truth all this time. You almost feel as if the story were new. However, there is one last story to tell here. Prepare to see "Dune: Bene Gesserit" bridging the birth of Paul Atreides to the relocation of his family to Planet Arrakis. I have read every book in both Dune series and rate this book 3.80 out of 5.00 stars, rounded up to 4.00 stars, with points for writing style and for nicely wrapping up a lot of pre-history. Still want to read about more workings behind the scenes of the Sisterhood though.
Rating:
Summary: Trilogy Well Done, But Character Betrayed
Review: All in all, I thought this was a marvelous book to end a fantastic trilogy, concluding the drama that was initiated in House Atreides and House Harkonnen respectively. It fell in line with the aformentioned two, giving more background information and interesting history on the Dune series. With a great plot and much suspense as well though, it is not simply to be read as a history lesson for future and current Dune fans. My only qualm with this book was with how Count Hasimir Fenring's character was treated near the end. Without giving away too much, I found his showdown with a certain Sword Master to be very anti-climactic, and against how he was portrayed in the prequels to this and in the first Dune book. The authors went for the easy kill, having everything come out for the good guys in the end, Fenring definitely deserved better, as I feel that he is one of the strongest characters in the story line, and from a disection of Dune, the original, it seemed as if Frank Herbert fealt this way as well. Mr. Brian Herbert must forge his own path though, so oh well. I'm sure he won't see this, but how about a rematch?
Rating: 
Summary: What were they thinking? More schlock from this duo
Review: A Quote from Dune, by Frank Herbert: "...And take the most special care that you locate Muad'Dib in his place: The planet Arrakis. Do not be deceived by the fact that he was born on Caladan..." Even before the first chapter begins in the original Dune novel, we are told that Paul was born on Caladan. How could these two writers miss that fact and instead have him born on Kaitain? The quoted lines above are Irulan's words, and according to this duo, Irulan was very much present and aware at the birth of Duke Leto's son. She was a scholar and would not make such an error in her writing of the "Manual of Muad'Dib" some dozens of years later. Ok, let's preface this review by saying that my first attempt through House Corrino was by reading the first paragraphs of a chapter and the last ones. Essentially I am hypothesizing that 75% of the words in these books by Brian Herbert/Kevin Anderson are unnecessary. The following review will represent my discoveries: A couple of tedious days later...(I couldn't commit to a straight run of it...) Yes, I learned everything I needed to know from reading the first 4 or 5 paragraphs of each chapter and then the last 1/2 page or so. With their tendency toward extra-short chapters, I was sometimes reading more than half of a chapter with this method. Some of the chapters were longer than was typical of the first two books in this series...actually some of the longest chapters were really two, three, or four of their other smaller chapters squished together without the typically banal "Herbert thoughtful quote" attempt at the beginning of each section...they were just trying to fool us into thinking they were writing longer chapters! Most of their chapters say the same thing in the first 5 paragraphs and the last 5 paragraphs. Sometimes nearly word-for-word. I learned from my second read that if it was not repeated in the beginning or end of the same chapter, it was repeated in another. Most of the words in these novels are just....fluff.... A couple of tedious weeks later as I sporadically bear through it a second time... (I really couldn't get enthused about reading anything in this book again...) Ok, so the big question here revolves around this Amal, fake spice stuff: The Guild can examine its chemical structure and discover that it is not the same as the real stuff, but no one else in the universe has the ability to do that, not even the people making it, the Tlielaxu? So, the Guild has special scientific tools that no one else does? Hmmm, but the Bene Gesserit are able to learn about Amal without scientific tools? Doesn't the Guild have prescient ability, the ability to see the future? If so, why wouldn't they use that to discover the origins of the tainted spice? Herbert Junior and Anderson lead us to believe the Guild are bumbling oafs who make some short sighted conclusions that lead them to think that the Baron Harkonnen has the tainted spice. They use their prescience to guide interstellar transport, they use it later to learn about the disturbance of Paul Atreides and the move of House Atreides from Caladan to Arrakis (see Dune, by Frank Herbert), and they use it throughout Dune Messiah to try to track Paul's movements and predict what he will do next. So, the Guild loses two ships in this book and doesn't even consider using its prescience to track down the origin? And are they not feeling, in the slightest way, any waves of prescient ripples that center around the birth of Paul Atreides on Caladan? Oops, sorry..Kaitian... Nope. The Guild are buffoons. Ok, so I'll believe the Guild is dense for a moment. But I also have to believe that the Guild has been using spice for their navigation of spaceships for 10,000 years and they don't even test any of it? They just assume everyone has good will toward them and no one would consider a terrorist attack? They never had any trouble in the past with varying levels of spice versus impurities? The spice has always been pure? No one thought to build spice detection devices into the Heighliners, not even in 10,000 years? No one has thought to build any sort of checks and balances into the process at all? And, there is no backup supply of spice on a Heighliner? Let's put all of our eggs into one basket, repeatedly for 10,000 years, and expect that nothing will ever go wrong, ever? How much spice does it take to make one fold space trip? Now, how many trips would a typical Heighliner make before returning to Junction for refueling? Did these "authors" ever think of that? Here's the tough question of the bunch: How did this Heighliner manage to get to Caladan with a full load of tainted spice, without a secondary or backup supply of spice, how did it make the foldspace trip to Caladan without causing all hell to break loose? So I am to be led to believe that all the good spice was used to get them to Caladan, and all the tainted spice was to be used on their roundabout journey throughout the Imperium for the next several months leading our commando force to Ix as secretly as possible? Why do I feel like I have wasted my time reading these three books only to find this gaping pit that they call a plot? What a waste of money and a waste of my time. Can I give it zero stars?
Rating:
Summary: Better than the First Two Prequels, Still Problems
Review: House Corrino is the third prequel to the Dune series by Frank Herbert. These books have told the story of the political maneuverings that led up to the Atreides arrival on Arrakis/Dune that sets in motion the ascent of Paul to the throne and to messiah status. All of these books deal with the feud between the Harkonnens and the Atreides. But these books add extremely interesting layers regarding the personalities of the emperor, the Ixians, the Tleilaxu and many others throughout the galaxy. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and the various characters seem to be similar to how Frank Herbert would have imagined them, although, of course, not nearly as textured as Frank would have made them. The writers are good storytellers and the universe that Frank Herbert imagined makes it very easy to spin a good yarn. The authors are clearly not deep thinkers like Frank Herbert was. This can be seen by the fact that the authors begin each chapter with a saying, a quote from an imagined book or something similar. While I always looked forward to the next quote by Frank Herbert, I am hard-pressed not to skip the quotes in these books. They are often little more than fortune cookie sayings. The books continue to contain little editing problems. At the beginning, for instance, Liet-Kynes goes to Kaitan to meet with the emperor and is introduced as Liet-Kynes. In Dune, it is clear that no non-Fremen know that the planetologist Kynes is also the Fremen Liet. There is also a problem with what happens to de Vries in this book because in Dune, the Baron tells de Vries that he wrongly predicted that Jessica would bear a daughter, which would have been impossible if events occurred as they do in House Corrino. But overall, I don't fault the authors much for these mistakes. Frank Herbert created a hugely complex world and I am sure I would have made at least equally glaring mistakes (and that editors would not have caught them) if I had written this book. I now look forward to reading the prequel to the prequels that has just come out on the Butlerian Jihad.
Rating:
Summary: * Nearly Finishes the Prequel Storyline *
Review: Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson come close to wrapping up the Dune prequel series with a climactic edition in "Dune: House Corrino". This story takes place in less than a year's time, beginning after the conception of Paul Atreides, and finishing just after his birth. The book starts off a little slow; it takes the authors a while to build up the suspense, but the last 150 pages of this work are well worth the wait. The details regarding the Corrino famliy are also enjoyable. The authors set the stage in the two previous prequel stories ("House Atreides" and "House Harkonnen") and really didn't need to build up interest over such a long novel. FYI, both previous works are musts for devoted Dune fans. However, this is the best book out of the three editions. New readers will find the style smoother and more modern than the original Frank Herbert series, but not quite as creative. These stories fill in the many gaps in Frank Herbert's background, almost as if reading historical fiction. The final third of the book is excellent, even difficult to put down as the action reaches a crescendo. Though every fan knows what is going to happen, we have been shielded from the truth all this time. You almost feel as if the story were new. However, there is one last story to tell here. Prepare to see "Dune: Bene Gesserit" bridging the birth of Paul Atreides to the relocation of his family to Planet Arrakis. I have read every book in both Dune series and rate this book 3.80 out of 5.00 stars, rounded up to 4.00 stars, with points for writing style and for nicely wrapping up a lot of pre-history. Still want to read about more workings behind the scenes of the Sisterhood though.
Rating: 
Summary: Dune: House Corrino (The Bad News Corrinos)
Review: Dune: House Corrino, the last novel of the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson, is the final chance these two writers have to wrap up the storylines that immediately precede Dune. In this respect, the results are mixed. We are treated to some great moments in House Corrino, including an entertaining final battle on Ix and the important birth of Paul Atreides. I will let readers realize the endings for themselves. The book's greatest failing is its inability to properly capture the depth of the brilliant scheming of Emperor Shaddam IV. His dimwittedness is unintentionally comical and is reminiscent of a futuristic version of the 1970's The Bad News Bears baseball comedies. We see our Bad News Corrinos blunder around the galaxy in ridiculous ways that are hardly consistent with the House that out-schemed and destroyed Duke Leto Atreides and his legendary mentat, Thufir Hawat. It is surprising that Emperor Shaddam IV is allowed to stay Emperor at the end of this book. It is even more comical that Count Fenring voices similar comments to Shaddam IV. With respect to the Emperor, the authors seem to confuse ruthlessness with brilliant planning. It is difficult to imagine anyone who attempts what Shaddam endeavors and still remain Emperor! Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's blunder with respect to the Emperor is not surprising considering the ridiculousness of parts of the previous book, House Harkonnen, as Baron Harkonnen storms Wallach IX without his anti-Voice ear plugs introduced in the first book, House Atreides, that magically makes one immune to the controlling Voice employed by the Bene Gesserit. Another failing of the book is the ridiculous yet surprising climax that revolves around Harkonnen mentat, Piter. It not only seems foolish, but it makes this reader wonder about the poor security of the Emperor's homeplanet, Kaitan. The ending is indeed surprising and may affect the way Dune fans think of twisted mentats. There is hardly any mention though of Yueh's wife, and there is certainly no hint of Piter's plan for her in Leto's downfall. This may disappoint some fans of Dune. It disappointed me. A strength of House Corrino is the introduction of a new character associated with Emperor Shaddam IV. There is an exciting scene involving a play reminiscent of Hamlet's Mouse Trap. The problem though is that the characters seem to be very much aware of Shakespeare's Hamlet and the use of a play within a play. I had always assumed that ancient earth was only known or remembered by those with Other Memories. Apparently every poor surf on every backwater planet of the known universe is aware of William Shakespeare! In addition this part of the storyline is rushed to an early conclusion as is many of the better storylines of the Prelude trilogy. Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's Prelude to Dune trilogy is a mixed bag of excitement, inconsistencies, and at times poor preparation. It seems they were not altogether familiar with many of the plots or main characters of Dune; smaller characters such as Count Hasimir Fenring were fleshed out wonderfully at times and add much to the Dune legacy, but they also confound the reader by having the Count utter the exact letter for letter eccentric spoken mannerism without any variation, which is highly annoying; more care should have been taken with his dialogue. The next book by Herbert and Anderson is due in October of 2002 as the first of a Butlerian Jihad Trilogy. It is almost guaranteed that the authors will have less trouble by tackling a time period several millennia prior to Frank Herbert's Dune, the first book of the series. In their Prelude trilogy they seemed to be bogged down in details, which leaves the reader with the impression of reading a rushed outline of a novel. It is a shame that they did not make their outline public for Dune fans to critique so that obvious inconsistencies could be corrected and their better ideas fleshed out and fully realized. Although it is impossibly difficult to fully satisfy any long time fan of the Dune chronicles with respect to characters they feel they know, the glaring inconsistencies of the Prelude trilogy leaves this humble fan of Dune sad that he is refering the writers of the new Dune novels as The Bad News Authors.
Rating: 
Summary: If only we had a Ghola Frank Herbert!
Review: I won't say the Dune "Prequel" Trilogy is entirely without merit. Any of the three books is an entertaining read for a cross-country train trip or a trans-Atlantic flight, like a Tom Clancy novel would be. But most people who know and love the "Dune" chronicles cannot help but be disappointed, even angry, at these pale imitations of the originals. The most striking lesson to be gleaned from these new Dune books is the difference between a truly gifted writer and a hack; between a serious work of imagination and literary skill, and airport lounge pulp fiction. I won't detail all of the failings of the narrative - the inconsistencies with the original series, the sometimes absurd plot development, the gaping holes and internal inconsistencies in the story. Other reviewers have dealt with these at some length. My biggest beef with these three books - all of them - is how poorly written they are (especially "House Corinno"). One would have hoped that more of Frank Herbert's literary ability would have found its way into his son's genes than apparently did. (Call the Bene Gesserit, quick! We need a new breeding program here!) The dialogue is often stilted, the character development shallow, and the structure fragmented, episodic and jerky. In contrast to Frank Herbert's elegant, even serene construction, Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson have unfortunately adopted the hyperactive "jump-around" style so beloved of today's writers of second-rate entertainment fiction. Most disappointing to me was the shallowness of these new books. Frank Herbert's "Dune" books were books of IDEAS more than books about events and action. A great deal of their narrative was occupied with people's THOUGHTS, at least as much as with their actions. Brian Herbert's & Kevin Anderson's books, by contrast, are almost entirely devoid of thought, ideas or philosophy and are entirely preoccupied with who is doing what. At best, this makes their books entertaining, something with which to while away the hours. But they are simply not in the same league with the original Dune books. For the newcomer to the world of Dune, moving from "House Corinno" to "Dune" will be like moving from Harold Robbins to Steinbeck or Hemmingway. Reading my way through these three books, I frequently found myself wishing that one of the Tleilaxu had been around when Frank Herbert died, to grow a Ghola Herbert in their axolotl tanks. These prequels might have really been something in the hands of a gifted writer.
Rating:
Summary: Almost finished
Review: Dune: House Corrino concludes the prequel trilogy of the epic Dune saga. But it doesn't complete the beginning story. We see the continuing story that begins in the years before Dune. The Atreides family, rocked with tragedy, begins a desperate plan to retake the planet of Ix, while Jessica is pregnant with a forbidden son, Paul. The Harkonnens still seethe and stew their evil plots from Geidi Prime. And most of all, the decadent emperor Shaddam IV, greedy for more power, is close to unleashing his secret amal on the universe, regardless of the consequences. The writing style and depth have improved considerably from the beginning in House Atreides. The vivid details make it easy to imagine the majesty of Kaitain, the desolation of Dune, and the depravity of Geidi Prime. Herbert and Anderson also show more confidence in developing intricate plots and subplots. And still, they manage a little humor, like the Baron's etiquette lessons. But, like other reviewers have pointed out, the prequel isn't finished yet. There needs to be a fourth book, to seal the gap, the empty 15 years between House Corrino and Dune. I know Herbert and Anderson are up to the task.
Rating:
Summary: A good story, but not worthy of the Dune name
Review: It is a decent tale by itself and within Brian Herbert's series, but as he grows more comfortable, he seems to stray further from the original Dune storyline, in which case he should have just made his own series instead of riding on his dead father's coat tails.
Rating:
Summary: Bene Gesserit analysis of
Review: We of the Sisterhood have discovered a glaring transgression of the tenets of the "Dune" series in this last and the worst written of the series of manifestos: the drug Amal and its offshoot Ajidamal.
Since the authors spellout all of the plot lines and cannot write "wheels within wheels" it is fairly obvious that this is supposed to be the same drug that the Honored Maters used.
An exhaustive search of "Heretics" and "Chapterhouse" was undertaken and in this report we will spell out how this cannot be the case and that the drug used by the Whores was something found out in the Scattering.
In "Corrino" the axlotl tanks were producing the drug amal without any known side effects until one of our Sisters is placed in one of the tanks. She alone began to "produce" ajidamal, and the writing of why this happens takes no real leap of the imagination.
The substance is addictive, causes the mind to expand almost in the same manner as the spice, creates a "zealous devotion" in the addicted towards the supplier. It appears to fill the subject with "uncontrollable nervous energy", lightning fast reflexes, a strange glassy-like look in the eyes and a feeling of invincibility along with a bloodlust.
Ajidica bellows at one point that he has sent out Face Dancers to the "unexplored corners of the galaxy to lay the foundations of our magnificent future."
In "Chapterhouse"(file#175), our chemists were "tracing the adrenaline substitute from samples in her(Murbella) blood, held it ready if she required it." The drug appears to have been cleansed from her body(file#323), and her eyes no longer turn orange when angry(file#333)because "melange dosen't allow it."
In "Heretics"(file#435-436), Teg sees that Jafa has been drugged, and is so devoted to the Honored Matre that he is allowed to stand behind her,and is horrified at the idea of having the drug withdrawn from him. In response to Teg's question if they have found a new drug, the Honored Matre replies, "No, Basher! We have an old one." Teg notices that their Suk doctor(file#391) has his eyes covered to hide their true color and he dosen't have the smell of familiar narcotics or melange, just a tart fruit-like smell.
Also in "Chapterhouse" we are told several times about "The Enemies of Many Faces" with their Futars as causing a disaster that led the Honored Matres to return to the Old Empire(file#22-21-143-143-151-377).
As always, the devil is in the details.
If Sister Alechem deliberately tainted the amal to create Ajidamal to punish the Tleilaxu,(as Reverened Mother Mohiam did to the Baron in "Atreides"), why weren't the "Chapterhouse" chemists unable to discover this?
If she didn't do this, why didn't she will herself to die? Sisters have done so before,Chapterhouse(file#10) and in Chapterhouse(file#150), Reverned Mother Lucilla knows that she may have to will herself to die before the shere in her body is depleted.
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