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House Corrino (Dune: House Trilogy, Book 3)

House Corrino (Dune: House Trilogy, Book 3)

List Price: $7.50
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Solid, But Nothing Special
Review: House Corrino is a solid finish to the prequel trilogy to the Dune series. It is a vast improvement to the deeply flawed House Harkonnen.

This prequel series has a problem familiar to prequels, you know certain characters are going to survive. This series actually manages to get around that, although clues were given as to the ability for this character to be killed, and yet still be present in the book "Dune". But in most cases, the reader is aware that the characters who are placed in danger are going to survive.

HH was a mess because it told a story set across years, resulting in changes to characters' personalities without proper development.

House Corrino, fortunately, doesn't suffer from that problem, taking place over a much shorter period of time. It's a lot of fun exploring the Universe of Dune, and explore it we do.

This book takes up where HH ended, Leto still inmourning over the death of his son, Victor, killed in an assination attempt upon himself by his son's mother, Leto's concubine Kailea, an exiled noblewoman from Ix, driven against the Duke by an undiscovered Harkonnen agent.

Prince Rhombur, his body virtually destroyed, and now turned into a cyborg, is determined to free Ix from those who stole his world years earlier, and he and Leto get serious about planning to take back the world.

Emperor Shaddam is continuing with his plan to gain control of spice by having control of a synthetic form of melange, known as amal.

And the Bene Gesserit are rejoicing in the upcoming birth of a special child: the daughter of Jessica, the new concubine of Duke Leto. The problem is, the Sisterhood doesn't know that Jessica is pregnant with a boy, not a girl.

House Harkonnen is up to no good...imagine that? We follow Freman, freedom fighters on Ix, Guild Navigators, Swordmasters, Spies, Actors and others as plots twist within plots.

This series is fun, but there should be no doubt: these three additions to the Dune novels don't hold a candle to the original works.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The last of the prequels is probably the best
Review: Alright, so this isn't good ole Frank writing, but that'd be too much to ask for.
Overall the prequels weren't up to standard, but as the series developed, it got better, or I got used to Brian and Kevein's writing...
Suffice it to say that this is a good finale to this trilogy, there's enough surprises to keep you interested and the book is well paced. The characters are still not very beleivable, sometimes a bit cartoonish. You'll be left wondering how Shaddam or the Baron ever survived their first years, let alone came to positions of power after reading about their latest blunders, but hey, it is entertaining, albeit mildly irritating sometimes.
My advice: don't take these books too seriously, just enjoy taking a look at an alternate Dune universe.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: This was sad, really.
Review: I did not feel that i was reading a Dune novel as i read this. like its predecesors, it was poor writing. Very amateurish in style, and not worthy of Frank Herbert's title. You often wonder if the authors actually read Frank Herbert's awesome works.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: From the sacred to the ridiculous -- The Dune Drecklichkeit
Review: Ah... Dune junkies. The original DUNE was such potent substance that we all found ourselves grabbing the pricy hardcovers of Frank Herbert's son's concoctions off the store shelf and actually reading them, asking ourselves every 2 pages: "Why am I reading THIS?" The original DUNE series was indeed very addictive, and we all have had this little substance abuse since then. When the fake DUNE came out, I was among the first ones to buy them, in hardcover... Woe to me, all three of them.

One thing is clear: the creator of the original DUNE was an immense literary talent; his son Brian is not. The latter's only credential is that he is the son of Frank Herbert; therefore he has an inherent right to take his father's literary canvass and turn it into a cartoon series, making a few bucks in the process. These new books' do not aim at the perpetuation of Frank Herbert's intellectual legacy. Their goal is making a few bucks off our substance abuse.

I admit I may be wrong. It is quite possible the poor Brian sees himself a rightful Duke of the DUNE series with a signet on his finger but does not realize that he is out of his league. He was bright enough to understand that he could not do it alone, so he hired a writer to do it for him. For all that, as for literary collaboration of Anderson and Herbert-junior, 1+1 does not equal 2. It equals 0.

Having finished reading the prequels, I opened the original DUNE. Ah, what a pleasure it is to revel in its complexities and nonpareil multi-dimentionality!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: More Prequel Dreck and shattered plot points
Review: I have to wonder if the authors ever read the original Dune books because of the way they've hacked and slashed at major plot points. Without that butchery I could have dealt with the lesser quality of writing, but I found all the Dune prequels to be literary insults to Frank Herbert.

Did these guys not like Dune? Did they decide they could do a better job? I'd prefer to think they just didn't pay attention. I get the feeling it was more the latter, given how blatantly the universe was twisted and the basic facts of the story as illustrated by Frank Herbert were discarded outright.

I didn't disagree with everything they did. The treatment of Bene Gesserit characters was poor, at best. The sisters clearly made great strides in intelligence, perceptiveness and adaptability in the 15 years between the end of Dune: House Corrino and Dune. Had they been that good during Corrino, a lot of things wouldn't have happened. Oh, wait. Maybe that was the point.

I remain extremely disappointed, as if some child with a brush and some latex semi-gloss had decided to embellish a Rembrandt.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Destroying the Value of a Great Work
Review: The authors continue to portray 1 dimensional characters that in any realistic scenario would be complete incompetents.

There is no subtleness/realism/intelligence built into any of the characters.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: We're Duned
Review: This book completes the Dune prequel. It's not bad until you consider it in comparison to Frank Herbert's work against which it pales. As the story wound down, I kept wondering how the storyline was going to be reconciled with "Dune". The result was unsatisfying in the same way that a TV show resolves a cliffhanger with one of those scenes where it all gets explained away.

Frank Herbert was one of those science fiction writers who explored the intersection of politics and technology with a savage intelligence. Dune is just one example, The Jesus Incident or The Dosadi Experiment are others. The prequel lacks the imagination of any of these books. As I said, on one level it's not bad. The story moves along and the characters are sympathetic or despicable as called for by the plot line. But "Dune" it ain't.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Wretched stuff
Review: Even doing my best at not comparing the Dune prequels to Frank Herbert's saga, these books are still a dismal piece of fluff. They read like one of Anderson's utterly awful "Young Jedi Knights" books, with TV-style pacing, two- (or sometimes one-) dimensional characters, and lots of filler.

This one is the worst of the bunch, trying to resolve a situation that couldn't possibly have come from Frank's notes (where the hell did this friendship and bond of honor between House Atreides and Ixians go to in the 16 years between _Dune: House Corrino_ and _Dune_?) in a ridiculous climax and a de rigueur happy ending.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: NOT COMPLETE
Review: This book picks up where the previous one stopped but it does not stop where dune begins :)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Cheesy but entertaining Science Fiction
Review: Fans of Frank Herbert's original 'Dune' series will find that the prequels lack any of the emotional resonance and innovative writing style of Herbert senior, but the prequel books are entertaining none the less. Dont expect, well developed characters, exceptional prose or an indepth storyline however, this is Science Fiction 'fluff', fun to read but ultimately mediocre literature. Fans will be satisfied as it does contain all the classic elements of the original series (ie. the Bene Gesserit, melange, Arakkis etc.), but ultimately the Dune prequels represent a disturbing trend in Science Fiction and Fantasy today. That is to say, simply rehashing the same old tired concepts to make a quick buck (the Star Wars novels instantly spring to mind). I am giving this novel 4 stars simply based on the fact that it is a fun, entertaining novel, that to a certain extent recaptures the overall 'feel' of Frank Herberts universe. Anyone looking for indepth, science fiction 'literature' however would do well to re-read the original series or look elsewhere.


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