Rating: 
Summary: ripping off a genius
Review: I picked this up yesterday and read the whole thing on the train from NYC to DC. I've read the previous two (House Harkonnen and House Atriedes), and this pretty much solidifies my opinion of B. Herbert and Anderson's collaborations:They're awful. If you're a big fan of the multilayered intricacies of politics, economics, and social phenomena that characterize the late Frank Herbert's works, pass on Brian's books. In comparison and on their own, they're shallow, naive, poorly-articulated, lacking in subtlety and layer... and inconsistent with many of the fundamentals of the Dune universe set out in the original series. On the other hand, if you're a VERY young sci-fi reader more interested in general story outlines and not bored with unsophisticated dialogue and shallow character development, go ahead and check it out at your local library. I can't even describe these novels as Dune Lite. Or even Dune Ultralite. They're more like AirDune -- made to look like the original, but leaving behind a taste of sawdust and a reader wondering why she bothered.
Rating: 
Summary: House Corrino
Review: I can see a parallelism between this book and chapterhouse: dune, especially with the way it ended, it's just a shame that Rhombur never played a significant part (nor any part at all in the original series) ... maybe someone will write about the exploits of IX. Like the tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina type of thing. If you are a dune fan, you don't want to miss this. Kudos to the writers. Can't wait for the Legends Series.
Rating:
Summary: The only reason I read it all is: "Frank Herbert".
Review: Frank Herbert managed to write a series so good that I read even "House Corrino" (and the other two, for that matter)to the end. I mean, the discrepancies with the Dune Series (such as when Anirul's Other Memory invite her to join them, like they were some kind of spirits from beyond) and the simplistic and, sometimes, devastating depicting of some characters (the Bene Gesserit reduced to a bunch of petty and conspiring "multi-powers" women) made me stop and sigh every three pages... Still, Frank Herbert's universe is so incredibly seducing and encompassing that somehow it made up for every time I thought about quiting. Dune fans, if you want to spend some more time in the Dune universe - or something like it -, get ready to "ignore" the screw-ups. As a better alternative, however, make up your own stories and write them down. You'll probably do better than House Corrino...
Rating: 
Summary: Well written. Great Book
Review: This is a book that all Dune Fans would love.It is the conclusion of the prelude of Dune. The literature is well written and discriptive. The plot is interesting and authentic to the original series of Dune. It concludes with the glorious and bloody final battle against the Tleiaxu Forces that invaded IX. I think this is the best book out of the three books in the Prelude. Frank Herbert would have been proud of his son. Wonderful book.
Rating:
Summary: Wow, Herbert and Anderson wrote a great PREQUEL
Review: This is the third in the prequel series of Dune novels written by Brian Herbert, the son of the late Frank Herbert, and his collaborator Kevin Anderson. Frank Herbert's six Dune novels, especially the first, are one of science fiction's greatest literary treasures, for Herbert created an entire galaxy with history, customs, battles, the struggles of royal houses, and plots within plots that were interconnected like a complicated watchworks. Son Brian carried on the family franchise first with House Atreides, which described the background of Duke Leto, father of the messianic Kwisatch Haderach Paul Atreides, main character of Dune. He then logically progressed to House Harkonnen, to fill in the history of the Atreides arch-enemy Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. This is my favorite of the sequels by Brian Herbert, much better than the first two Dune prequels, which were criticized for weaknesses in writing style and somewhat thin plots which did not achieve the literary heights of Frank Herbert's exquisite and complex writing. "House Corrino", however, is a monumental achievement, that not only catches the authentic flavor of the first six novels, but has a plot structure that is as intricate and logical as Frank Herbert's. Even though most readers know what is to come in the book to follow (Dune #1), the surprises and logic of the story of "House Corrino" make you gasp with admiration. Yes!!! That is what must have happened. No! I didn't know THAT!! Surprises all around. And the writing, while not exactly like Frank Herbert's, is so close as to make an almost seamless match with his style. Though this novel stands well on its own, it is probably a good idea to read the first two "prequels" by Herbert and Anderson, and of course you would benefit by reading the six Frank Herbert books as well. The excellent plot logic does not stop at the first five chapters. As you read about the battles for Ix, led by Duke Leto, and the plotting of Emperor Shaddam Corrino, the main character of "House Corrino," more events unfold that lead inexorably up to the first Dune novel. Each event will have you nodding in agreement, yes, this MUST have happened in just this way in order to lead up to the events of the first Dune books and, even more exciting, up to the last Frank Herbert novel, Chapterhouse Dune. Even the much later events that involved the Honored Matres, arch-enemies of the Bene Gesserit spawned by the upheavals after the fall of the Atreides empire, are set in motion here in "House Corrino." Yet House Corrino is set many, many centuries before the last Dune novels. The last Dune novels are many centuries later than "House Corrino" but everything here fits the history to come. That's just brilliant craftsmanship. This is brilliant work, only marred by an occasional sentence that falls into pedestrian writing, and which could have benefited from some better editing. But this is a minor quibble. Brian Herbert and Anderson have created the perfect "just-before-Dune" prequel. It's a wonderful addition to the series and incredibly exciting to read-pure pleasure if you admire the Dune series as I do.
Rating:
Summary: Astoundingly inept
Review: Amazing what a name can do. A name like DUNE, for example. Consider the game tie-ins that appear after (and sometimes before) a blockbuster film is released. The name is there, some of the characters (well, their names anyway) are there, and elements of the story are there. But that's all, and what you actually get for your money is a lousy platformer. The same thing applies here. The names are there and so are many of Frank Herbert's plot elements, laced with a good deal of meaningless cruelty. And that's all. What you actually get for your money is a sub-Doc Smith space opera, written in sub-Doc Smith prose of startlingly low quality. I mean, it's so bad you could use it in class as an example of How Not To Write. And people get paid to put out this sort of stuff? It must be down to the name.
Rating:
Summary: Riding the coattails of Herbert Sr.
Review: "Dune: House Corrino" was a rush job. Written in sophomoric prose, it totally lacks the complex, mind-bending, intrigue that characterized Frank Herbert's best Dune books. Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's opening prequel ("Dune: House Atreides") was a good-enough extrapolation of the Herbert Senior's series, in the style of his "least good" books. (I use the stilted phrase here because even F.H.'s worst books were very good). The second ("Dune: House Harkonnen") book's style dropped a notch, the characters became wooden and the plot linear. The third prequel descended into the pits of bad writing. The style is flat, confusing and simplistic, the characters paper-thin and the plot one-dimensional. What really rankles me is the obvious fact that the authors really don't *know* the Dune universe. (E.g.: BH&KA's fremen are diurnal.) To tell the truth, I slogged through the book as a good Bad SF Example. I'm starting to write SF, and examining all the book's weaknesses seemed like a good way of identifying what I shouldn't do in the future. I think I'll go back and reread the whole FH Dune series just to get rid of the bad taste in my mouth that reading this book left me.
Rating:
Summary: Nice story shame about the prose
Review: I don't know if its because I re-read the original series while waiting for this book, or if it really is so much worse than the previous 2 books in the series, but I am very disappointed. The writing in this book is pedestrian at best and space opera at worst. the plot flow is linear, sudden abilities helpfully appear (like the Bene Gesserit capability to alter memory), the dialog is written like a poor screenplay, and everything is spelled out in painful clarity rather than by inferrence. The only bits that appealed to me were the litte quotes in the chapter headings :-) If like me you HAVE to read the book to see what happens in the series... and hopefully allow for a finale to "Chapter House" to be written then buy the paperback, borrow a copy, or visit a library. I'm just hoping the next Dune book is worthy of the series because, for me, this one wasn't.
Rating:
Summary: Good, Solid SF
Review: This book is a wonderful summation of the Dune prequel trilogy. Anderson and Herbert write a plot with much of the subtlety, literacy, and character depth that the great Frank Herbert was known for. Although it is nigh-impossible to match the feat of such a great author, I think this duo hits it right on the mark, or at least not far off. I hope they write more serieses or individual novels in the Dune universe and maintain their high level of quality.
Rating: 
Summary: Great idea for a series, but...
Review: I was quite intrigued by the idea of a Dune prequel, and very excited to see that it was Herbert's son Brian co-authoring the work, but having completed the series, I wish it hadn't been written. Another reviewer called this "Dune lite", and hit the nail on the head. While it certainly is a complex tale, it was complex for the sake of complexity, not because it was integral to the story. Like the Star Wars prequels so far, there is little insight into Frank Herbert's world, vague attempts at developing the characters, which wholly failed, and the stories are not bad in theory, but rather pointless in practice. To me, this series was an attempt to cash in on a genius' work, just as the Star Wars prequels were great for putting another few hundred million dollars in George Lucas' pockets, while not being worthy of 12-year-olds. Herbert's original Dune works were absolutely brilliant, with intriguing characters and events, and deeply interesting, even for those reading them for the nth time. I would have preferred them left alone, rather than brought down to this poor level by people who will never come near Frank Herbert's one-in-a-million talent.
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