Rating: 
Summary: Pretty Good.
Review: This book was a nice addition to the Dune-prequel series. The one thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars was that I started the book believing it was a stand-alone book, a belief which was reinforced by the wording of the inside jacket summary. About 3/4s of the way through it, I figured out it was turning into another series akin to the "House Atreides-Harkonnen-Corrino" line. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I was kinda hoping to not have to wade through another 3 books to get to the end. On a personal note, the way this book presents the Butlerian Jihad is not the way I ever pictured it from the original series. I always saw the Dune past as a world not too different from ours (albiet with much more advanced technology). Then a group of anti-technology unabomber-esque radicals seized power and went on a rampage, destroying all "evil" computer technology. And because they controlled society, they wrote history to reflect their own views (not unlike Orewell's 1984). Over the millenia, the people of the galaxy attatched religious and mythological significance to the "Jihad", forgetting the truth of what really happened. I always thought this coincided much better with Herbert's world of complex religious, political, and societal maneuverings. But that's just me. The book was enjoyable to read, and in the end, isn't that the real truth?
Rating:
Summary: A fun and light read, but by no means stupid
Review: I've enjoyed this book for many reasons, and one of them has been precisely what one of the other reviewers here has seen as a bad thing - the relative simplicity of the plots compared to the original Dune books. One of the great things about this book (and why it works so well as a prequel - the comparison to the Phantom Menace is insulting), is that a newcomer to Dune can follow it easily, and slowly get drawn into this universe. Indeed, the original Dune novels, while of course great because of their own many merits, certainly can't be considered suitable for "beginners" to science fiction. The plots often are overly tangled, and the amounts of exposition can be very excessive. Not so with this book. While it is a fun and easy read, it's not "dumb". It is true that a number of science fiction cliches abound throughout the book. But the characters (at least the important ones) are not one-dimensional. It is only natural that many things that were so complex and mysterious in the Dune novels, like the Bene Gesserit siterhood, would start out simply. After all, everything starts small and gets big and complicated later. Another way to look at it is, if some of the characters seem overly good or overly evil, it is, after all, expected that people whos legends would supposedly last for ten thousand years would have somewhat extreme personalities. For fans of Dune novels, and even for those casually acquainted with the Dune universe, it will be fun to discover how it all started. Of course, if you're one of those people who cracks open the covers having already decided what you, the supreme expert, think it should all have started out like, don't bother spending your money. But if you're open minded and would like a lighter read than the usual Dune novels, this is for you. One complaint I have is that some of the plot devices feel a bit forced in there, no doubt in the effort to answer all the questions that the original Dune novels posed. Considering that burden though, the authors did a great job. The other complaint I have is that at the very end of the novel, some of the characters seem to discard their emotions far too easily (in the interest of the proverbial "greater good"), considering how much they hung on to them for most of the book. You'll see what I mean if you read the book. But that's a minor annoyance, and combined with the other, only takes away one star in my opinion. Looking forward to the sequels.
Rating: 
Summary: Wait for the paperback...
Review: Despite what you've read elsewhere, this book doesn't answer any of the questions that you might expect. The only real item from this era covered thorougly in this book is Holtzmann, and he comes across as a standard scientist character (see other reviews). The beginnings of the Sisterhood are hinted at, folding space is touched on, the origins of the Bene Theliax are explored a bit. And that's about it. The whole book spends its time setting up things, but not explaining anything. Yeah, there's a backstory of the Jihad itself but that's not why Dune fans bought the book. The Mentats aren't brought out, the use of Melange by the Sisterhood isn't explored (they shun drugs at this point), the Harkkonen betrayal, the Guild, the final extermination of the computer minds, and many other things are all left up in the air... ...for a sequel.
Rating: 
Summary: The Magic and Mystery continue
Review: A must have and read. The now essential book to the Dune universe. If you want to know what the Honored Mates are running from in Hereics and Chapterhouse. You need to read this book, you will figure out what it is if your are a true DUNE fan and historian. BH and KJA were awesome. They took us back 10,000 years and still maintained the nostaglia of this wonderful universe. As of now you can only imagine of what the ART/HAR rivaly began beacause you will see a small beginning of it here. We will lose a peace of our humanity in this part of our history, but it will be a wake up call to the Machines. Must read this is, I can tell you waiting till Sept of 2003 for Crusade of the Machines is too long for me, I need it now, and so will you after reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Butlerian Jihad: The First 100 Pages...
Review: I know what you're thinking: why a review at 100 pages, and why five stars so soon? Well, if you're a fan of the Dune universe, you know you want to read this anyway, and if the three previous books are any indication, you won't be disappointed, so let's not beat about the bush. This book grabbed me at 100 pages, and thus I feel confident of its ability to enthrall me further. It is the first in the series designed to fill in the years even before "House Atreides," the years the original Dune series constantly refers to but leaves tantalizingly unexplained. I won't spoil anything, but you will see the genesis of many institutions in the original series. Also, some characters that I have ached to know more about are given dimension here. Indeed, this is a novel made of origins and beginnings. Beginnings are such delicate times, and Herbert and Anderson handle them adroitly. On another point, in the first 100 pages of "The Butlerian Jihad," Herbert and Anderson have truly found their own authorial voices in the Dune style. Whereas the first novels had a definite "imitating the master" feel, this novel's tone and style are noticeably different when compared to "House Atreides"; like evolving musicians, they have learned to play the Dune universe with their own flavor. In short, they are fulfilling the sci-fi legacy left by Frank Herbert to my satisfaction. Pick it up, and see how they envision how it all begins.
Rating:
Summary: Good story, bad writing
Review: This book is somewhat better than the authors' House trilogy. I think having freed themselves of the restraints of the original Dune universe, they were able to give free rein to their imaginations and put out a better product. However, the bad writing that characterized the House trilogy remains. It seems like the authors at some point in their lives took a really bad creative writing class where they were told to use lots of flowery prose with tons of unnecessary adjectives. For example, Norma never runs, she is carried by her legs. And they are never just legs, they are short legs. And it's diminutive Norma (because the reuse the same adjectives over and over and over again ad nauseaum). So "Norma ran" becomes "Norma's short legs carried her diminutive body." Rinse, rather, repeat for 675 pages. Just one more example. On page 593, a ship doesn't enter Jupiter's gravity well. Instead we are treated to the following monument to absurd prose: "The gas giant reached out to them, beckoning with a siren song of physics."
Even though the writing is no better, the story is. They did a relatively good job crafting the plot, and depicting the psychology of the struggle. Iblis Ginjo, Vorian Atreides, Serena Butler and Xavier Harkonnen are depicted realistically - if somewhat one-dimensionally. Other characters, e.g. Agamemnon, are less believable. Could he truly believe that "the barbarians didn't understand freedom or free will" even as they were revolting against the machines' rule? It is unlikely that he could be that oblivious to reality. (The whole "brain in a jar" concept is pretty 1930s.) On the other hand, the parallels between the cymeks and the human rulers of Poritrin (whose motivations do seem more plausible than the cymeks) is quite enlightening. It goes along the lines of the "good guys vs. bad guys" theme which I explored in my review of House Corrino. In that review I pointed out that the authors took a simplistic view of good vs. evil and did not consider valuable avenues of exploration in their writing. The fact that they do so here shows considerable growth in their writing.
The authors' complete ignorance of science is blatantly obvious in almost every chapter. The absence of even a hint of the science and mathematics behind the "inventions" of Tio Holtzman and Norma Cenva, despite "discussing" them at great length, is quite odd. The authors mention "arithmetic"; what meaningful science involves only arithmetic? What calculations could their solvers work on after only the most basic training? At one point, one of the solvers sabotages a result by "moving a decimal point" and claiming nobody would notice. If the authors knew ANYTHING about mathematics, they would understand that moving a decimal point is the mistake MOST LIKELY to be noticed. If I'm expecting an answer of 10, and you give me 5 or 20 I might not notice. But if you give me 1 or 100 I will definitely notice. Duh! The science-related quotes that start many chapters are meaningless as well.
Despite the derivativeness of the robot Erasmus, they nevertheless managed to make him fascinating in a macabre sort of way. What is unrealistic is that he would be so completely clueless about human behavior. Think Dr. Mengele meets the Terminator. If intelligence means the ability to learn, then Erasmus must not be particularly intelligent. The relationship between machines and humans at large is somehow odd. Things like robots serving as drivers of a horse-drawn carriage for a human are not realistic in light of the master-slave relationship. The resources dedicated to keeping the humans alive for slave labor are inconsistent with Omnius's oft-mentioned desire for efficiency. What do humans provide for the machines that they could not more quickly provide for themselves while consuming fewer resources. Surely a machine of some sort could do any required work faster than slave labor (which has long been known to lead low-quality results). The final chapters of the revolt and the surprise experienced by Erasmus and Omnius on the other hand could form a fascinating study of "AI psychology" if such a thing existed.
There are several gaps in the plot, a fact which I would be remiss in not mentioning. Without providing any spoilers, I can provide one example. The flaw in the defensive measures the humans used at Salusa Secundus and Giedi Prime was glaringly obvious. That the machines did not take advantage of it in their raid on Salusa Secundus AND that no human noticed the flaw either in the original design or when Xavier Harkonnen visited Giedi Prime for the specific purpose of evaluating their defenses simply defies belief.
One last disappointment in the book is that the authors clumsy attempts at foreshadowing gave me what I believe is conclusive proof of where they are headed in "Dune 7." On page 224 it says, "By the time humans expanded into those distant star systems, Omnius would already be there. Waiting." And in House Corrino, we were already treated to "ancient enemy ... future enemy" (when Navigator D'murr Pilru goes off course because of the amal). Other brief comments in House Corrino (regarding the unnamed planet that Tleilaxu Master Ajidica was setting up to take his BG axlotl tank) made me hopeful that they might head off in another direction. But now I have no doubt, the Honored Maitres and others returning from the scattering are fleeing thinking machines. This bothers me, as I am fairly certain that is NOT the path that Frank Herbert would have taken had he been alive to write Dune 7 himself.
My last thought, which really encompasses everything mentioned above, is that the story is not bad (you really want to keep reading to see what happens next), but the writing is bad, bad, bad. These guys need a good editor like nobody's business.
Rating: 
Summary: Unspeakably awful
Review: First, I am a huge fan of the original Dune books. The first one is a masterpiece of SF, the first three make for a very nice unified work, the remaining three seem weaker and muddled but worth reading.
Second, there were *problems* with the first Herbert/Anderson trilogy (to put it in a painting analogy, Frank is Renaissance and Brian is Mannerist) but apart from this weakness of the writing, my main complaint was that Brain Herbert does not have anything like Frank Herbert's sensitivity to cultural references, so that the vast tapestry of exotic allusion (all the Arabic words, etc.) gets flattened out to something more Asimov-ish (who had a bad habit of coinages that had no allusiveness at all). And the lack of Shakespearean, or at least Alexander Dumasian depth to the characters of the sort Frank developed, leads to the need to rely more on sex and violence to carry the story. But that said, the Prelude to Dune was OK-ish.
I am halfway through Butlerian Jihad and have basically given up because it is so unbelievably awful. First, the degree of derivativeness without homage or irony is just appalling: throw together Terminator, Colossus: the Forbin Project, and Star Wars, some references from Herbert, and stir. Not a single page went by that didn't remind me of some other, better book or film. Second, what on earth is wrong with these guys? Have they completely forgotten how to write? Was no care put into this at all? All through it, I kept hearing in my mind Queen's "Flash Gordon" title song. Yipes! Who names an evil supercomputer "Omnius"? Who came up with these characters? The only weird thing is I kept trying to imagine the evil brains in canisters (marching around like so many leftovers from "War of the Worlds") as twirling their mustaches and tying Sweet Polly Purebred to railroad tracks.
Ugh! This was without doubt the worst thing I've read in years.
Rating:
Summary: Fun To Read, Interesting To Think About
Review: Although the writing and content of these new Dune books don't hold up to Frank Herbert's originals, they're still worthwhile reads for fans. This one has a barnburner of a plot, and it's fun to think about how the stories laid out here will result in the Dune universe we came to know.
Rating:
Summary: A great imitation of an excellent writer.
Review: I was greatly impressed by this prequil. Originally I purchased this volume as a quick, easy read over the summer; I was pleasantly surprised. Stylistically it differs in voice and tone from the original series, but not in a negetive manner.
The narrative is both easy to understand, not requiring extensive knowlede of Herberts original works, and fast paced. Overall I recommmed this book for anyone curious about the Butlerian Jyhad, which remained illusive in the first chronicles.
Rating:
Summary: Error: Offending Logic
Review: The premise of this book's "robot" portion is inherently flawed. The explanations provided within it do not reveal sufficiently why thinking machines would need to study humans in such a grotesque manner for so long. Omnius and Erasmus are creations of rather standard sci fi imaginings, and their motives do not extend beyond heavily trodden literary cliche's set by previous tales of old involving machine domination of mankind.
Sentient and intelligent A.I. in some far-flung scenario of the future would not be interested in something so mundane and pointless as slave making. The entire premise is, to put it simply, illogical. Why would machines need human slaves? Why would anyone in this future world need them, for that matter? Technology in this story has reached such a high pinnacle, making the idea seem foolish. The only instance in which human servitude would be required, in my opinion, would be for the entertainment of other living things. In a universe of starships, magnificent weaponry, spacefolding and highly sophisticated machines (both thinking and non-thinking), what benefit would involuntary human labor have? Why dig when you can blast or beam? Why have a cargo team when you can devise a sophisticated loader machine?
Further, why would the thinking machines need to spend so much time observing human behavior? And if they did, would they really do it in such a counterproductive way? Erasmus behaves like some future version of Dr. Mengele, claiming to not understand emotion, yet seeming to display sadism quite effortlessly when he paints walls red with blood. Why would such a creature ever be tolerated by "thinking machines?" Is this really what happens to you when you are left in a ravine for two decades alone with your thoughts?
In general, the book reads quickly, despite being 675 pages in breadth. We don't get mired in endless detail, and the action moves steadily, hooking us along effectively as we go. As a writer, I find it interesting how Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson fleshed out the body of this work. The book very much reads like a movie script. I found it interesting, if not fragmented feeling at times.
While this book stands well as a general science fiction novel, I'm not so certain it deserves to bear the Dune name. I say this with all due respect; both authors are very talented writers, but do not possess the otherworldly style and vision of Frank Herbert. To me, the most interesting interactions in this book concerned the dialog between Erasmus and Serena Bulter. Having said that, I will note that the characters in this book lack a certain depth overall. While we are interested in their actions, we are not so connected to them in an emotional sense.
If you expect to be filled with wonder and ambitious questions after reading a science fiction novel, this installment of Dune might not appeal to you. If you sway toward a more action-oriented story with clips of curious events, do have a read.
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