Rating: 
Summary: Continuity and bleievability not consistent with Frank
Review: I read the original Dune novels several times because they were well-written masterpieces not only of science fiction, but also (arguably) or modern literature. The other prequels seemed to carry on that tradition of fine storytelling as well as anyone could be expected to without being on par with Frank Herbert, and I read those once. I noticed minor inconsistences in the other novels, but they never bothered me too much. This second book in the "Legends" series is a different story.
One thing that had bothered my since THE BUTLERIAN JIHAD was the fact that there existed Sorceresses who had telepathic powers. This exists nowhere in the senior Herbert's Dune universe. Granted, he wrote characters with extraordinary abilities, but these abilities always stemmed from extremely intensive development of faculties already possessed by humans in the real world. Paul Muad'Dib was no telepath, but could "see" the future. He was, essentially, a mentat.
Paul was a mentat, and I am not the first reader to make that assertion. The spice melange, in classic Dune, was a drug that modified brain function and, in the case of Paul Atreadies, interacted with his own unique body chemestry that was a result of eons of breeding in a way that the mentat faculties he had been unwittingly trained in since birth were amplified to superhuman levles. Guild navigators enjoyed similar benefits from the spice, but at a much greater cost to their humanity and freedom. In this cost, I find it difficult to accept that humans possessed telepathic powers thousands or years before the culmination of the kwizats haderach program.
The powers of the Sorceresses of Rossak bother me for another reason as well. Presumably, this group of women will evolve into the Bene Geserit. If the Bene Geseret had, in the distant past, possessed powers of telepathy, wouldn't it have been of great importance to them to maintain those abilities? Hell, if they had that, they wouldn't have needed Paul for anything. Not even the Honored Matres possessed such power. Also, why the hell does foldspace have a high rate or success without a prescient navigator? That really bothers me. And why is it possible to manipulate physical matter with your mind after your body has been destroyed? I could ramble on, but I just don't want to say any more about the faults of this book.
Though this work is irreparably flawed, I must read it and those books still to come. If you've read the rest of Dune, like I have, you may find that you have the same problem. But seriously, I could have done better myself.
Rating: 
Summary: Strictly for fans
Review: Brian Herbert writes this Dune prequel recounting the early history of his father's most fascinating universe under the claim that he and his co-author based the series on "extensive" notes and outlines left by Frank Herbert. While I am not certain that I would not rather to have simply read Frank Herbert's notes, as a great fan of Dune and its sequels, I relish the opportunity to answer questions on the formation of this intricate universe and its complex society. The Dune culture always left a series of questions in its wake, not the least of which being the story of its origins. How did space folding, the Guild, the Sisterhood, and all of the other complex institutions come into existence? How did there arise a high technology but basically feudal human society? What were the "thinking machines?" What happened to earth?
Unfortunately, only diehard fans will be even more than faintly interested in the answers to these questions. Others will find this novel and its predecessor dry, with flat characters, and amateurish stilted story telling. Where Frank Herbert created compelling portraits of Great men and women, his son's work offers little more than sketches. A few exceptions exist. Norma, for example remains both interesting and entertaining. Other pivotal characters, however, fall flat. Vorian seems incomplete and often something out of a pulp story. Compare this central character with the powerful and rich Leto, his distant descendant who dies off at the beginning of the first Dune novel yet whose complexity haunts the series next four books and credibly remains central for over 1,000 years.
Readers will continue to enjoy Frank Herbert's Dune for years to come. His grand world invites one to savor and revisit. The world his son paints, however, is worth visiting only to answer some outstanding questions. If you were not enthralled by Dune, you are better off rereading that master work and skipping this rather skimpy mere curiosity of a book.
Rating:
Summary: Not As Good As It Could Have Been
Review: Having read most of the dune novels, except the house series...this one is pretty decent. It was very irratating at the beginning of this novel, how they kept repeating the information on "manion the innocent" having read the first in this trilogy and knowing the ending it was not necessary to continously repeat this. If i was not a large fan of the dune series i would probably have stopped reading the book because of this.Character development was decent, but killing off almost all major characters at end of novel was surprising none the less. Guess they didnt want these characters alive in the next novel. However having started to read the battle of corrin now, i understand why these characters were killed off. All in all it is a great book to read, look forward to finishing the last of the trilogy. Just wonder if they will try to write another trilogy in the dune universe somewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Another "Dune" novel enjoyed!
Review: I am a big fan of Frank Herbert and his Dune series and was pleased to learn a few years ago of the efforts of his son, Brian Herbert, and Kevin J Anderson to flesh out much of the untapped material left by his death. I knew however I would have to take these books on their own merit.
The Machine Crusade is one of those books. The second in the "Legends of Dune" series chronicling the great struggle in which humans throw off the bonds of slavery from their machine masters pics up twenty-four years after volujme one, The Butlerian Jihad, at a frightful pace. One which never slackens. Jumping from one important turn of event to another, sometimes without enough buildup, the parts of the book jump entire years at a time. But there is never a dull moment. Because of this all-ctionstyle it seems like we don't really get to see some of the characters as much as we would like. Zufa Cenva and her genius daughter, Norma are archetypal in the disapointed parent/dissapointing child roles. Even when things like this, which are reiterated time and again, are resolved it's a split moment of the book.
I thought the Butlerian Jihad allowed us to roll with the tide of history, but The Machine Crusade pushes us ever faster. It's like the first book was a regular long-distance space ship and now the Machine Crusade has fold-space technology.
I wished that the authors had teken the time to flesh out more characters and events as they had with the first one. I'm sure they could have gotten two novels out of the one if they had wanted to. But for pure adventure and getting a grasp on the history, instead of a glimpse as Frank Herbert had always given, this truly is truly worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Decide for yourself
Review: I must admit that being a fan of Frank Herbert's for over 20 years now I was daunted at the thought that someone else would try to "take the reins" and continue his vision. It is a shame that certain critics can not distinguish between the father and the son. Yes Frank did not write these prequels, that was known when you saw the authors names on the cover. It would be obvious to any learned individual that writing styles would not similar, or even in the same catagory. To expect that would be utter garbage. If you go into this as an individual who enjoys the Dune universe, as I do, will like this book as they explore the foundation for a series that has stood the test of time.
There are many facets of this book that will enthrall you, if you read it. I have read so many reviews where reviewers have skipped ahead because they were "bored" then complain that they didn't understand certain complexities of characters. You would have to admit that Erasmus trying to explain human reproduction to a 12 year old was funny, heck I laughed, something i have never done while reading a book.
I am not saying that this book is on par with a literary master such as Frank Herbert, but if you go into this book with that in mind and accept it for its telling of the pre-history of the Duneaverse then you are in for a treat and a few surprises.
And yes this book does deserve a 4 star....
Rating:
Summary: A waste of time
Review: I read the original Dune trilogy years ago and recently stumbled across this book. I hoped it would match the interest and wonder of the original, but this prequel did not come close. I will not read any more books of these two authors. Another review describes it best: bloated. The authors employ a very tired formula. As the chapters skip through the galaxy visiting each major character in his/her turn each chapter seems to repeat the same monotonous pattern: 1) revisit facts from previous visits to the character, 2) introduce one or two new details, 3) foreshadow the next visits to the character. There are a few interesting new spins in this prequel but all the tedious work to maintain this clumsy structure makes the book 4 times the size it needs to be. And after it all, I have no connection with any of the characters. Most of the characters were religiously fanatical homicidal idiots. Most of the remaining ones were religiously fanatical SUIcidal idiots. Norma was interesting at first but I couldn't quite buy into how she developed. If you are addicted to everything about Dune, then the time you invest in this will give you a few bits of Dune "history" you can enjoy. Perhaps the next book will resolve the hanging details a little more for you too. But there are SO many good books out there that are more worthy of our time. If you want a taste of the surreal for example, pick up The Tin Drum (my latest read).
Rating:
Summary: Nothing happens the for the first 400 pages
Review: It's a pretty basic fact, either you liked the prequels of Dune, or you did not. I was one of those that really enjoyed the first prequel of the original series but was disappointed with the second book of the original prequel series. This book, the second book of the Butlerian Jihad, is slightly disappointing, but the latter half of the book is where it shines. The first 400 pages, nothing happens. Nope, nothing, nada. Every other page either paraphrases the Eramus killing Serena's baby, and the other page describes how people react to the killing of the baby. By page 200, I almost gave up. The only reason why I continued was that I've read all the other Dune books, and I just couldn't stop. It was beyond tedious, beyond repetitive. I guess they got paid by the page or something. Only at about page 400 (it's a 700-page book) does the action pick up. Fortunately, the plot moves swiftly and in interesting directions. This is where I regained my interest, and I now look forward to third book. Without giving too much away, there are battles, a few surprises, interesting action, great plot twists, and some character changes. Unfortunately, the only thing that spoiled the last 300 pages was the fact that almost everyone or everything was black and white, either unbelievably great, or truly evil. This is lack of depth was almost insulting. All in all, it was decent. With proper editing, it could have been as good as the first book of the series.
Rating: 
Summary: movie script, not much more
Review: Oh yes, the story is there, but o so tedious and repetitious. There is only substance for half the volume, the rest is the repetitions. I will buy and read the next book too, not for the writing but for the story. Please Mister Anderson. please stop selling movie scripts as novells. This story is behond you.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Sequel
Review: This book confirms my problems with The Butlerian Jihad, the first book of this series of prequels. Frank Herbert did not envision a great battle against robot overlords.
He envisioned a deeply religious war against people relying over much on computers fought by ordinary people against human elites (that's why, in a galaxy of exotic names, he chose "Butler" as the name for the jihad leader). Even if there were planets taken over by robots, the jihad the elder Herbert envisioned would never have allowed people to use robots to train swordmasters or to guide human ships as happens in this book.
Frank Herbert likely would have used such plot points differently. There would be people secretly and illegally using computers believing that they could learn from their enemy and that the ends justify the means. They would have been discovered by the Jihad, and whether they continued to use machines or were killed for doing so, the results would have been ambiguous.
The authors of this series don't have such a vision. But the Machine Crusade was still enjoyable space opera with some hints of Frank Herbert's universe. Knowing that we would never get the story the way Frank would have told it, it was still interesting to see the continued gelling of the various factions of the Dune world--Bene Gesserit, Tleilaxu, Guild, Fremen told on the background of an action-packed war against humans and machines, a story of political intrigue among humans, and the continued and humorous (partly unintentionally) story of the quirky robot Erasmus. We never know from one moment to the next whether a character we enjoy will live or die.
Less interesting was the story of the swordmasters of Ginaz. Since these two authors focused on Ginaz swordmasters in their "House" books in a way Frank Herbert never did, I guess they were more interested in telling of their audience. The rest of us could have skipped the story.
This book held my interest enough that I will buy the third one when it comes out in paperback, but not enough to rush out and by the hardcover.
Rating:
Summary: Fun but bloated and filled with plot holes
Review: Two good things about this book:
1) Fast-paced, planet-hopping adventure in the best space opera tradition.
2) Plenty of opportunities to try to decipher how the authors are setting up characters and events to "lead to" the universe created by Frank Herbert in the original Dune series. Kind of like a detective who knows the end result of a crime, then tries to pick up the clues to the series of events that led to the crime (not that Frank Herbert's originals should ever be considered a crime, except in this reviewer's awkward attempt at an extended metaphor!).
Two bad things about this book:
1) Significant events hinge on pretty implausible scenarios. Humanity is fighting against a computer evermind, Omnius, that enslaved the human race for a thousand years, yet that same evermind falls for some pretty obvious tricks and is unable to detect some ruses that you'd think something called an "evermind" would see right through. I understand the authors are trying to juxtapose humans' passion and unpredictability against computers' cold logic and reliance on pure reason; still, the holes in the plot left me feeling dissatisfied.
2) This sucker is way too long. Now I'm not lazy when it comes to reading; I've read plenty of LOOOOONG novels and some of them--like "...Kavalier and Klay" and "The Brothers Karamazov"--are my absolute faves of all time. But this novel could have used a LOT of editorial liposuction. I got into the story immediately and was really into it for the first 250 pages or so; but it dragged on and on and on...for some 500 more pages!
I've read all Frank Herbert's Dune novels, as well as Brian Herbert's and Kevin J. Anderson's "House" trilogy of prequels, "The Butlerian Jihad," and now this one. I've enjoyed them all, and while the new novels are not yet on a par with Frank's originals, I think Herbert the Younger and Anderson are getting better.
One last thing: I highly recommend reading Frank Herbert's original Dune series before reading the newer books. They're fantastic books (the best SF series ever, in my opinion), and they'll give you the knowledge to appreciate the newer entries on a much deeper level than you'd have without them.
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