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: Uggghhhhh
Review: Boy, was this book bad. I couldn't get through it quickly enough and onto my next read. None of the complexity of Frank's work. To call the characters "two-dimensional" is being generous.
Is there a synopsis of the following two books? I'd rather not endure the chore of actually reading them.
You know what really scares me? Certainly not a moron like Erasmus. Rather, the fact that B&K are writing two books to follow Chapterhouse. Let's hope they take some of the magic pixie dust that helped Frank come up with such awesome stuff and hopefully avoid the sophomoric tendencies that led to this drivel.
But semi-seriously, I suspect the only reason serious Dune fans spend time on these pulp novels is that we are so hooked on the entire Dune universe that we will wade through the horrible writing just to find out "what happens". Who can resist knowing something of the Butlerian Jihad?
One final question: when are the Dune comics and pop-up books due? ;-)
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: A shadow of the original
Review: I didn't expect a lot, which was a good thing. Herbert and Anderson have produced "mainstream SF" -- decent characterization, interesting ideas, and adequate plot, but lacking the richness and brilliantly constructed framework of Dune. As other reviewers have mentioned, the authors practically bash you over the head with things they want you to "get," rather than let you puzzle it out yourself like the inimitable Frank Herbert did.
Bottom line: it's enjoyable enough for a bit of light reading, and for the game of exploring the possible history of the Dune universe, but don't expect anything nearly as good as the classic Dune series.
Rating:
Summary: Much better than critics allow
Review: I have not read the original "Dune" yet. I intend to read them all in chronological order, thus, this book is first in the timeline. I was not burdened with the notion of a "letdown" and enjoyed it as interesting space opera that's clearly setting the reader up with many characters, planets, and plot directions. I feel fortunate that I haven't the preconceived notions of the original Dune readers who can't accept the Anderson/Herbert book(s).
Rating: 
Summary: Simply doesn't measure up...
Review: I have to say, this book does not live up to the standards of the 'Dune' series. Although it's not a half bad book in itself, it just doesn't fit in with anything else - not even the 'house' books by the same author.
For starters, the characters don't have nearly the dimension that they did in previous books. It's hard to connect with them sometimes.
The constant one-line ending to each chapter that the author is using is more than annoying. Ex: (after inspecting a planet to watch for weaknesses against the robots) "And completely unaware of the vulnerabilities he had not bothered to discover..." Of course he wouldn't discover it!!! If he did, there would be no next chapter!!! There are so many stupid endings to these chapters, it's sickening. Half of them could be ended one sentence before, and you know something's going to happen, so why foreshadow?
The book is also inconsistent with the other Dune books. They refer to things that haven't happened yet with a twist. Like the Tleilaxu and their growing of body parts. In this book, they claim to tell people they're capable of creating parts, but then it adds 'but the truth is that technology is years off - they really chop up slaves'. (pls note that is not a quote).
I guess if this book had to stand alone as a story, it wouldn't be bad. It just doesn't live up to the legacy. It's a shame when it seems like the author is hammering out books to make a profit as opposed to carrying on his father's dream for people to enjoy.
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: A bland space opera, and poor for Duniverse
Review: I'll look at this book from 2 perspectives: a new story in the Dune universe, and a standalone science fiction story.Starting with the Dune universe, I have read Frank Herbert's original series of 6 books and count them amongst my favorite stories. The Butlerian Jihad does not capture any of the things I liked best about the original Dune novels: deep characterization wherein you really come to understand motivations, mindsets, and transformative experiences; intelligent characters who assume other characters are also intelligent; conspiracies and plans-within-plans that are not overtly obvious, but are delicately woven tapestries. In The Butlerian Jihad, the characters are very bland and archetypal. The heroes, Xavier Harkonnen and Serena Butler, are so generic that I simply did not connect with them. Omnius and the thinking machines appeared so uncalculating, unintelligent, and weakened by very human behavior, that I was disappointed in their role as powerful villains and that this was what Frank Herbert's Dune novels referred to as the age of thinking machines. Butlerian Jihad characters explain all of their actions and repeat expository nonsense, discarding the notion that they might be intelligent or that their listeners are intelligent. So, I am not going to get a Frank Herbert Dune-style book, nor will I get a successor storyline that fits well into the mold. Now, let's look at The Butlerian JIhad as a standalone science-fiction novel. We still suffer from shallow characterization and simple plotlines. In addition, the writing leaves much to be desired. The authors are competent in many ways, helping us understand the action through fluid wording, and building tension with growing challenges and dynamic events, but many times there are just some poor descriptions. An example: page 24 of my paperback "...the cymeks marched forward, moving as individuals, not an army -- mechanical mad dogs spreading mayhem." Then on the next page, "He studied the blackened paths of the graceful, titanic cymeks on his screen." They are mad dogs, but also graceful??? Other reviewers have mentioned Erasmus as an interesting character, and I will echo this. He is a machine obsessed with learning what it means to be human. However, I felt his seemingly unnecessisary evil slant made the character a bit less powerful; in one of the first scenes involving Erasmus in the novel, Erasmus kills a human at random to show you that he is dark. There are other ways to do this that keep me thinking of Erasmus as interesting instead of "just another villain." Well, to this end I say, do not read this book if you are a Dune fan, unless you like the other Brian Herbert & Kevin J Anderson books. And only read it as a sci-fi fan if you like action and space opera, even when the characterization is a bit shallow.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Example of Bad Fiction
Review: I'm a huge fan of Herbert Senior's fiction. I've read the original Dune series innumerable times. I'm the proud owner of a signed first edition of "Chapterhouse: Dune". I've read SF since I was hooked at the tender age of eight when I stumbled upon A. Bester's "Tiger, Tiger!". I read at least five or six books a month, half of which are SF. I've a pretty good grounding in classical and contemporary English language literature.
Once I've presented my credentials, let me say one thing:
The prequels SUCK!
Now let me elaborate upon that:
In the "House" prequels, the co-authors at least had to be consistent with FH's original universe. Now that they went back 10,000 years, they think they don't need to be that consistent with the originals. The problem is: they can't even invent a consistent, believable universe by themselves.
The premises are simpleminded: For example: How the hell can you sustain a whole technological planet --Poritrin-- with *no* computers (a hand calc qualifies as a computer here), totally around slave labor, and, incidentally, support advanced R&D of Holtzmann's caliber? Whoops! And there are no such things as Mentats or any other augmented intellects yet either.
The characters are cardboard-thin and mentally-challenged: Xavier Harkonnen's vaunted "military prowess" is idiotic. The first scrambler field installations' vulnerability is glaringly obvious to any hard-SF space-opera reader: dump rocks at gravity-well speeds on top of the centralized installation. Boom! Instant crater, forget about kindjal fighters. Yet the heroic soldier missed that through his six month inspection tour, even though he was instantly promoted to command after the same thing happened to his superiors (purely by accident, by the way: the first machine attack missed this too; so much for Omnius's love of efficiency).
The style is wooden, and it reads like the notes the authors passed around via instant messenger while they were bouncing ideas back and forth. "XXXX's eyes were misty, (s)he felt sad." See Spot run.
I originally read the "House" prequels to get my Dune fix, even if it was like having a saccharine-sweetened lemonade when I craved a triple-fudge sundae. I'm halfway through "The Butlerian Jihad", and even if it is awfully, horribly bad, I'm going to finish reading it. Why? I'm having way too much fun demolishing it. It's a beautiful example of how *not* to write fiction, so I'm learning a lot.
On the other hand, if you're not an aspiring writer learning by (bad) example, and you just want to enjoy a good book, stay away from whatever these two have written, it's not worth the hassle.
Rating:
Summary: Light summer reading set in the Dune Universe
Review: Make no mistake - this is Brian Herbert's Dune, not his father's. If you begin with this expectation, then the book is at least a tolerable work of action-adventure science fiction. However, if you read expecting the complexity and depth of Frank H.'s original series you will leave with a foul taste in your mouth. Anyone who has read Brian's original House series will understand the difference and can decide to read or abstain accordingly. Despite its many shortfalls, all but the most intolerant and zealous Dune readers (some of whom here appear to propose their own bloody Jihad in opposition to Brian Herbert's Dune works) should find this latest installment mildly satiating. After all, this is the only new source of new Dune works that we have for now. Re-reading the original, however, is always an option. Several aspects of this book, however, were incredibly maddening (spoilers may follow). For example: the Bene Gesserit, spice use/trade, heiligners, folding space, glow globes and other staples of Dune all appear to have their origins among a single family (father, mother, daughter) inhabiting this book. The various space and planetary battles, as they often are in both traditional and neo-Dune books, are rather silly affairs which seem to last only a few hours in most cases despite their dramatic scope. And after 20,000 years, before and after the setting of this book, the most fearsome weapons in any arsenal are still the dreaded atomics. I guess the League needs to devote more than two scientists out of the billions of people in the universe to research and develop new weapons. Simultaneously, the most dreaded thinking machine weapons are those staples of the First World War: flame throwers, poison gas, and cold steel (various cymek appendages). I guess the ancient technology of precision guided munitions was lost in the mists of time. So, what's a reader to do? Relax, try to set aside the many problems with the book and attempt to enjoy yourself. Hate the bad robots, cheer for the valiant humans, and try not to take things too seriously. And if you want high prose or moving dialogue, look elsewhere.
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