The Butlerian Jihad (Legends of Dune, Book 1)

The only post-Frank Herbert Dune book that I have or will ever read, and I wish I hadn't. I found the commentary on Erasmus' frustration with imitation vs. creativity supremely ironic in light of what Brian Herbert is trying to do.

Brian Herbert (and Kevin J. Anderson) doesn't quite live up to his father's legacy. The idea of getting more history of the distant past referred to in Dune is very interesting but in this book it's not carried out very well. The facts are all there but the writing is not up to the task of telling the story that it does. Characters are rarely developed past initial sketches which are then repeated and stretched throughout the whole book. There are odd moments of foreshadowing that seem to come to nothing or don't come to a logical conclusion. It seems to be filled with uncompleted thoughts and scenes. When Serena finally returns home after her escape from Earth there is no real dialogue between her and Xavier about all that has happened (the fact that he married her sister, their baby that was killed on Earth that Xavier didn't know anything about). She just runs off and it's barely spoken of again. The whole last third of the book was building up to the meeting of the two of them after all that had happened and then. . .nothing. I am still interested to see where the story goes although I'm setting my standards low for the quality of the writing. As much as I like to get the historical gaps filled in I almost wish Brian Herbert would have just let the Dune series stand alone.

An ok read, the death of Serena's child just tore me up because i had just became a father at the time i read it. Too much gratuitous death and dismembering. It does help fill in the back story of Dune, but nowhere near the same quality writing as Frank Herbert.

Lost faith in this continuing post Frank Herbert series of Dune books after reading this particular book. Sad really as the House Corrino, Atreides and Harkonnen books were pretty ok, i.e. not to the Frank Herbert standard but decent reads.

Not terribly exciting. Wonder if writing style is intentionally sterile to convey atmosphere of machine hegemony?

A very captivating read overall.

While I wasn't expecting the writing style to even be close to that of Brian's father Frank, I was greatly surprised to see that it was very similar.

Having read many of the other books in this series, I am greatly pleased to see a fresh, new and yet accurate depiction of those details that Frank left out or merely alluded to.

Am currently reading Paul of Dune.....and mind you, the intrigue and excitement has not ceased through each book I have read thus far.

Bravo to Brian and Kevin on their work!!!!!!

Doesn't compare to Frank. But if you love the world(s) enough to learn more without the best writing ever (a tough act to follow, granted) it's enjoyable.

Big fan of Sci-fi and I did like this book. Nice look back at the war talked about in the original Dune books

The writing style of the son is not nearly that of the father, however, i love getting to know the history that brings us to the original series and beyond

A great read for fans of Herbert's original works. As with the nature of prequels, it fleshes out the history of how/why the Dune Universe is what it is by the time Paul Atriedes comes to be. Highly recommended.