Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Tor Books (2002), Edition: 1, Hardcover, 624 pages
Description
After his father's untimely death, young Leto ascends to Duke of House Atreides while Duncan Idaho starts down the path to become one of Leto's right-hand men. Meanwhile, Baron Harkonnen wastes no time moving against the new Duke by stoking the centuries-long feud between the Harkonnens and Atreides. A new dawn rises when Crown Prince Shaddam successfully ousts his father from the throne of the Imperium.And Pardot Kynes, now considered a prophet among the Fremen, continues forging a path to make the desert planet an oasis.
User reviews
LibraryThing member szarka
Although I enjoyed the first three of the Dune prequels, with this one I gave up on the series in disgust.
LibraryThing member B3agleboy
I had not been impressed with the Dune prequels, but I put that down to the authors being constrained with existing characters and events. As such I had higher hopes for The Butlerian Jihad. They would be able to create their own characters, and had fewer plot restraints. Unfortunately I was
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disappointed. The characters were flat, descriptions dull, few thought provoking moments (other than maybe identifying weaknesses), and little innovation in the Dune universe. The plot was okay, and it was enough to carry me through the book. Show Less
LibraryThing member penwing
This whole series (Legends of Dune) was awful. Flat characterisations with only one characteristic. Twists to the plot with had no foreshadowing and made no sense. I only battled my way through because I had bought them. It's put me off the two authors.
LibraryThing member Nodosaurus
The Butlerian Jihad, by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, is the first of three books in a prequel to the Dune series. The books focus on the human war against the machines.
The human-created thinking machines were able to seize control of a number of worlds. The story describes the machine
I found the personalities of the machines to be interesting in their strengths, weaknesses, and their understanding of humanity. they strive to learn about people and to subjugate them for their own good.
This book sees the earliest beginning of the Fremen, Bene Gesserit, Ixians and Bene Tleilax. There are further suggestions or promises to develop the spacing guild and mentats in the next volumes.
The book violated some of the tenets of the Dune series previously. The technology is explained in present terms rather than left to the imagination. Now we know for sure that the lasguns are laser-related. This felt odd since it was intentionally left vague.
Another violation was that action took place on Earth, which was previously a mysterious birth-place of humanity and never described.
These didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book. It provides a good background for the later stories and fits well with the previous writing styles.
The human-created thinking machines were able to seize control of a number of worlds. The story describes the machine
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attacks on human worlds in a seemingly pointless struggle for humans to survive to an understanding of the machines and technology that helps turn the tide. I found the personalities of the machines to be interesting in their strengths, weaknesses, and their understanding of humanity. they strive to learn about people and to subjugate them for their own good.
This book sees the earliest beginning of the Fremen, Bene Gesserit, Ixians and Bene Tleilax. There are further suggestions or promises to develop the spacing guild and mentats in the next volumes.
The book violated some of the tenets of the Dune series previously. The technology is explained in present terms rather than left to the imagination. Now we know for sure that the lasguns are laser-related. This felt odd since it was intentionally left vague.
Another violation was that action took place on Earth, which was previously a mysterious birth-place of humanity and never described.
These didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book. It provides a good background for the later stories and fits well with the previous writing styles.
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LibraryThing member NolHol
Written as the first of a trilogy of new prequels to quite possibly the most prolific science fiction novel ever created, Dune. The Butlerian Jihad is a solid attempt at reigniting the Dune universe. Set in time long before the actual events of Dune, The Butlerian Jihad details the uprising of
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Serena Butler's war against the machines of the universe. This novel makes a fair attempt at combining all of the concepts Dune readers' have come to expect. Large scale action and harrowing politics are rampart in the novel, and make it quite a fast read. Show Less
LibraryThing member santhony
While this book and its successors, Machine Crusade and Battle Of Corrin, are certainly not the equal of the original Dune, they are far preferable to the earlier predecessor novels House Atriedes, House Harkonnen and House Corrin. Those earlier novels were very simplistic and written on a junior
The Legends of Dune series, on the other hand, are at least moderately well written and contain the genesis for many of the historical events referred to in Dune. In my opinion, they are entertaining without being as heavily philosophical as many of the Dune successors, which I frankly found unreadable.
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high level.The Legends of Dune series, on the other hand, are at least moderately well written and contain the genesis for many of the historical events referred to in Dune. In my opinion, they are entertaining without being as heavily philosophical as many of the Dune successors, which I frankly found unreadable.
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LibraryThing member JeffV
The first of earliest prequel trilogy in the Dune series, The Butlerian Jihad takes place millennia prior to the events in Dune. The book explains legendary historical events that still resonate all those years later. While on one hand, it provides more substance to the actions and philosophy of
Most of the story lines were left open in preparation of the two books to follow (The Machine Crusade and the Battle of Corrin). There seemed to be too many story lines, and a few characters that don't seem to have a lasting legacy take up space for reasons yet unknown.
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characters to come, there is a huge plausibility factor when one considers the roots of everything trace back to a common nexus of coincidental events. Not only are the machines overthrown, but the shadowy precursors of the Tlielax are selling mysteriously-grown body parts (not to mention also being involved in slave trade), a group of "sorceresses" hone telepathic and truthsaying skills, and an aboriginal, outcast Zensunni on Arrakis becomes the first to ride a worm. Atreides and Harkonnen ancestors play prominent roles, and the inventor Holtzmann, whose inventions set the fundamentals of space travel and warfare, is busily developing the shield which forever bears his name.Most of the story lines were left open in preparation of the two books to follow (The Machine Crusade and the Battle of Corrin). There seemed to be too many story lines, and a few characters that don't seem to have a lasting legacy take up space for reasons yet unknown.
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LibraryThing member seanvk
I enjoyed this collaboration between the two authors. It describes the period leading up to the machine wars which predates the Dune story by 11,000 years. It also sets the background to the Spacing Guild, the Suk doctors, and the Bene Gesserit, as well as the Freemen. One challenge I had near the
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end was the connection of jihad with the League of Nobles. The notion of a holy war in a society (Nobles) without any faith seemed odd. How are they going to bridge the gap between the Zensunnis and Zenshiites who shaped the Freemen and the rest of society? Then 11,000 years later society is stratified as before the machine wars at the commencement of the Dune series as we know it. I supposed I will need to read the sequel to this one to find out. Show Less
LibraryThing member AnotherPartOfMeLost
The legend of dune series give some explanations for things that are an issue in other Dune novels. For example, this is where we learn why the feud between Harkonnen and Atreides exists. And off course we meet the machines, and the independent robot Erasmus. The books in itself are far off from
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the original Dune novels. Though entertaining, I wouldn't hold against anyone skipping these books. Show Less
LibraryThing member ragwaine
For being so long it did a pretty good job of staying interesting. Great drama and cool to compare who treats humans worse, machines or humans. Cool dual uprising.
LibraryThing member laileana
I am personally a HUGE fan of the original Dune novels by Frank Herbert. After his death his son, Brian Herbert, hooked up with sci fi author Kevin J. Anderson to bring some Frank Herberts notes on the history of Dune to novel format. The result was not nearly as good as the original novels, but
I really liked the Butlerian Jihad. It takes places 10,000 years before the first Dune novel and relates the war between humans and their machines. Humanity had become too dependent upon machines for everyday life. Humans no longer even had to work at all-mahcines took care of everything. Then they took over. They made slaves of all of the humans they did not kill. A few of the planets managed to form a resistance to the machines. This is about what set off what would become the legend of the Butlerian Jihad which even in the original Dune novels forbid totally and completely the use of thinking machines.
I also read the second installment in this series-Dune: The Machine Crusade. It was ok, but I liked the first book much better.
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better than average regardless.I really liked the Butlerian Jihad. It takes places 10,000 years before the first Dune novel and relates the war between humans and their machines. Humanity had become too dependent upon machines for everyday life. Humans no longer even had to work at all-mahcines took care of everything. Then they took over. They made slaves of all of the humans they did not kill. A few of the planets managed to form a resistance to the machines. This is about what set off what would become the legend of the Butlerian Jihad which even in the original Dune novels forbid totally and completely the use of thinking machines.
I also read the second installment in this series-Dune: The Machine Crusade. It was ok, but I liked the first book much better.
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LibraryThing member bjh13
I first read this book nearly 10 years ago, and remembered enjoying it but not very much of the details as I read it during the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom and had more important things on my mind. I did read the original 6 Dune novels about 15 years ago and decided I wanted to go through
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all of them in chronological order. I have not read other Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson Dune novels, so this was my first exposure. I had previously read some Kevin J. Anderson Star Wars books, which I hated so much I stopped reading Star Wars books for 10 years.The book got off to a rough start at first, it felt like I was reading a space opera from the 1970s and some of the ideas regarding AI and space travel seemed a bit outdated. Quickly however the story picked up, and I began to get drawn in to the characters. You find yourself cheering for them, and hating the evil Cy-meks and the plodding, self-centered politicians. The massive scale of the story, with multiple character viewpoints, also adds greatly to the experience.This book is a pure distillation of classic space opera, and I absolutely loved it. The connections to Dune are there, though honestly this story would have worked great in it's own universe. Perhaps that will change in the later books. A lot of purist seem to hate these books with a passion, but I did not find anything that disagreed with the Dune canon as I remember it.I would recommend this book to any fans of sf and especially space opera. If you are a fan of the original Dune novels by Frank Herbert you should give these books a try. Show Less
LibraryThing member ennui2342
As other reviews have stated, this is not the most well written of books, and some of the plot holes are pretty hard to ignore. In particular the behaviours of the machine overlords and the idea that humans, reduced to slave status, would have any impact is a stretch. This kind of scenario has been
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done much better elsewhere.However, this is the world of Dune and for those who loved Dune as kids, as I did, you'll find it easy to forget the difficulties with the novel and just enjoy the exploration of the Dune back-story and the origins of the complex society that Herbert described. For that alone it is well worth a read of any Dune fan, and I for one will happily work my way through the whole series. Show Less
LibraryThing member Brent_McDougal
First in the Dune prequel series written by brian herbert and kevin j anderson using frank herberts notes.
If you are a fan of the Dune series you might enjoy this book as it expands on the history of the Dune universe, the book by itself is not horrible but it's not very good either.
If you are a fan of the Dune series you might enjoy this book as it expands on the history of the Dune universe, the book by itself is not horrible but it's not very good either.
LibraryThing member drardavis
10/14/12 The Butlerian Jihad, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, 2002. A prequel co-written by Frank Herbert’s son. Unlike the original, this is definitely not literature, but as a space opera it was OK. As a commercial concept it succeeds, because the story and the facts are interesting, but
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maybe only because we try to fit them in to the Dune universe. Surprisingly full of trite situations and obvious dialogue, one of the worst being the love making scene with Serena Butler and Xavier Harkkonen. Perhaps that is all part of the attempt to appeal to today’s readers? Nevertheless, there are a number of very interesting ideas. Show Less
LibraryThing member Michael.Rimmer
Something of a disappointment, to say the least, when compared with the original Dune saga by Frank Herbert. There is little of Herbert Snr.'s subtlety and complexity here, and it really does seem to be more of a cashing in on the affection in which the original books are held.
That said, it is a
19/09/10: Need more space on the bookshelf, so this book and I have finally parted company. It's a moment of personal growth!
That said, it is a
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workmanlike space opera which is fine as a book to take to the beach: read it, donate it to a charity book shop. (And yet I have kept my copy - damn you, OCD hoarding disorder!)19/09/10: Need more space on the bookshelf, so this book and I have finally parted company. It's a moment of personal growth!
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LibraryThing member jessica_reads
The Butlerian Jihad is a tantalizingly-alluded-to history from Frank Herbert's Dune series. This is set 10,000 years before the events of Dune and is the precursor to the Great House books Brian has also wrote. This was difficult for me to finish. Which is probably why it took me 2 months. I'd
I also see where Brian and Kevin both took liberties with the timelines suggested in the original Dune series, and their interpretations of many Frank Herbert's hints are entirely too literal. The obvious and unimaginative interpretation of slavery under the machines is a good example. It seemed pretty clear that the slavery referred to in Dune was a voluntary dependence on thinking machines that increasingly weakend the human race. That's the basis of the religious connotation implied in the Jihad--not an afterthought intended to make a potentially unpopular war more appealing to the people. The characters in Dune remembered that the Great Revolt was headlong and uncontrolled, a blurry and bloody time in history that vented unimaginable excesses of violence and terror. Not the lackluster, even boring battles described. This history is not the kind of history that would give birth to the Great Convention, solidify the already existing Great Schools, or build the conventions of the Dune universe.
When a writer decides to continue a work or world that someone else created, there is no option but to compare. That, is probably the biggest set back for me. I went from knowing the Dune universe to reading a space opera written like pulp. It's not bad, it just falls short for the world most have come to know and love.
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start and almost immediately get bored and stop. I love Dune by Frank Herbert, but I'm not sure that these "prequels" that Brian has added are for me. I didn't connect with really any of the characters. It served mostly as a history class for this world. I like getting the stories behind events mentioned in the later books, but there seemed to be a disconnect between the author(s) and the characters. I knew going into it that the prose would vary greatly from Senior. His stories flowed and ebbed to build. Brian's story here is episodic and I felt it was abrupt at that.I also see where Brian and Kevin both took liberties with the timelines suggested in the original Dune series, and their interpretations of many Frank Herbert's hints are entirely too literal. The obvious and unimaginative interpretation of slavery under the machines is a good example. It seemed pretty clear that the slavery referred to in Dune was a voluntary dependence on thinking machines that increasingly weakend the human race. That's the basis of the religious connotation implied in the Jihad--not an afterthought intended to make a potentially unpopular war more appealing to the people. The characters in Dune remembered that the Great Revolt was headlong and uncontrolled, a blurry and bloody time in history that vented unimaginable excesses of violence and terror. Not the lackluster, even boring battles described. This history is not the kind of history that would give birth to the Great Convention, solidify the already existing Great Schools, or build the conventions of the Dune universe.
When a writer decides to continue a work or world that someone else created, there is no option but to compare. That, is probably the biggest set back for me. I went from knowing the Dune universe to reading a space opera written like pulp. It's not bad, it just falls short for the world most have come to know and love.
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LibraryThing member N.W.Moors
I've read scattershot through some of the Dune books, including those by Frank Herbert, but I decided to start chronologically and read through. I hadn't read The Butlerian Jihad though it's often discussed in the other books, and I'm sorry I didn't read it sooner, as it's a primer on the Dune
The book offers various POVs, including Serena Butler, a leader in the non-machine-controlled worlds and the fiancee of Xavier Harkonnen, their military leader. Vorian Atriedes is a son of Agamemnon, a Cymek (one of the Titans and a thousand-year-old brain set in a canister that serves the machine Ominus). Other progenitors of the houses seen in Dune and founders of various guilds and races have their origins in this story. It's a fascinating view of what comes later in the saga and how it all started.
This really is a must-read for those who love this universe.
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universe. The book offers various POVs, including Serena Butler, a leader in the non-machine-controlled worlds and the fiancee of Xavier Harkonnen, their military leader. Vorian Atriedes is a son of Agamemnon, a Cymek (one of the Titans and a thousand-year-old brain set in a canister that serves the machine Ominus). Other progenitors of the houses seen in Dune and founders of various guilds and races have their origins in this story. It's a fascinating view of what comes later in the saga and how it all started.
This really is a must-read for those who love this universe.
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LibraryThing member Sendador
During the mid 1980's I read Frank Herbert's Dune-cycle. The first three books went rather smoothly, but for the later three I had to force myself to go on reading. I know about the prequels, sequels & others, but never could bring me to starting on them. And then of course, I bought the whole lot
Characters one can believe in (even the nasty machines), plenty of grand scale action, & a lovely meeting with the young & untamed world of Arrakis.
A good read!
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& after a couple of days started reading THE BUTLERIAN JIHAD! Great stuff, though I needed a few pages to get used to the machine dominated universe.Characters one can believe in (even the nasty machines), plenty of grand scale action, & a lovely meeting with the young & untamed world of Arrakis.
A good read!
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LibraryThing member prof_brazen_guff
As mentioned by another reviewer, Anderson and Brian Herbert are certainly not authors of the calibre of Frank Herbert. They shouldn't be criticised for this however, because few are. Also, as a huge fan of Dune, there was much in these prequels for me to enjoy.
LibraryThing member Zare
This is more 3.5 stars but I am rounding it to four.
This was a book I had my eye on for a long, long time. Due to the very present critique of this series I was postponing actual start on it until few days back and I have to say, considering what the book is, it is not bad one. But does it match up
So what is this book about......
Book is about the beginning of the Dune society (as we know it from original Dune novel) - we are given world where lines are drawn between humans (League) and thinking machines (Synchronized Worlds). These two are in constant struggle with each other, humans fighting to survive and machines exercising their muscles to eradicate the humans using Cymeks, cybernetic organisms (basically various combat vehicles and armor to which [human] operator's brain is attached to so they can do switcheroo whenever required - Cyberpunk folks' wet dream) at the forefront of their legions. First amongst the Cymeks are Titans, group of humans who took control of old human empire (thousands of years before this story begins) but were such an a**hole group in general that AI they inadvertently created crossed them and took power itself, making Titans its servants, basically conquering generals.
One of the comments I usually hear is why would robots and AIs behave the way they behave? Well.... considering they were created by humans with all the biases but also very rational thought process (I mean this is why AI is created, right, not for discussing weather channel) is it surprising that machines would determine at some point that humans are just sort of a ballast for further progress? I mean, do we need to doubt that machines would think like that when even today you have so many anti-humanists amongst humans that are all very "rational" but ready to see couple of billion under ground for the betterment of all? So, no, I do not think that machines would be any better than their makers when it comes to coping with conflict with biological forms. Very soon they would develop equivalent of emotions and with it all nasty things like aggression and violence. I mean it is all part of the nature (and one reason I cannot figure out why are we speeding uncontrollably to create AI without any idea why (except why not)..... it is like breeding new biological species that can outsmart us, outpace us and generally wipe us out just to have us say hey, we did it! Wait, biological weapons are that something - right? Hmm....) and to expect that any living organism (biological or not) would act differently is wishful thinking.
So, to say that is a fantastic part here ...... nope, pretty normal and expected.
Then we get to Titans and Cymeks. These guys and gals are borderline psychopaths and few comments are there saying they are so off chart they seem like cackling bad guys from every cartoon or low budget SF. So lets put this into perspective - these are people that took over power from the old empire, subjugated everyone, for all means and purposes became immortal (went through the life longevity extension process), later found out they can extract themselves (brains) and basically use any combat vehicle- ground, air or space - to roam around and destroy things with impunity, become synonym with divinity and basically answer to no-one and start considering the ordinary humans as livestock? So, basically, minus the immortality and cybernetic bodies we are talking about all these Metuselah's that run the world politics nowadays? And treat the rest of us like unwashed masses?
This part of the story is very realistic, if not the most realistic part of the book. If it weren't for the last few years I would be wondering, but now.... oh, no, no doubt at all. And they do not even need to be Metuselah level old, just look at all the righteous amongst us (they would shame Inquisition). So, in short, very believable.
On the other hand you have Humanity, split across the League of Nobles and Unaligned worlds. Here we have a more nuanced view of this future society. While they no longer use highly capable machines (for reasons apparent) thy do have some technology available and can build ground mechanization and airplanes and space ships, armor etc. But at the core they are feudal - reason being that without machines they need to use biological machines (people) for same production results (I especially enjoyed the mathematical calculation pipeline). Because of this (and lets be honest no ruling body wants to pay if they do not need to) population is stratified into ruling class and worker class, but depending on the level of enlightenment mentioned worker classes can be wither actual worker classes or out of the box slaves (as they keep saying in the book, necessary evil). And although feudal, this society, interestingly, seems to be more or less without the large religious structure and influence (so unlike Dune as we know it). Nobody cites the equivalent of Orange Bible, even witches from Rossak are more practical psykers then religiously oriented people. Only ones with very strong religious feeling are people everybody is hunting down for the conceived act of treason and cowardice - Zensunni's and Zenshiite's.
Here we have some very interesting element that is unfortunately present in our times again and again - dehumanization. You see, to have slaves you need to have reason for their existence. In this society reason is punishment of the above mentioned Zensunni's and Zenshiite's because they did not confront Titans when these took over control (because, you know peace loving is always dangerous). So, as it usually goes (hmmm, again those last few years) they went from cowards to slaves, because that is where they belong because they betrayed the humanity (man, again those last few years).
And when this happens, when one part of humanity is ostracized, new work positions open - for people to hunt them and sell them and unfortunately use them for some other sick purposes (enter the Tleilaxu).
All in all book does give a very interesting overview of human society with all its shortcomings. It is much more vivid and, well, interesting to read about. Parts about Arakis and nomads (Zensunni's) that will become a blood thirsty legions of Paul Atreides, are great, especially taking into account that they start as peace loving and violence avoiding people.
All taken into account, very interesting world building takes place.
But the Achilles' heel of the book is scope. It is humongous because author's try to put everything in, thinking machines, Titans, League of Nobles, initial creation of Benne Gesserit (witches from Rossak) initial dealings with the Arrakis' melange, initial development of Fremen movement, origins of Atreides, origins of Harkonnen, how Butlerian Jihad got triggered (Iblis is such a good character) with major battles in between, conflicts and insights into both thinking machine and human civilization (Erazmus the crazy robot, Tio Holtzman and Norma Cenva) to name just the few.
There is materiel here for at least 10 books with average length of maybe 300 pages.
I guess author's decided that would be too long and too much so they compressed this and as a result we are given hundreds of pages of short, very to the point, chapters but no space to properly put everything into words. This is why everything ends up rather clumsy (especially when compared to Frank Herbert's books [again ending with Children of the Dune, those after it feel like reading a phone book]). Thankfully we do not end up with constant mumbo-jumbo that marked the Dune books after the Children of the Dune, but we end up with extreme, very short, almost news-reporter-like chapters where even epic scenes like battle of Earth are given in some weird what-ah?-ummmm-taddaaaa-done approach.
So for those looking for meaning of life and high philosophy from SF setting - look elsewhere. You will definitely not like this series.
For those who look for interesting story and characters and can handle a bit clumsy approach to the story telling I would recommend the book, it is fun and interesting ride.
This was a book I had my eye on for a long, long time. Due to the very present critique of this series I was postponing actual start on it until few days back and I have to say, considering what the book is, it is not bad one. But does it match up
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with Herbert's original works? I have to say no, but then again Herbert, after Children of Dune in my opinion, could never match up with his own earlier works.So what is this book about......
Book is about the beginning of the Dune society (as we know it from original Dune novel) - we are given world where lines are drawn between humans (League) and thinking machines (Synchronized Worlds). These two are in constant struggle with each other, humans fighting to survive and machines exercising their muscles to eradicate the humans using Cymeks, cybernetic organisms (basically various combat vehicles and armor to which [human] operator's brain is attached to so they can do switcheroo whenever required - Cyberpunk folks' wet dream) at the forefront of their legions. First amongst the Cymeks are Titans, group of humans who took control of old human empire (thousands of years before this story begins) but were such an a**hole group in general that AI they inadvertently created crossed them and took power itself, making Titans its servants, basically conquering generals.
One of the comments I usually hear is why would robots and AIs behave the way they behave? Well.... considering they were created by humans with all the biases but also very rational thought process (I mean this is why AI is created, right, not for discussing weather channel) is it surprising that machines would determine at some point that humans are just sort of a ballast for further progress? I mean, do we need to doubt that machines would think like that when even today you have so many anti-humanists amongst humans that are all very "rational" but ready to see couple of billion under ground for the betterment of all? So, no, I do not think that machines would be any better than their makers when it comes to coping with conflict with biological forms. Very soon they would develop equivalent of emotions and with it all nasty things like aggression and violence. I mean it is all part of the nature (and one reason I cannot figure out why are we speeding uncontrollably to create AI without any idea why (except why not)..... it is like breeding new biological species that can outsmart us, outpace us and generally wipe us out just to have us say hey, we did it! Wait, biological weapons are that something - right? Hmm....) and to expect that any living organism (biological or not) would act differently is wishful thinking.
So, to say that is a fantastic part here ...... nope, pretty normal and expected.
Then we get to Titans and Cymeks. These guys and gals are borderline psychopaths and few comments are there saying they are so off chart they seem like cackling bad guys from every cartoon or low budget SF. So lets put this into perspective - these are people that took over power from the old empire, subjugated everyone, for all means and purposes became immortal (went through the life longevity extension process), later found out they can extract themselves (brains) and basically use any combat vehicle- ground, air or space - to roam around and destroy things with impunity, become synonym with divinity and basically answer to no-one and start considering the ordinary humans as livestock? So, basically, minus the immortality and cybernetic bodies we are talking about all these Metuselah's that run the world politics nowadays? And treat the rest of us like unwashed masses?
This part of the story is very realistic, if not the most realistic part of the book. If it weren't for the last few years I would be wondering, but now.... oh, no, no doubt at all. And they do not even need to be Metuselah level old, just look at all the righteous amongst us (they would shame Inquisition). So, in short, very believable.
On the other hand you have Humanity, split across the League of Nobles and Unaligned worlds. Here we have a more nuanced view of this future society. While they no longer use highly capable machines (for reasons apparent) thy do have some technology available and can build ground mechanization and airplanes and space ships, armor etc. But at the core they are feudal - reason being that without machines they need to use biological machines (people) for same production results (I especially enjoyed the mathematical calculation pipeline). Because of this (and lets be honest no ruling body wants to pay if they do not need to) population is stratified into ruling class and worker class, but depending on the level of enlightenment mentioned worker classes can be wither actual worker classes or out of the box slaves (as they keep saying in the book, necessary evil). And although feudal, this society, interestingly, seems to be more or less without the large religious structure and influence (so unlike Dune as we know it). Nobody cites the equivalent of Orange Bible, even witches from Rossak are more practical psykers then religiously oriented people. Only ones with very strong religious feeling are people everybody is hunting down for the conceived act of treason and cowardice - Zensunni's and Zenshiite's.
Here we have some very interesting element that is unfortunately present in our times again and again - dehumanization. You see, to have slaves you need to have reason for their existence. In this society reason is punishment of the above mentioned Zensunni's and Zenshiite's because they did not confront Titans when these took over control (because, you know peace loving is always dangerous). So, as it usually goes (hmmm, again those last few years) they went from cowards to slaves, because that is where they belong because they betrayed the humanity (man, again those last few years).
And when this happens, when one part of humanity is ostracized, new work positions open - for people to hunt them and sell them and unfortunately use them for some other sick purposes (enter the Tleilaxu).
All in all book does give a very interesting overview of human society with all its shortcomings. It is much more vivid and, well, interesting to read about. Parts about Arakis and nomads (Zensunni's) that will become a blood thirsty legions of Paul Atreides, are great, especially taking into account that they start as peace loving and violence avoiding people.
All taken into account, very interesting world building takes place.
But the Achilles' heel of the book is scope. It is humongous because author's try to put everything in, thinking machines, Titans, League of Nobles, initial creation of Benne Gesserit (witches from Rossak) initial dealings with the Arrakis' melange, initial development of Fremen movement, origins of Atreides, origins of Harkonnen, how Butlerian Jihad got triggered (Iblis is such a good character) with major battles in between, conflicts and insights into both thinking machine and human civilization (Erazmus the crazy robot, Tio Holtzman and Norma Cenva) to name just the few.
There is materiel here for at least 10 books with average length of maybe 300 pages.
I guess author's decided that would be too long and too much so they compressed this and as a result we are given hundreds of pages of short, very to the point, chapters but no space to properly put everything into words. This is why everything ends up rather clumsy (especially when compared to Frank Herbert's books [again ending with Children of the Dune, those after it feel like reading a phone book]). Thankfully we do not end up with constant mumbo-jumbo that marked the Dune books after the Children of the Dune, but we end up with extreme, very short, almost news-reporter-like chapters where even epic scenes like battle of Earth are given in some weird what-ah?-ummmm-taddaaaa-done approach.
So for those looking for meaning of life and high philosophy from SF setting - look elsewhere. You will definitely not like this series.
For those who look for interesting story and characters and can handle a bit clumsy approach to the story telling I would recommend the book, it is fun and interesting ride.
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Awards
Audie Award (Finalist — Science Fiction — 2003)
Original publication date
2002
Physical description
624 p.; 9.38 inches
ISBN
0765301571 / 9780765301574