The Machine Crusade (Legends of Dune, Book 2)

The Machine Crusade is the second in a trilogy of the Legends of Dune, chronicling the Butlerian Jihad of man battling intelligent machines. This book didn't contribute anything sufficiently important to warrant its own volume, it should have been incorporated into the other two works in the

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series.

I was sorely disappointed in this book. The writing is bad, the dialog horrible. The Dune series is famous for its political intrigue, but in this book, the resolutions came too quickly and felt contrived. It was difficult to work through the book, toward the end, I just wanted to finish it.

This book had extreme violence, which goes against the grain of all other Dune books i've read.

On the positive side, it was good to read about some of the early events in the universe and have things explained. At a high level, there were interesting events taking place, it just wasn't well told.

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This really is an immense book but stays interesting again. Cool to see origins of the navigators and the freman. Hard to believe that about 5 main characters die at the end and there's still another book after this.

I find it tremendously entertaining to read about events in the pre-history of the Dune universe. The authors have done a masterful job of telling the story of how the Dune universe came to be. Readers of the Dune novels know what happened in the past (at least as much as history can be relied upon

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after thousands of years), but like studying our own history, the "hows and whys" often get lost. This book (and the others in this three-book saga) put faces to this ancient historical events.

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I'm not sure why I pursue this series. Obviously a fan of Frank Herbert's Dune series I've continued to read these as Brian Herbert publishes them but am continually disappointed. It's intersting to see how the eventual Dune empire came into being but the characters just don't have the grab-yer of

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the original. Still of interest enough that I will look out for the next.

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My complaint about the first book in the trilogy was the number of character threads being followed. By the end of this book, no fewer than 10 have ended in main character deaths. That leaves very few moving on to the last book of the series.

The war became more complicated, and in spite of an

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attempt at a "white peace" that lead to one of the major character blood baths, the almost 40 year old war isn't substantially closer to completion. But I'm sure it will be..."space folding" ships capable of instantaneous travel have just been created by the humans.

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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.

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Recently finished Dune: The Machine Crusade. This book is a part of the Legends of Dune trilogy. It is the second book in the series. In this book we recognize the formation of the Guild as well as the evolving role of Spice in trade. The battle against the Evermind is still ongoing but the

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independent Android, Erasmus, is having second thoughts about his loyalty to Omnious. A very good read. In fact, it was hard for me to not go out and buy the third book right away.

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I started to read this book immediately after finishing the first in the series, The Butlerian Jihad.The book starts off about 30 years after the first one, and moves forward pretty rapidly from there. Many of the characters are carried over from the first novel, but adapted and changed by the

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events that have occurred. Some characters become more sympathetic, one character in particular goes from being a likable hero into an absolute monster. The events in this book are interesting, and it reads well. There are some surprising events that shake things up quite a bit, and some very unexpected deaths at this stage of the series.This book brings many elements more inline with the familair Dune canon, explaining away some things that seemed like inconsistencies. I would still highly recommend the series.

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Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson continue their tale of the Butlerian Jihad in this second enormous installment of a trilogy. They continue to plant the seeds which will grow into the world of Frank Herbert’s Dune. Some of the characters have become a little repetitive, but overall, it makes

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for interesting reading if you’ve read the Dune novels.

Published in hardcover by Tor.

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Second in the prequel trilogy, this one is (again) just okay. The story is just too disjointed, the characters just a bit too black/white for it to be more than an interesting foray into someone's idea of how Herbert's DUNE got its start.

This overall narrative arc is interesting and it is better than the previous book, The Butlerian Jihad, but there were logical inconsistencies that bothered me. One of them was the sense that Herbert and Anderson give that traditional space travel takes time between stars yet every now and then

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when it is convenient to the narrative they make it seem that it is of no consequence for a space ship to change course and go someplace else in an inconsequential amount of time. In addition, the cogitors and cymeks are disembodied brains and thinking machines are artificial intelligences, yet they are written as if the brains or central processing units themselves have eyes. Why would a brain need to elevate itself to look a human in the eye? Why could they not simply use a photosensitive circuit on an elevating arm do the looking for them? There are other weird examples like that in the book but those are the two that come to mind. As a result this book is really science fantasy rather than science fiction.

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