Friday, May 21, 2004
Book Review: Dune - The Butlerian Jihad
Dune - The Butlerian Jihad by by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert
I read Frank Herbert's incredible Dune for the first time shortly before the release of David Lynch's 1985? film version, in fact my first copy was the paperback released for the film. It was truly a stunning read and has remained near the top of my favorite books, though time has definitely faded it from my mind and frankly I much more remember the plot details of the Lynch film over the novel. I was 13 at the time and immediately started in on the sequels finding them of less and less quality until I finally gave out in the middle of Chapterhouse Dune.
I've been very resistive to the prequel novels being written by Herbert's son ??. They finally got me though with a novel set during the Butlerian Jihad, the time of humanity's revolt against their machine masters that is only vaguely and tantalizingly hinted at in the original Dune novels.
It certainly is a serviceable science fiction novel but I did have a few problems with it. I found the behavior of the main antagonist, the computer overlord, to be bazaar and rather incredible. The authors had to reach to far to throw in to origins of just about every convention of the Dune mythos. And, I guess this one is hard to help with the subject matter, but the revolt against the machines is kind of overdone right now.
My main complaint thought is that the novel just doesn't come close to any of the complexity or magic of Dune. I realize that that is a high bar and that not even his father could hit it, but it's just not close.
The Butlerian Jihad is part one of a trilogy but I have to much other stuff to read to get the next books in this sequence.
I read Frank Herbert's incredible Dune for the first time shortly before the release of David Lynch's 1985? film version, in fact my first copy was the paperback released for the film. It was truly a stunning read and has remained near the top of my favorite books, though time has definitely faded it from my mind and frankly I much more remember the plot details of the Lynch film over the novel. I was 13 at the time and immediately started in on the sequels finding them of less and less quality until I finally gave out in the middle of Chapterhouse Dune.
I've been very resistive to the prequel novels being written by Herbert's son ??. They finally got me though with a novel set during the Butlerian Jihad, the time of humanity's revolt against their machine masters that is only vaguely and tantalizingly hinted at in the original Dune novels.
It certainly is a serviceable science fiction novel but I did have a few problems with it. I found the behavior of the main antagonist, the computer overlord, to be bazaar and rather incredible. The authors had to reach to far to throw in to origins of just about every convention of the Dune mythos. And, I guess this one is hard to help with the subject matter, but the revolt against the machines is kind of overdone right now.
My main complaint thought is that the novel just doesn't come close to any of the complexity or magic of Dune. I realize that that is a high bar and that not even his father could hit it, but it's just not close.
The Butlerian Jihad is part one of a trilogy but I have to much other stuff to read to get the next books in this sequence.
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