Pretty awful. You can't help get exasperated at the numerous plot holes (why don't they just smash an asteroid into Corrin?) and the frankly dated approach to interstellar warfare (not even in the same ballpark as Hamilton).

I don't know why I'm still reading these books - I just can't stop myself wanting to know the backstory to Dune which was such a big book for me as a child.

fuck, I lost the whole review i was writing

summary? at least this last book picks up a little in the end .

worst faults:
- shallow characters (power/greed/honor as motivations? really?)
- lack of motivations across the board
- why does the guild have a monopoly if FTL is possible w/o navigators?
- why does the B.G. form up, just because they suddenly see the magic potential of the humans race?
- so may people have prescient visions on melange, why do we need to go 10,000 years to Paul Maud'Dib if this shit happens all the time apparently
- apparently AI is too dumb to stand against plain ol' human trickery
- spend so much time railing against human slavery, only to never really address it in the end


trilogy should have been:
- strong technological human society
- no nobles or any of that shit yet
- use of AI-driven FTL ships to colonize the galaxy + drive commerce
- AI take over a planet or otherwise start going bonkers
- Have good AI vs. evil AI characters/societies, make the whole conflict more interesting instead of basically a single male-gendered dumb AI who apparently can't fathom humans
- start to form up societies like the B.G. / Ginaz / Tlulaxa / Mentats to provide human-centric alternatives to machines, make humanity stronger vs. the looming threat of machine annihalation
- as humanity rallies against the machines, have the jihad rage out of control, overwhelming the politicians trying to control it, destroying commerce, peace, everything
- show how B.G. etc, use the chaos to cement their power
- much much longer time spans, try not to focus on the same shallow characters the entire fucking time.
- drop humanity into dark ages as the jihad sweeps across the known universe
- discover Arrakis/spice, create Guild, start to bring humanity out of dark ages, bring society from agrarian to interstellar commerce through formalization of empire/league of nobles.
- some final battle where humanity finds/destroys the last strongholds of machines, using Guild prescience to track them down, setup the whole Harkonnen/Atreides vendetta

seriously, fucking squandered what could have been a great story

This is the last of a trilogy (Legends of Dune) that sets the stage for many of the key elements in the original Dune series. I read the first book (The Butlerian Jihad) in early 2005 and the second book (The Machine Crusade) in late 2006. I've also read the first two "house" prequels (House Atriedes and House Harkonnen) but I don't think that series is as good as this one.

These are huge books (actually did them all on audio about 22 CDs each) but I can honestly say that I don't remember being bored at all while reading (listening to) them. In this trilogy you get the origins of the Mentat's, Suk Doctors, Spacing Guild, Swordmasters, the Atriedes-Harkonnen blood feud and the Bene Gessert!

Many reviewers (on amazon at least) have skewered these books but really that is so predictable. If you want to read -Dune- then read -Dune-, don't pick up the author's son's attempt to recreate the magic with a chip on your shoulder ready to hate it. If you don't want to like it then you won't.

The only negative things I can say about this last book is that some of the origin stories were kind of crammed in at the end.

Also Vorien's reaction to Abelard's attempt to save the hostages at the end didn't really ring true to me. It seems like Vorien would have mellowed out after everything was over and forgiven him but they need him to hate Abelard so that they could start the Atriedes-harkonnen feud.

This one was the magnum opus of the prequels so far I think. It was LONG and took you on SUCH a journey, but so many loose ends tied and characters fleshed out. I really enjoyed it.

This book didn't deliver like the previous two in the series, Legends of Dune. I felt it too formulaic and trite and not really grabbing hold of me like the other two.

Overall, I enjoyed this trilogy a lot less than the first time I read it, as a teenager. My tastes, and my ability as a writer, have very much matured since then, and I found myself repeatedly annoyed at the amateurish descriptions and relentless purple prose scattered throughout the books. Still, the vision is there, even if it is not always fully delivered upon, and I am glad I read them this second time. (there will not be a third)