working_title's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 stars
Coming back to this book after starting over in the middle of the series and then -you know- feeling the need to close the circle... yes, yes that's weird... I can't help but stumble over those plot holes and one-dimensional characters. The only reason I've read the first 2 books is the character of Erasmus, a favorite of many readers.
Moving on to the main Heroine of the story, Serena, (let's ignore the obvious naming issue here *eyeroll*) who is as one-dimensional as all the others. Three months pregnant (I'm unsure how that timeline adds up, to be honest. I'll just assume she found out during space travel - otherwise why is the child such a big deal to her, after she willingly went on a suicide mission with no real plan whatsoever? It really makes no sense...Space travel in general makes no sense in the pre-foldspace-era. It goes as fast as the plot convenience dictates. why put a human on an update ship after explaining, that it slows the ship down considerably?) she ends up captured, becoming the house slave of Erasmus. For no apparent reason, he shows an interest in her and gets so jealous after her giving birth, that he sterilizes her and kills the baby, sparking a revolution.
The heroine gets rescued (because ofc Vorian gets enlightened by her "why don't you read a history book instead of propaganda?" and falls madly in love with her after 2minutes... ) and makes it home. Unknowing of her survival, her lover has married her sister in record time and started a new family. Instead of showing even the slightest understanding, Serena falls into hysterics, and holds a predictably over-emotional speech about her dead baby, causing Earth to be nuked in response. (because the never agreeing Nobles SUDDENLY give a fuck about an unknown baby of an annoying junior politician... )
Coming back to this book after starting over in the middle of the series and then -you know- feeling the need to close the circle... yes, yes that's weird... I can't help but stumble over those plot holes and one-dimensional characters. The only reason I've read the first 2 books is the character of Erasmus, a favorite of many readers.
Spoiler
Considering that many of the characters have lived for centuries in this story, how is it possible that there is little to none development in any of them? These cookie-cutter-template-characters break even the best plot. All the Titans are evil and cruel with little to no reasoning behind it *yawn*, their underlings have no personalities whatsoever, and the slaves (pets? "Trustees") never feel the urge to question anything after receiving "the best" education and having access to all the information needed.Moving on to the main Heroine of the story, Serena, (let's ignore the obvious naming issue here *eyeroll*) who is as one-dimensional as all the others. Three months pregnant (I'm unsure how that timeline adds up, to be honest. I'll just assume she found out during space travel - otherwise why is the child such a big deal to her, after she willingly went on a suicide mission with no real plan whatsoever? It really makes no sense...Space travel in general makes no sense in the pre-foldspace-era. It goes as fast as the plot convenience dictates. why put a human on an update ship after explaining, that it slows the ship down considerably?) she ends up captured, becoming the house slave of Erasmus. For no apparent reason, he shows an interest in her and gets so jealous after her giving birth, that he sterilizes her and kills the baby, sparking a revolution.
The heroine gets rescued (because ofc Vorian gets enlightened by her "why don't you read a history book instead of propaganda?" and falls madly in love with her after 2minutes... ) and makes it home. Unknowing of her survival, her lover has married her sister in record time and started a new family. Instead of showing even the slightest understanding, Serena falls into hysterics, and holds a predictably over-emotional speech about her dead baby, causing Earth to be nuked in response. (because the never agreeing Nobles SUDDENLY give a fuck about an unknown baby of an annoying junior politician... )
sbullreads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
kxu65's review against another edition
5.0
The only reason this book is so good is because this is the ORIGIN of the whole DUNE universe! Without this story, there would be no DUNE! This is the only prequel novel that needed to be written at all!
erinphillipsauthor's review against another edition
5.0
First off, let me just say how expertly this book is written. There are like 10 POVs and so much worldbuilding and exposition, yet it is seamlessly written so that there is never a slip in the tension. And when you get to those last 200 pages, it's like...I couldn't stop! It all built up so well to the climax.
Overall this story is an amazing, fictive study of humanity and our innate determination to not only survive, but to be free. It was super interesting to see the seed of rebellion planted—that building fire to fight, to be liberated—on both sides of the war. The contrast between the machines’ intellectual and analytical enslavement (and cruelty toward) humans and mankind’s ability to dehumanize our own: which is truly worse? Both take away the freedom of others for the “greater good”, and yet in order to maintain said “greater good”, they must commit the most evil acts.
I literally found myself cheering out-loud when the tipping point came!
Also, Serena Butler is my new hero. She is passionate, fierce, and brave, and I looked forward to her chapters so so so much!
Also Vor has my heart. I know he’s on the wrong side but he is such a great character
Overall this story is an amazing, fictive study of humanity and our innate determination to not only survive, but to be free. It was super interesting to see the seed of rebellion planted—that building fire to fight, to be liberated—on both sides of the war. The contrast between the machines’ intellectual and analytical enslavement (and cruelty toward) humans and mankind’s ability to dehumanize our own: which is truly worse? Both take away the freedom of others for the “greater good”, and yet in order to maintain said “greater good”, they must commit the most evil acts.
I literally found myself cheering out-loud when the tipping point came!
Also, Serena Butler is my new hero. She is passionate, fierce, and brave, and I looked forward to her chapters so so so much!
Also Vor has my heart. I know he’s on the wrong side but he is such a great character
xaphiro's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
It dragged so much for me to finish this book. It hadn't ever taken me this long to finish something. The characters are annoying most times but I definitely wasn't expecting much.
catsflipped's review against another edition
3.0
After thoroughly enjoying the short story prequel to this book I was looking forward to getting stuck into the first full book of the Dune saga. I was unfortunately very disappointed. The first half of the book seemed to be trying to set the scene - but poorly. Moving quickly between scenes I found it hard to get to know each new character before the story moved on to introduce the next.
Having now finished the book I am still confused why some of the character where even needed to be discussed at all as they contributed nothing to the main storyline. Selim Wormrider for instance may become important in future books but in this, the first, his appearance just gave one more character and back story to deflect from the main story.
As the book progressed and jihad finally began there was at last a reason to keep reading and the last quarter of the book was so much easier to read and understand. Had it not been for the last few pages my rating would have been a 2 star.
My hope now is having got through all these background stories the next books will contain more page turning action and less boring facts about characters I don't need to know about.
Having now finished the book I am still confused why some of the character where even needed to be discussed at all as they contributed nothing to the main storyline. Selim Wormrider for instance may become important in future books but in this, the first, his appearance just gave one more character and back story to deflect from the main story.
As the book progressed and jihad finally began there was at last a reason to keep reading and the last quarter of the book was so much easier to read and understand. Had it not been for the last few pages my rating would have been a 2 star.
My hope now is having got through all these background stories the next books will contain more page turning action and less boring facts about characters I don't need to know about.
galax003's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, War, Blood, Gore, Injury/injury detail, Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Medical content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Grief, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, and Murder
dishito's review against another edition
3.0
Entretenido. Pero tiene momentos donde quizás peca de desarrollar poco a mi gusto los eventos.
cookiedoof's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
vayeate's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
I want to call this book bad names, but I should refrain from that. It is just reading this book was painful, everything about this book is dumb.
The only entertaining point of the book was that an Atreides was presented on the evil side, while a Harkonnen was on the good side, so to say.
It felt like characters were teleporting anywhere the authors needed them to, like in the Dune House Atreides, Harkonnen and Corrin, but in those books the Navigators were already established, here nothing of that.
I do not want to go into details, but when a citizen with no military experience gathers a crew and goes on of a sort a suicide mission and an actual military person of high rank goes on thinking if anyone then that random citizen can definitely complete this mission, because.... well just because.
And do not get me started on the thinking machines, they should have probably been called just machines or some them mentally handicapped machines.
Anyway I liked better The Butlerian Jihad, when I read about it in Frank Herbert's Dune, without unnecessary details.
The only entertaining point of the book was that an Atreides was presented on the evil side, while a Harkonnen was on the good side, so to say.
It felt like characters were teleporting anywhere the authors needed them to, like in the Dune House Atreides, Harkonnen and Corrin, but in those books the Navigators were already established, here nothing of that.
I do not want to go into details, but when a citizen with no military experience gathers a crew and goes on of a sort a suicide mission and an actual military person of high rank goes on thinking if anyone then that random citizen can definitely complete this mission, because.... well just because.
And do not get me started on the thinking machines, they should have probably been called just machines or some them mentally handicapped machines.
Anyway I liked better The Butlerian Jihad, when I read about it in Frank Herbert's Dune, without unnecessary details.