As a Dune junkie, I have read the "House" series from Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson. So I knew what to expect with the audible version of Butlerian Jihad. A light, plot-dependent read with just enough respect to the original series to satisy my need for more info on the world of Dune. I knew it wouldn't have the depth, subtlety and richness of the original series, and it didn't. It is entertaining enough for a listen, but you'll be left wanting more.

This is a very enjoyable book that will keep you coming back for more. Provides a good foundation for the Dune series. I hope to see a sequel, I would love to hear the rest of the story.

I am amazed how close Brian Herbert is to his father in writing style. It is somewhat different, only to be expected, but very much in keeping with the Dune series. Excellent.

I really wanted to like this book, being a huge Dune fan (I've read Dune at least four times now, and I'm sure I'll read it again) but this book was painful. Still, despite the amaturish writing and obvious plotting, it's still good to learn more about the universe of Dune.

A few bits stood out -- the writing appears not to be able to think of alternative phrasing, so the book is extremely repetitive. This might not be as annoying in written form, but after you hear the phrase "thinking machines" fifty times in an audio book, you want to scream at the author to exert a few neurons. There's no reason that the cyborgs would make their single most vulnerable component easily externally accessible in combat -- they're suppose to be smart, not suicidal. And the number of "coincidences" that occur is absurd -- most of the important inventions of the next 10,000 years occur during a few years, because the author wanted to be able to write about the origin of various interesting plot devices. To me, it looked like the editor decided that it didn't matter what they printed -- if it said "Dune" and "Herbert" on it, people would buy it.

And, damn them, it worked on me.

I found this novel to be throughly enjoyable. Don't nitpick. Just relax and enjoy the story and the characters.

I've been reading this series since the first "Dune" was an exciting new concept. I listened to this one and didn't realize the new author until I had finished enjoying the book. Definately recommended!

This is the second book of this series. It is great, the type of book you don't want to end. It lays the groundwork for much of the Dune series. The presentation was well done. I can't wait for the next book in the series.

The first book in a epic series is an amazing listen which sends you to the past of the Dune universe and shines a light on the beginning of the saga we all love.

Since I watched the movie Dune before I read any of the books I will always remember the scene where Paul Atreides overcomes the pain amplifier test given by the mother superior. Just a great scene where he overcomes his human nature. The origins of the pain amplifiers and the other important things it spawned were great to hear about in this series.

Seleme Worm Rider

Twists, origins, action.

The explanations of Dune's technology and politics.

Haven't heard his other performances.

Yes.

Was my first book on tape and it was a great experience.

This might have been a slightly better book if it were about 1/3 it's current length. The authors have a tendancy to repeat the exact same thing over and over and over and over again using only slight variations in word choice.

There are huge logic wholes such as the thinking machines being held back by a planetary shield that would fry their gell brains but not those of the cymechs (because just using the term cyborg is so uncool) under their control who had human brains. The cymechs drop through the shield to the planets surface and attempt to disable the shield in a combat where all them apparently stood around doing nothing while the humans ganged up on one after another because that was the only way the puny human weapons could destroy the cymechs. Of course after only destroying a few of the cymechs the remainder flee the planet. Um, since cymechs and human ships and their electronics could go through the sheild why would the thinking machines waste time sending the cymechs through rather than just firing missiles or bombs on the shield generators? Or, since their objective was to destroy the humans anyway, why not just bomb the entire surface of the planet into oblivion -- they had 100 years to prepare for this battle.

The characters seemed like they were drawn up by an illiterate 13 year old and were praised ad nauseum by the authors. For instance an officer is referred to as a military genius because he ordered soldiers to defend the shield generators mentioned above rather than defending a city. I'm sorry, but there's just not a lot of thought necessary to determine that defending the only thing keeping the entire planet alive is probably a better option than protecting a nearby city.

The narrator is also pretty bad. He has a good voice but occasionally speaks for characters in his narrator voice which was distracting enough to snap me out of the story. Some of his character voices are pretty weak too, especially some of the robots.

If you think the "G.I. Joe" movie had a solid level of realism, or the plot of "The Last Airbender" was deep, complex and intriguing, then this may be a very entertaining book for you. If you are a die hard fanatic of the Dune mythos, this might be bearable. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else.

I only listened to the first 4 or 5 hours before I just couldn't take saying "Oh please, that is so stupid!" anymore.