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Dune: The Machine Crusade  By  cover art

Dune: The Machine Crusade

By: Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson
Narrated by: Scott Brick
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Publisher's summary

The breathtaking vision and incomparable storytelling of Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson's Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, a prequel to Frank Herbert's classic Dune, propelled it to the ranks of speculative fiction's classics in its own right. Now, with all the color, scope, and fascination of the prior novel, comes Dune: The Machine Crusade.

More than two decades have passed since the events chronicled in The Butlerian Jihad. The crusade against thinking robots has ground on for years, but the forces led by Serena Butler and Irbis Ginjo have made only slight gains; the human worlds grow weary of war, of the bloody, inconclusive swing from victory to defeat.

The fearsome cymeks, led by Agamemnon, hatch new plots to regain their lost power from Omnius, as their numbers dwindle and time begins to run out. The fighters of Ginaz, led by Jool Noret, forge themselves into an elite warrior class, a weapon against the machine-dominated worlds. Aurelius Venport and Norma Cenva are on the verge of the most important discovery in human history: a way to "fold" space and travel instantaneously to any place in the galaxy.

And on the faraway, nearly worthless planet of Arrakis, Selim Wormrider and his band of outlaws take the first steps to making themselves the feared fighters who will change the course of history: the Fremen.

Here is the unrivaled imaginative power that has put Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson on best seller lists everywhere and earned them the high regard of readers around the globe. The fantastic saga of Dune continues in Dune: The Machine Crusade.

©2003 Herbert Properties LLC (P)2003 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC and Books on Tape, Inc.

Featured Article: The Best Audiobooks for Fans of Dune


Ever since its publication in 1965, Frank Herbert's Dune has set the bar high for epic science fiction. In fact, Herbert's beloved novel is considered to be one the best sci-fi books of all time. Dune was the recipient of multiple awards, including the inaugural Nebula Award for best novel in 1966. And in October 2021, more than 50 years after the novel's initial release, fans of Dune are being treated to a film adaptation, directed by Denis Villeneuve.

What listeners say about Dune: The Machine Crusade

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Wondful prequel to the Dune saga

This book did not disapoint. I found myself wishing it took longer to drive to a location so I could listen to just another 5 minutes. Very few books lead me wanting to hear more.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great, Can't wait for the 3rd installation.

Amazing how the authors introduce twists while maintaining consistency not only with the 1st book but with the original Dune series. I anticipate the third book to see how they tie it all together. Like with all good audio books, the narrator does a great rendition of the various characters.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Much less bad than Butlerian Jihad

The writing is still nowhere near as good as the real Dune books, and the phrasing is annoyingly repetitive. Still, Dune is a wonderful thing, and even a so-so Dune book is worth listening to while stuck in a subway.

To elaborate on the repetition: once the author hits on a phrase for a thing, he uses that same phrase mechanically for hundreds of pages. For example, this book is about the war between humanity and the AI's, which are referred to hundreds of times as "Thinking Machines" -- it would have read much more naturally if the author had put a little more effort into his writing.

To be fair, the book has a lot of interesting things going for it. The humans aren't the generic "good guys" that they could have been -- in the midst of a war to save humanity from being crushed by the "Thinking Machines" the humans are corrupt, greedy, cruel and self-destructive and also clever, dedicated, and noble. So it's not as two-dimensional as the earlier faux-Dune books.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Dune Series Should End

Having read all Dune related books since Frank Hebert's original,many more than once,I sadly conclude that the series should end rather than expose readers to more pages of drivel such as filled a good portion of the latest installment. While there are rich story lines to pursue, the authors repeatedly get bogged down in just filling pages with words.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Keep being disappointed

I keep hoping that these later written books are worth the read. They are not. Often they aren't even really on the topic of the title. This one was just a rambling "history" without any real plot. Even when one of the characters looses their life mate, no emotional response & she was human.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Machine translation please

What a terrible disappointment. While the first volume of the Butlerian Jihad was interesting in establishing the back story to the world of Dune, this volume falls into the realm of trite and poorly written. Much of the story line was agonizingly predictable and there was little 'science' to the science fiction. Where Dune was able to impress us with personal shields, stillsuits, and long term genetic engineering projects, this book has computers communicating with each other through speech, robots operating spaceships with hand controls (why not just interface with the systems?), and other inconsistencies. I must say I would rather have just read the summary in Wikipedia than suffered through the story.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic!

I loved the Dune series when I read it 20 years ago. Scott Brick's reading of this book is fantastic. A must read if you love Dune.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Dune: The Machine Crusade (Unabridged)

How can any Dune fan resist? Dune's saga by Frank Herbert is an all time classic one can read over and over. So many questions where unanswered that Dune fans want answers to, and with Frank's twists and complexity of plot and people, with each answer more questions are raised.

I was hesitant when Brian continued the story as usually an authors work is not something easily continued by another. In written form, Brian pulled it off. But audio form has been a HUGE disappointment. The narrator fails. On principle I am against abridged form, but with this narrator I might be able to get through the whole book if it's abridged. I'll stick with the printed form until another narrator takes up the story.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Crap.

I love how the author of this book completely flips the truth. some arabs to this day keep slaves, and Christians are the ones who fought to free slaves. This is propaganda trash.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

dear god what a mess

wow. so so bad. it's like the authors got high, became 12 and read a cliff notes of the originals. twilight fanfic is better than this.

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