I really did love the first title in the series, and plan to continue through the rest. There are 2 parts to any review of an audio book, the story a..Show More »nd the narration, so let's break this into two.

1. The story. It was slow to get into, especially for a short book. It starts as a series of meetings, and slowly start pulling the story together. By about 3/4 of the way through you start to get back to what you excepted from Dune. It does a nice job telling the story of Paul, and over all was an enjoyable story. 3.5 stars.

2. The narration. I found it more than acceptable, and much better than many books. I was a little hesitant after reading some reviews, but it was no where near as bad as I had feared. It wasn't fantastic like the first book which truely is stellar. So I can understand how this would be a led down compared to that book. Over all it worked well and was an enjoyable listen, and it did not get in the way of the book, and may have even helped. When compared to other books 4/5 stars.



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So the producers seem to have completely given up on the entire dramatization thing that they were doing in the first book of this series, Dune (see m..Show More »y review there). Simon Vance does a good job of narrating this story, but towards the end of the book it becomes very clear that he wasn't available to do some re-dos and missed text. So they end up getting some random guy to finish the project. Its actually the case that sometimes one word in a sentence is dubbed in by this other narrator. Bothersome.
The story in and of itself is good, not as good as Dune, but certainly worth listening to or reading. My only critique is that Herbert sometimes goes on far too long about relatively minor issues or expanding upon points that were made well enough earlier in the text.

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God Emperor of Dune compares well with the original Dune, better than the previous two sequels (Dune Messiah and Children of Dune). It doesn't quite ..Show More »measure up to the standard of the first book, but few books, anywhere, do.

Warning: God Emperor of Dune is the third sequel to Dune. Ignore this book until you are familiar with Dune and the first 2 sequels.

It is 3500 years since Leto II Atreides donned his living sandtrout armor. Leto is now a living deity as well as galactic emperor...prescient, super-intelligent, supremely strong, vengeful...and more sandworm than man. Arrakis is now lush and green; the sandworms (except for Leto) are all but extinct. There is no more spice, excepting centuries-old stockpiles.

This is Leto's Golden Path...the future for humanity that he foresaw and planned 3500 years ago.

Like most of Herbert's Dune books, this book has an operatic feel...it moves slowly and most of the book is taken up with dialogue. The story really is the people, their motives and their schemes. This book revolves almost entirely around the title character (more so than the prior books), but, then, the God Emperor is the dominant story of this time and place.

The narration is very well done; Simon Vance narrates most of the book, with Katherine Kellgren reading the occasional female-dominated chapter and Scott Brick delivering the epigraphs at the start of each chapter. Three excellent readers who did a great job.

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And a great reader. This was my least favorite of the Dune books when i read them and I listened to an audio version I got from the library a few year..Show More »s ago. But this reader drew me in to this story like never before and I caught more of it than i ever did before. I look forward to hear Chapterhouse.

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I listened to the 1st Dune audiobook about 6 years ago (on 20 CD's), and really liked it. The EDITED version of the Dune movie wasn't bad; but all of..Show More » the subsequent video presentations put me off. Big mistake.
This is 5 star stuff and I'm definitely buying more audio-Dune

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I was slow in warming up to the idea of Brian Herbert/Kevin Anderson adding side-bar stories to Frank Herbert's classic SciFi series. Had it not been..Show More » for Audible including this title, House Harkonnen, in one of their periodic $4.95 sales, I would likely have never bought it. After having listened to this book, I've now added other Dune books by the Herbert/Anderson team to my wish list.

This book is well written and well performed (by Scott Brick). I appreciate how it remained true to the character personalities portrayed in the original series. Within the first hour, I was immersed in the ever-familiar universe of Dune. It seemed the writing duo made every effort to keep Frank's voice alive in this tale.

Having listened to this book, I now better understand many of the characters and plot setups in the original Dune book. I would recommend this book to any who may have enjoyed the original Frank Herbert series.

If you are new to the Dune series, it may be worthwhile to start with the House series and The Machine Crusade. These books should prove to be a great back-story to the original series.

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Young Herbert and Anderson did a nice job tying up alot of information absent from the original Dune works. The additional background knowledge makes..Show More » me want to listen to the original trilogy again. This was the culminating book of the Houses trilogy and did wrap up quite nicely. IMHO along with the Machine War trilogy, this trilogy could stand on its own even without father Herbert's series of novels.

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I am a huge fan of the original Dune series by Frank Herbert. They were intricately written and exciting to read.

This book has only a t..Show More »ouch of the original spark the Frank Herbert books did. I did enjoy, though, reading of the origin of a few of the concepts, people and history that were put forth in the original series. The plot held me for most of the book nearing the completion of the book I was simply waiting for it to be over.

What I thought took away from the novel most of all was the poor narration. Audible and other sources of 'audio books' have usually never failed to impress me with the actors who read from the book. Jim Dale comes to mind as an actor made to read books. The narrator for this book, while having a good voice and being able to properly hear all the words, did not have the same acting abiliities as I have become to expect from audio books. It was the odd time to hear a character have a different voice which made it seem inconsistent to even have any character voices at all.

Overall, this audible would be only for the true die-hard Dune fans who wish to have a glimpse at Frank Herberts ideas prequeling the original series.

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Brian Herbert would make his father proud. In collaboration with Kevin J. Anderson, he has 'fleshed out' the vast universe centered around the planet ..Show More »Arrakis. This book, like its predecessor "The Butlerian Jihad", expounds on the events surrounding the war with the Thinking Machines only hinted about in the original novels.

With sweeping strokes, the authors take you on a breathtaking journey through the known galaxy. Their characters are 'real' in the sense that you care deeply about their fates - even the obviously 'evil' ones. No small feat, this. Many large scifi books center around technology and 'gee-whiz" what-ifs without truly giving you characters that you can get emotionally tied to. Strongly framed characters are essential for my suspension of disbelief.

The story takes place some 24 years following the events of the Butlerian Jihad. Both Xavier Harkonnen and Vorien Atreides are now "Premeros" of the Army of the Jihad and the best of friends. Serena Butler serves as an almost Deity-like leader who keeps pushing the multitude of free humans into battle after battle with the Thinking Machines.

You can start to see the beginnings of the staples of the original story - the CHOAM Company, the Spacing Guild, Spice Distribution, the Fremen, etc.

While this installment has a satifactory ending, you are definitely left yearning for more even after 26 or so hours of rapt attention.

The authors, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson along with the fantastic narrator, Scott Brick, are deserving of great accolades for such incomparable effort on the behalf of we Dune fans - A Dukedom in the League of Nobles, perhaps?

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Brian Herbert and Anderson have done Frank proud. This last installment of the fascinating prequel to Dune is as rich and detailed as the previous wor..Show More »ks. The complexity of characters and development of simultaneous plots provides an exciting read. These authors truly make the Universe of Dune come alive for the reader in a way unparelled since the original series. I cant wait for another chapter of this series.

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Hunters of Dune feels like a continuation of the Legends of Dune series rather than the original six Dune novels. The general story is fairly interest..Show More »ing, but the individual subplots and characters lack the important subtleties of Frank's original series. For fanatics of Dune, this is a must-read glimpse into Frank's vision for the direction of the series.

Unfortunately, even the authors admit in the introduction they could never match his writing abilities. Personally, I wish Brian Herbert would simply publish the all of the notes and outlines that Frank and quit writing Dune books.

There were several issues that kept me from giving this more stars. Among them include:

* Scott Brick reads this book with a melodramatic tone (think William Shatner parody).

* Each chapter was too short; just as the plot picked up, the authors changed to a different plot.

* Many of the characters were underdeveloped and lacked the subtle details that really humanized the characters.

* Too much time was spent reviewing all of the "prequels". In the first 4 hours, at least 2 hours was spent repeating material from prior books.

* Authors go out of their way to include material from their spin-off books, even at the expense of logical or common sense.

* The book is written to a 7th grade level. Harry Potter has a more advanced vocabulary and sophisticated plot.

* Some sections feel "padded" to stretch the story out to fill two novels. There's a sequel due out next year.

* Authors use bad plot devices and cliched techniques to create suspense and drama: to create a misguided sense of danger, they use a vague third-person reference like "the pit boss" or "the Reverend Mother"; that's a dead give-away that it's not who you think it is.

* Bad analogies and too much flair in descriptions.

* Authors lack subtleties. Compare Frank Herbert's style of refering to about axolotl tanks with Brian/Kevin's style. I feel no disgust or revulsion when listening to B/K.

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I have never been enthralled with the authors' 'new' Dune books (although I respect their other works), but I have bought them all to hear how the sto..Show More »ry ends (and began). I would rate this book better than some of the others in the authors' series, although none of them approach the original works (in my opinion). I actually do not mind the content of this book so much as the style of writing, which is so different from Frank Herbert's (though some may prefer it as more 'readable'). I assume the majority of the plot points were outlined by F. Herbert, but I felt the execution was clumsy and drawn out. The ending resolution felt derivative of several sci-fi movies to me, you'll know which when you read it. Mostly though, I find that I cannot listen to Scott Brick's narration - this is entirely personal preference, but I find his narrations overly dramatic and entirely too earnest.

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A significant portion of this book where back stories of young Paul usually consisting of events that occurred prior to Dune. As others have said the..Show More »re is very little that adds to the story that skipping this book will make you miss. This book was written as an insert between Dune and Dune Messiah and it is clear in that respect. I think of this book as Dune 1.5 if Dune Messiah is Dune 2.

I see this book as a summer extension of a TV series. Missing this book will not cause those who follow the real seasons (Dune) and (Dune Messiah) will miss.

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I have listened to most of the other Dune books and I have enjoyed them immensely. I bought this book hoping it would be just as good., but was a lit..Show More »tle disappointed. It still was a good book, but it seemed a little contrived. I felt this book tried to fill in some of the history that was left to the readers imagination. It changed my conception of Paul Atreides from being a horrible despot to a do-gooder just stuck in a bad situation. The fun of reading is to use your imagination and I felt my own interpretation of what happened was more realistic than this book portrays. The book still had all the excitement and adventure of the other books and I did enjoy it.


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I love the continuation with the Dune series by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Yes, it is not Frank Herbert, but it is as close as you are goin..Show More »g to get, and it is Wonderful.

The authors have done a great job telling the back story, although for me, I had already read what is called the Legends of Dune series, which includes the Butlerian Jihad, the Machine Crusade and Dune:the Battle of Corrin. You don't need to read these books to enjoy this book, but I enjoy the series and it is impossible for me view this with fresh eyes, the back story is told very well, so you don't need to read the other books.

Although I read an ARC of the book I could not wait to get the audiobook so I can hear Scott Brick add his voice to this book. For me he is the voice of the Dune series.

It is a great telling of the background of Bene Gesserit School and how the Mentats developed.

For me it closed the loop on a lot of things just mentioned in the original Dune series.






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As a dedicated "Herberts'/Anderson" fan I found this audiobook, to say the least, fascinating and informative. I'm so very gald that "Spiceworld" nev..Show More »er made it to publication in novel form, we would never have had "Dune" nor would have Frank Herbert become, at least not at that time, a household name or a very revered SF author. "The Road to Dune" is a great listen and I am pleased to have added it to my collection. I really enjoyed the "Dune" short stories, the possibilities are endless for the imagination, one can visualize any number of volumes based on any give character. Imagine "Erasmus Tales", if you would :)

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