Dune: The Machine Crusade

By: Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 27 hrs and 36 mins

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.

Dune - How We Love Thee!

Brian Herbert would make his father proud. In collaboration with Kevin J. Anderson, he has 'fleshed out' the vast universe centered around the planet 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?

Upon listening

The only thing I can add to this wonderful series of stories is that I want the next one to arrive soon. This was full of so much rich detail and plot twists that I was held in its grasp as the much as any of the synchronized worlds of Omnius.

Grand epic, depressing view of mankind

The reader certainly gets his money's worth with this book. The editors of the New Jedi Order could have turned this much material into a dozen books. I enjoyed the Butlerian Jihad, but I found this tome to be depressing and discouraging. It is a given that to enjoy this series one must suspend all knowledge of science and physics and treat the series as fantasy instead of science fiction.
An even larger obstacle to enjoying this series is the character development. They are all TOO human. The billions of humanity are oppressed insignificant slaves. The hand full of key characters in the universe are all either evil incarnate or dupes and victims of the evil manipulators of history. All of mankind is being duped and manipulated by Serena Butler who is still emotionally crippled by the death of her son 40 years ago and is in the midst of a 40-year pity-party. If children are that important to you, get married, have more children and move on! What about the millions of others in her universe who lost children in the slave pens? She in turn is being manipulated by the evil Grand Patriarch Iblis Gingo. Almost all of the heros are neatly killed off to clean the slate for the next novel. I have finally OD'd on this series

Not bad but no Frank Herbert

The story moves along and is interesting, but it doesn't have the depth of the original Dune books, especially the first three.
The characters seem to have less depth and I find the writing to be a bit trite. Perhaps it's the style of the authors, but I much prefer the writing in Dune.

Dune: The Machine Crusade

Wow, the trouble with this book is that it has a ending. This read would be perrfect is it was another 27 hours. Basically I didn't want the story to end. I'm waiting for the next adventure.
I think Dune: The Machine Crusade and the Butlerin Jihad are Better than his father books.. Well done

Skip this trilogy... for your own sake.

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

really, skip it. I listened to all three, so poorly written, and so focused on crud no one cares about...

What didn’t you like about Scott Brick’s performance?

Scott Brick is awesome.

What character would you cut from Dune?

Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

Frank Herbert must be rolling over in his grave

I was so excited when I saw that the Dune series was going to continue on, but the series written by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson is very disappointing. The characters are flat and act in entirely predictable and stereotyped ways. These stories read like the worst of the 50s sci fi with bug-eyed monsters and screaming damsels in distress. I'd rather read the original books.

An Object Lesson in Bad Writing

It is hard for me to understand the gushing in most of the other reviews or the overall rating of this piece of junk. The son's work (the author) is pitiful in comparison to his father's (the author of the original series). Or perhaps it is the second author who is the problem. At any rate don't expect very much, and if you can listen to the parts about the Cymeks inner thoughts without wanting to vomit (because they are so silly), we are on different planets.

However, this really would have made a good comic book, but those don't translate very well to audible products.

It is a good deal on a cost per word basis (apparently there was no editor), but you can get an even better deal by recording your self saying your own favorite word and playing the thing back endlessly.

However, I am embarassed to say that I did listed to the whole thing, but I took it off my ipod right afterwards in case someone else actually saw that I did.

Fan fiction?

Excellent performance but lackluster story.

As Brian and Kevin point out in their commentary at the end, Dune was epic and depth of layers (i.e. moral, ecological, adventure, political, economic, etc.) are a huge part of that.

Unfortunately, the depths of the prequels--the first chronological books--through to this one, hasn't managed a depth beyond what one could seriously expect from a child's first chapter book. The religious, economic, political, technological, interpersonal depths are comparable to the greatest depths of bumper sticker philosophy, pop catchphrases psychology, etc. There isn't any need to think or use any mental effort to keep track of the characters and stories. The lack of depth makes the journey through this series less enjoyable than one should hope for. It isn't quite painful enough yet to prevent me from moving on to the next book in the series though.

This is disappointing but at the same time perhaps understandable if taken as fan fictions akin to most attempts at making movies from amazing books.

Additionally, backtracking in the story does create some constraints that make the story a little too predictable for those who started with Frank's work then consumed Brian and Kevin's sequels/finale before moving to the prequels.

The fight against the machines continues.

This continues the story from the Butlerean Jihad. It is not a stand-alone work and should be read in order. If you are a die hard Dune fan you definitely want to hear this book. Brian Herbert has some rough efforts early on, but he really gets the epic feel of the Dune series down pat for this one. If you are a Dune fan this one should be in your library.