Dune: The Butlerian Jihad – Review
This was the first of the post-Frank Herbert books that I have read in the Dune series. I fully understand that there is a lot of controversy among Dune fans over the Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson novels.
First of all, we have to admit that no one could write a novel like Frank Herbert. His style was unique. with the heavy emphasis on metaphysics. Often his books, for or better or worse, were philosophical lectures held together with a narrative.
There is no way that Herbert and Anderson could reproduce that and to their credit, they don’t try. This book, and I assume the other ones they wrote, are more traditional science fiction. So my review of the Butlerian Jihad will be based on what it is rather than how it compares to the original Dune novels.
I was actually really looking forward to this novel. The brief mentions of the Butlerian Jihad in the original novels were intriguing. Whatever happened there affected the galaxy for thousands of years as people still avoided the thinking machines.
This novel was a decent science fiction novel. It had some interesting characters and the authors delved into the various worlds nicely. The basic premise of human worlds enslaved by thinking machines was a solid foundation.
There were some things I really liked. The character of Norma Cenva was one of my favourites. I loved how, although Holtzman got all the credit, it was really Norma who was the brains. Some of the technology that was so important in the original Dune novels was apparently developed by Norma.
I also liked how the human rebellion was started by an experiment by the cruel robot Erasmus. What was meant to show Omnius that humans couldn’t be trusted was the spark that started the rebellion.
There were things I didn’t like. They seemed to have tried to do too much and tell too many stories. For example, the stories of Arrakis, as interesting as they were, had very little to do with the main narrative and was distracting.
The worst part of the book was the ending. Despite being 675 pages, it could be argued that the Butlerian Jihad doesn’t really start until the last page. The book is really a set up for the Jihad more than anything. I wanted to see the actual Jihad, not just the freeing of one world and the destruction of another. The ending was big let down.
Having said that, I have not given up on the Herbert and Anderson books. I recently picked up two more and will read them.
