[.ca] Dune: House Corrino (ISBN 0553110845)

a worthy addition to Dune and a fitting end to the trilogy:
"House Corrino" is the third and final book in the "Prelude to Dune" trilogy, otherwise known as the "House" trilogy. To understand this story, it is necessary to have first read "House Atreides" and "House Harkonnen" because the plot lines that started in the first book build to a climax in "House Corrino". By the time that we get to this novel the former rulers of Ix, House Vernius, had long since been deposed with the last scion of the ruling family living under the protection of his friend, Duke Leto Atreides. Leto and Rhombur (the last of the Vernius family) are working together to finally reclaim Ix from the Tlielaxu and return Rhombur to power. Leto's mistress, the Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica is pregnant with his child. Leto wants a son, but the Bene Gesserit need a daughter from Jessica and Leto for their breeding program which is only one generation away from completion. Meanwhile, Shaddam IV, the Emperor of a Million worlds is seeking an alternative to the Spice that runs the Imperium. Spice is native only to the planet Arrakis and Shaddam wants an artificial source of Spice that he controls. Shaddam is playing both sides of the game, working to control Arrakis through the planet's overlord Vladimir Harkonnen as well as trying acquire a synthetic spice from the Tlielaxu on Ix. If this sounds complicated, the reason is simple: it is complicated. Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson are weaving multiple storylines together to build a whole that is far grander than any of the parts. Brian is the son of the creator of the original 6 book Dune series and he has taken on an ambitious project: to write a prequel series that can complement the original books, expand the universe that Frank Herbert crated, and stand on its own merits. While different in style and theme than Frank's work, the "Prelude to Dune" novels are fully a part of the greater "Dune" universe and are worthy additions to the series. What makes the challenge of writing these novels even tougher is that as a prequel trilogy with characters that we will meet in Frank Herbert's classic (in every sense of the word) novel "Dune", the authors have to create a story that fits within the continuity of "Dune" yet is compelling enough of a story to stand alone. Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson are to be commended for their success. This trilogy fits both requirement and has surely led more readers to discover Frank Herbert's "Dune". -Joe Sherry

What were they thinking? More schlock from this duo:
A Quote from Dune, by Frank Herbert: "...And take the most special care that you locate Muad'Dib in his place: The planet Arrakis. Do not be deceived by the fact that he was born on Caladan..." Even before the first chapter begins in the original Dune novel, we are told that Paul was born on Caladan. How could these two writers miss that fact and instead have him born on Kaitain? The quoted lines above are Irulan's words, and according to this duo, Irulan was very much present and aware at the birth of Duke Leto's son. She was a scholar and would not make such an error in her writing of the "Manual of Muad'Dib" some dozens of years later. Ok, let's preface this review by saying that my first attempt through House Corrino was by reading the first paragraphs of a chapter and the last ones. Essentially I am hypothesizing that 75% of the words in these books by Brian Herbert/Kevin Anderson are unnecessary. The following review will represent my discoveries: A couple of tedious days later...(I couldn't commit to a straight run of it...) Yes, I learned everything I needed to know from reading the first 4 or 5 paragraphs of each chapter and then the last 1/2 page or so. With their tendency toward extra-short chapters, I was sometimes reading more than half of a chapter with this method. Some of the chapters were longer than was typical of the first two books in this series...actually some of the longest chapters were really two, three, or four of their other smaller chapters squished together without the typically banal "Herbert thoughtful quote" attempt at the beginning of each section...they were just trying to fool us into thinking they were writing longer chapters! Most of their chapters say the same thing in the first 5 paragraphs and the last 5 paragraphs. Sometimes nearly word-for-word. I learned from my second read that if it was not repeated in the beginning or end of the same chapter, it was repeated in another. Most of the words in these novels are just....fluff.... A couple of tedious weeks later as I sporadically bear through it a second time... (I really couldn't get enthused about reading anything in this book again...) Ok, so the big question here revolves around this Amal, fake spice stuff: The Guild can examine its chemical structure and discover that it is not the same as the real stuff, but no one else in the universe has the ability to do that, not even the people making it, the Tlielaxu? So, the Guild has special scientific tools that no one else does? Hmmm, but the Bene Gesserit are able to learn about Amal without scientific tools? Doesn't the Guild have prescient ability, the ability to see the future? If so, why wouldn't they use that to discover the origins of the tainted spice? Herbert Junior and Anderson lead us to believe the Guild are bumbling oafs who make some short sighted conclusions that lead them to think that the Baron Harkonnen has the tainted spice. They use their prescience to guide interstellar transport, they use it later to learn about the disturbance of Paul Atreides and the move of House Atreides from Caladan to Arrakis (see Dune, by Frank Herbert), and they use it throughout Dune Messiah to try to track Paul's movements and predict what he will do next. So, the Guild loses two ships in this book and doesn't even consider using its prescience to track down the origin? And are they not feeling, in the slightest way, any waves of prescient ripples that center around the birth of Paul Atreides on Caladan? Oops, sorry..Kaitian... Nope. The Guild are buffoons. Ok, so I'll believe the Guild is dense for a moment. But I also have to believe that the Guild has been using spice for their navigation of spaceships for 10,000 years and they don't even test any of it? They just assume everyone has good will toward them and no one would consider a terrorist attack? They never had any trouble in the past with varying levels of spice versus impurities? The spice has always been pure? No one thought to build spice detection devices into the Heighliners, not even in 10,000 years? No one has thought to build any sort of checks and balances into the process at all? And, there is no backup supply of spice on a Heighliner? Let's put all of our eggs into one basket, repeatedly for 10,000 years, and expect that nothing will ever go wrong, ever? How much spice does it take to make one fold space trip? Now, how many trips would a typical Heighliner make before returning to Junction for refueling? Did these "authors" ever think of that? Here's the tough question of the bunch: How did this Heighliner manage to get to Caladan with a full load of tainted spice, without a secondary or backup supply of spice, how did it make the foldspace trip to Caladan without causing all hell to break loose? So I am to be led to believe that all the good spice was used to get them to Caladan, and all the tainted spice was to be used on their roundabout journey throughout the Imperium for the next several months leading our commando force to Ix as secretly as possible? Why do I feel like I have wasted my time reading these three books only to find this gaping pit that they call a plot? What a waste of money and a waste of my time. Can I give it zero stars?

If only we had a Ghola Frank Herbert!:
I won't say the Dune "Prequel" Trilogy is entirely without merit. Any of the three books is an entertaining read for a cross-country train trip or a trans-Atlantic flight, like a Tom Clancy novel would be. But most people who know and love the "Dune" chronicles cannot help but be disappointed, even angry, at these pale imitations of the originals. The most striking lesson to be gleaned from these new Dune books is the difference between a truly gifted writer and a hack; between a serious work of imagination and literary skill, and airport lounge pulp fiction. I won't detail all of the failings of the narrative - the inconsistencies with the original series, the sometimes absurd plot development, the gaping holes and internal inconsistencies in the story. Other reviewers have dealt with these at some length. My biggest beef with these three books - all of them - is how poorly written they are (especially "House Corinno"). One would have hoped that more of Frank Herbert's literary ability would have found its way into his son's genes than apparently did. (Call the Bene Gesserit, quick! We need a new breeding program here!) The dialogue is often stilted, the character development shallow, and the structure fragmented, episodic and jerky. In contrast to Frank Herbert's elegant, even serene construction, Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson have unfortunately adopted the hyperactive "jump-around" style so beloved of today's writers of second-rate entertainment fiction. Most disappointing to me was the shallowness of these new books. Frank Herbert's "Dune" books were books of IDEAS more than books about events and action. A great deal of their narrative was occupied with people's THOUGHTS, at least as much as with their actions. Brian Herbert's & Kevin Anderson's books, by contrast, are almost entirely devoid of thought, ideas or philosophy and are entirely preoccupied with who is doing what. At best, this makes their books entertaining, something with which to while away the hours. But they are simply not in the same league with the original Dune books. For the newcomer to the world of Dune, moving from "House Corinno" to "Dune" will be like moving from Harold Robbins to Steinbeck or Hemmingway. Reading my way through these three books, I frequently found myself wishing that one of the Tleilaxu had been around when Frank Herbert died, to grow a Ghola Herbert in their axolotl tanks. These prequels might have really been something in the hands of a gifted writer.

Fitting ending to a nice trilogy:
House Corrino proves to be a fitting ending to a what I would considered as a pretty nice trilogy of books that tell the tale of major events that could place before the original trilogy. While the story took certain forgivable liberties with the original Frank Herbert premise, I found it to be within a very acceptable framework. While it would be a mistake to say that this trilogy is just as good as the one written by Frank Herbert, standing on its own merit, Dune House trilogy proves to be pretty entertaining and well told. In all three books, various plot lines were easy followed and they intermixed very nicely within the plot. House Corrino, in my opinion, is probably the weakest of the three books simply because its too pat. The authors have to tied all the loose ends to a fitting conculsion and they probably short changed the plot to make it work. Thus they resorted in changing the premise of the continued story to make everything fit together. For example, I mean, its bit silly that the Bene Gesserit didn't know that the child of Jessica will be a boy. A group that looked into the human species as an exact science should have known such an information of such importance to them far before the birth. After all, we can do that even now!!! In using this case as an example, it shows how the authors artifically created an unrealistic premises within the Dune universe to create a format where they can tied couple of loose ends together. Thus, lies the weakness of the book. (And why the reader of this review should considered my 4 stars to be 3.5). But overall, the book was enjoyable reading and it should satisfied anyone who enjoyed the universe of Frank Herbert....as long as they don't expect the writing and the style to be that of Frank Herbert.

An uninteresting prequel to a classic sci-fi book:
The original Dune is one of my favorite books. Frank Herbert created a world that was beautifully and convincingly imagined, where high technology had reduced warfare to a matter of swords and knives and where an exotic drug both prolonged life and made interstellar travel possible. However, the later sequels to Dune degenerated into characterless strategy books. His son, unfortunately, goes in the opposite direction in his prequels (this is the third) and produces character studies with a bare minimum of plot. The younger Herbert is a competent author, but his story is stretched paper thin in an attempt to include all the major characters from Dune without any dramatic action that would contradict the older book. There is practically no reason, for instance, to have included the Fremen in this series, and very little reason to have included the Harkonens. All in all, this book and the series to which it belongs are unsatisfying and unnecessary. The subtle games of politics and nuance practiced in the world of the origninal Dune universe are completely missing, which robs the characters of much of their fascination. Reading this book on it's own without having read Dune, the entire concept of Galactic Empire seems silly and outdated. It's a measure of the writing skill of Frank Herbert that he was able to make it so convincing in his orginal work.