Dune: The Machine Crusade (Legends of Dune Series #2) » (Revised)

Brian Herbert, the son of Frank Herbert, is the author of multiple New York Times bestsellers. He has won numerous literary honors and has been nominated for the highest awards in science fiction. In 2003, he published Dreamer of Dune, a moving biography of his father that was nominated for the Hugo Award. In 2006, Brian began his own galaxy-spanning science fiction series with the novel Timeweb. His earlier acclaimed novels include Sidney’s Comet; Sudanna, Sudanna; The Race for God; and Man of Two Worlds (written with Frank Herbert).

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 bestseller lists everywhere and earned them the high regard of readers around the globe. The fantastic saga of Dune continues in Dune: The Machine Crusade.

Publishers Weekly

SF space opera titans Herbert and Anderson continue to investigate the tantalizing origins of Frank Herbert's Dune universe, this time achieving mixed results in their fifth action-packed collaboration, the bloated but occasionally brilliant second installment of the trilogy that started with Dune: The Butlerian Jihad (2002).Twenty-four years have passed since the independent Thinking Machine, Erasmus, killed Serena Butler's son and began a bloody Holy War against Ominius, a computer "evermind." Leading the League's Army of the Jihad are Primeros Xavier Harkonnen and Vorian Atriedes, the son of cymek (human brain/robotic body) General Agamemnon, who, along with his fellow "semi-immortals," shares the computer evermind's wish to eradicate all unnecessary humans but secretly also wants to destroy Ominius. Harkonnen and Atriedes loyally report to their Priestess leader, unknowingly the political puppet of Grand Patriarch Iblis Ginjo, a former Earth slave-master. Unfortunately, the short spacehopping chapters neglect some characterizations and more intriguing story lines, such as the Arrakis conflicts swirling around Selim Wormrider's growing outlaw band and the relationship of Erasmus with his human "son," in favor of too long battle segments and extraneous details about the emotionally remote Ginaz mercenary, Jool Noret. Despite the flaws, Dune fans will still enjoy the sweeping philosophical power that surfaces, invoking the senior Herbert's remarkable vision. Agents, Robert Gottlieb and Mart Bialer of Trident Media Group. (Sept. 16) Forecast: A $250,000 marketing campaign, including extensive advertising in publications for U.S. military personnel, should propel this, like its predecessor, onto bestseller lists. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.