Review of Dune: the Butlerian Jihad

Although Frank Herbert first published his famous novel Dune in 1965, his son Brian Herbert and co-author Kevin J. Anderson have begun to flesh out the mythos that the original Herbert left unfinished upon his death. In The Butlerian Jihad, the first novel of their prequel series entitled Legends of Dune, Herbert and Anderson show the origins of the great human war against thinking machines that was such a crucial part of the original Dune universe. This novel depicts the very beginnings of that conflict and also explores the roots of some of the other staples of the Dune mythos including the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, the Mentats, and the rival noble families of the Harkonnens and the Atreides.

One of the great strengths of this novel is the fast-paced plot. The short chapters often give only a snapshot of the action that takes place, the they are tightly plotted, with no extraneous details. Surprisingly, the authors use these micro-chapters to great effect, drawing the reader ever onward in search of that next sequence. Although some might complain that the constantly shifting perspectives (there are over five different point of view characters,) makes the novel slightly confusing and hard to follow, this is untrue. The short chapters keep the impetus of the story flowing onward, rather than allowing the reader to get distracted.

Despite what one might expect, these short chapters give a lot of room for character development, and one feels drawn into their plights and predicaments, their heartbreaks and joys, as much as would be possible in a novel with more extended chapters. Indeed, Serena Butler (whose son's murder by the cruel thinking machine Erasmus sparks the original human slave rebellion on Earth,) is one of the most sympathetic and well-drawn characters in the Dune universe. She is a strong, willful woman who is not willing to let others do what she could do for herself, and even goes so far as to sacrifice her own safety to liberate the humans of a machine-enslaved planet.

Lest anyone think that this new series lacks the philosophical heaviness that elevated the original work into the world of the literary, this novel asks some deep and very troubling questions about the nature of humanity and the value of human life. The thinking machines, especially the individualistic Erasmus, see humans as expendable, while the League of Nobles (the free humans living on planets that have not yet been enslaved) value human life intensely yet have no qualms about enslaving those they deem to have failed humanity. Who, in the end, has the moral authority? There are no easy answers to these questions, which is part of what makes this a joy to read.

For those who enjoyed the original works of Frank Herbert, this is a much-desired explanation of the back story. Be warned, however, that the prose style is absolutely nothing like that of the original, which is probably a good thing, as an imitation of the elder Herbert would no doubt come off sounding phony and contrived. This novel, however, succeeds in all the important ways.