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Book Summary InformationAuthor: Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson Edition: Mass Market Paperback Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 2005-08-30 ISBN: 0765340798 Number of pages: 704 Publisher: Tor Books
Book Reviews of The Battle of Corrin (Legends of Dune #3)Book Review: Not as Bad as I Had Feared Summary: 2 Stars
Having read the first two books of this trilogy, I picked up the third book with some worry. This book wasn't great, but it did not make me stop reading the book 1/2 way through as I had feared.
The Battle of Corrin tells the story of the creation of the society that Frank Herbert created in Dune and of the climactic battle that ends the war against thinking machines. I would say that it ends the Butlerian Jihad, but strangely, the Jihad was "declared" before the battle that Frank Herbert tells us ended it.
First the good points. The authors finally reread Dune and realized that the Butlerian Jihad was not a war against robots but a war against all electronic devices. One of the characters (a young girl who had a vision while in the grip of a deadly plague) creates the Cult of Serena, which is determined to destroy all computers. She insinuates her way to power (it helps that she is the niece of the leader of the League of Nobles and related to Serena) and unleashes her vision on humanity, smashing all electronic devices no matter how helpful or harmless.
The authors manage to capture a bit of the feeling of Paul in the original book actually able to capture the imagination of his followers as a prophet and then manipulate his followers to gain power.
Second, I did like the description of the creation of the Fremen on Dune. The authors managed to find a way to create a group of very noble, very violent and very outcast people (outcasts from the outcasts) that is a plausible precursor to the Fremen.
Third, I found it ironic that actual robots/computers were the ones responsible for the humans who took over this role once they were destroyed, Mentats.
Fourth, I did come to enjoy Erasmus. He started out very wooden. A combination of the generic evil character and Data or Pinocchio or any of the many, many non-human characters whose only desire is to become a human. By the third book he is actually interesting.
Finally, I did like the slight ambiguity at the end. Frank Herbert basically lets us know that the Honored Matres at the end of his books encountered very strange things when they were scattered by the death of Leto II. Both trilogies have now ended with hints about what those strange things may be. Bravo.
Unfortunately, the bad at least equals the good in the book. Others have pointed out how odd the betrayal of the Harkonnens in the Battle of Corrin was. I concur. It seemed very contrived. We all knew it was coming from the original Dune, so the fact that there was a betrayal is not a spoiler, but I can't go into what was wrong with the betrayal without a giant spoiler. It's too bad because the authors' idea--"legends are often twisted"--is not a bad one.
The other almost unforgivable thing is the author's unsubtlety towards religion. Frank Herbert gave us very interesting ideas about religion and humanity in his Dune books. As I read them, Frank tells us that religion and spirituality is very important for the growth of humanity and for keeping humans in an organized society. He tells us that too much religion, especially when concentrated with secular power, can lead to very dangerous things. But also tells us that it may not be possible to separate the good from the bad in religion.
The authors of this trilogy understand that religion is important for keeping humanity in line, but tend to see it as just something to keep the dumb people in line. They portray all the heroes as basically tolerantly (or not tolerantly) supporting the silly religion of the masses but not being part of it, or they see religious people as crazy like Rayna.
Frank teaches us that smart people and true leaders are often deeply religious themselves, that mysticism and religion is important for Fremen, for Bene Gesserit, and many others. But that it can never be handled. His son does not understand this.
Summary of The Battle of Corrin (Legends of Dune #3)Following their internationally bestselling novels Dune: The Butlerian Jihad and Dune: The Machine Crusade, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson forge a final tumultuous finish to their prequels to Frank Herbert's Dune.
It has been fifty-six hard years since the events of The Machine Crusade. Following the death of Serena Butler, the bloodiest decades of the Jihad take place. Synchronized Worlds and Unallied Planets are liberated one by one, and at long last, after years of victory, the human worlds begin to hope that the end of the centuries-long conflict with the thinking machines is finally in sight.
Unfortunately, Omnius has one last, deadly card to play. In a last-ditch effort to destroy humankind, virulent plagues are let loose throughout the galaxy, decimating the populations of whole planets . . . and once again, the tide of the titanic struggle shifts against the warriors of the human race. At last, the war that has lasted many lifetimes will be decided in the apocalyptic Battle of Corrin.
In the greatest battle in science fiction history, human and machine face off one last time. . . . And on the desert planet of Arrakis, the legendary Fremen of Dune become the feared fighting force to be discovered by Paul Muad'Dib in Frank Herbert's classic, Dune.
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