House Corrino (Dune: House Trilogy, Book 3) by Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson
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Book Reviews of House Corrino (Dune: House Trilogy, Book 3)
Book Review: Great Conclusion to Prelude Trilogy
Summary: 4 Stars
I must admit, I'm a little surprised by the mediocre rating this book has on Amazon. While it's to be expected that it would not receive the same glowing reviews as Frank Herbert's original Dune novels, I found House Corrino (as well as the first two Prelude to Dune novels) to be a rock-solid 4-star outing.
It's a fair criticism to knock Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson for not matching the literary quality of Frank Herbert's Dune and its five original sequels. Dune is, after all, considered by many to be the best science-fiction novel ever written. (If you're reading this, the odds are you've read at least Dune and need no convincing of that.) While the Herbert/Anderson novels sacrifice some of the depth of the originals, though, they do make up for it in a faster pacing and remarkable plotting. Even if there are a few inconsistencies between these prequels and the originals, it's nothing compared with the problems you see in the Star Wars prequels, and those were made by the original creator - so that should give a hint as to just how much of a challenge it is to work with a fictional universe like this.
Step back from the criticisms of the obsessives and those who simply can't bear other authors treading on the sacred ground Frank Herbert created, and you get my perspective: A science-fiction fan, a fan of the Dune series and of well-plotted novels in general. For me, these novels triumph - big time. The curse of the prequel is that in the end you wind up right back where you started (in this case, not long before the original Dune begins). The Prelude to Dune novels manage to make it all interesting and compelling. There is plenty of room for surprises in these books, and quite a bit of suspense. One example is Paul's birth. Of course he will survive, and so will Jessica - yet the birth sequence is so tense I felt like I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.
The Herbert/Anderson novels expertly set up the plot-points like a set of dominoes, positioning the many characters just-so, piece by piece, and when the dominoes start to fall, I find it tremendously satisfying. So, no, it's not a Frank Herbert book, but it's a great conclusion to a remarkable trilogy.
I was shocked to read an on-line review of this book by someone who hadn't read the first two House books, so I'll conclude with this: If you've read the original Dune novels and enjoyed House Atreides, I think you'll enjoy following up with House Harkonnen and House Corrino. If you didn't like House Atreides, you will probably want to steer clear of the other Herbert/Anderson novels. Above all, you definitely should not read House Corrino until you've read House Atreides and House Harkonnen.
Book Review: Better than the First Two Prequels, Still Problems
Summary: 4 Stars
House Corrino is the third prequel to the Dune series by Frank Herbert. These books have told the story of the political maneuverings that led up to the Atreides arrival on Arrakis/Dune that sets in motion the ascent of Paul to the throne and to messiah status. All of these books deal with the feud between the Harkonnens and the Atreides. But these books add extremely interesting layers regarding the personalities of the emperor, the Ixians, the Tleilaxu and many others throughout the galaxy. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and the various characters seem to be similar to how Frank Herbert would have imagined them, although, of course, not nearly as textured as Frank would have made them.
The writers are good storytellers and the universe that Frank Herbert imagined makes it very easy to spin a good yarn. The authors are clearly not deep thinkers like Frank Herbert was. This can be seen by the fact that the authors begin each chapter with a saying, a quote from an imagined book or something similar. While I always looked forward to the next quote by Frank Herbert, I am hard-pressed not to skip the quotes in these books. They are often little more than fortune cookie sayings.
The books continue to contain little editing problems. At the beginning, for instance, Liet-Kynes goes to Kaitan to meet with the emperor and is introduced as Liet-Kynes. In Dune, it is clear that no non-Fremen know that the planetologist Kynes is also the Fremen Liet. There is also a problem with what happens to de Vries in this book because in Dune, the Baron tells de Vries that he wrongly predicted that Jessica would bear a daughter, which would have been impossible if events occurred as they do in House Corrino.
But overall, I don't fault the authors much for these mistakes. Frank Herbert created a hugely complex world and I am sure I would have made at least equally glaring mistakes (and that editors would not have caught them) if I had written this book.
I now look forward to reading the prequel to the prequels that has just come out on the Butlerian Jihad.
Book Review: Fitting ending to a nice trilogy
Summary: 4 Stars
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.
Book Review: An interesting conclusion to the Dune prequel trilogy
Summary: 4 Stars
House Corrino is a worthy ending to the prequel trilogy to the great novel "Dune." I thoroughly enjoyed it. In this novel, the Emperor Shaddam Corrino tries to conclude his plan to remake the Galactic Imperium through his secret artificial spice project. House Atreides secures its position as Duke Leto gains experience as the Duke of Caladan. Overall, this is a very interesting storyline that holds the reader's interest and leads up to the original Dune novel theme. A book that can do all that is not unimpressive.
In fact, House Corrino does a fair job of explaining the inner workings of the Galactic Imperium--better than Dune itself did. The reader learns a great deal about House-to-House warfare, the strictures of kanly, and other elements of the Dune universe which the original Dune novel really only just touched upon. The Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, similarly, springs to life in this novel.
I went back and forth between three stars and four, but ultimately went with four stars because this book passed one of my major tests: I enjoyed reading it the second time as much as the first. This is a genuine story of political intrigue that is internally consistent, features decent character development (perhaps even better than Frank Herbert achieved in Dune; character development was never one of Frank Herbert's major strengths.)
Overall this is an engaging novel that Dune enthusiasts won't want to pass up. I thought it was clearly better than the sequels to Dune that Frank Herbert himself wrote.
Book Review: definitely worthwhile
Summary: 4 Stars
As I mentioned in my review of House Atreides, it took me a while to muster-up the courage to attempt this 'prelude' series as I was concerned that it would harm the Dune franchise. I decided to read the series straight through (all nine books). I can safely say that the prelude series ADDS something that was missing from the original series."Dune" is, unequivocally, the greatest science fiction novel of all time. And now that we have a thorough backstory, it has only become greater. "Dune" begins with a 15 year old Paul Atreides who quickly becomes Duke Paul Atreides (amongst other titles). In the beginning of Herbert's six novel series Paul's father Leto is portrayed as a great man, but we don't know why. We also know that there are flaws in the ruling house - Corrino, ie Emperor Shaddam IV, but we are not given any details.
This is the reason why the prelude series is worthwhile. We find out the recent history that shapes the events in the novel "Dune". That is, we get first-hand knowledge of the relationship between Fenring and Shaddam and a greater feeling for their characters and motives. We understand now the threat that Leto posed for the throne which led to the Atreides move to Arrakis. We also get a greater appreciation of Ix and revilement of the Tleilaxu. The inclusion of these events into the saga gives the reader a greater understanding of the Dune universe.
I definitely recommend the prelude series to any 'Dune' fan who is prepared to take it for what it is - a well written backstory.