Copyright 2004 by M. Uli Kusterer Fri, 29 Nov -1901 11:06:32 GMT Comments on article blog-dune-prequel-series-one at Zathras.de http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-dune-prequel-series-one.htm witness_dot_of_dot_teachtext_at_gmx_dot_net (M. Uli Kusterer) witness_dot_of_dot_teachtext_at_gmx_dot_net (M. Uli Kusterer) en-us http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-dune-prequel-series-one.htm#comment2 http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-dune-prequel-series-one.htm#comment2 Uli Kusterer writes:
I haven't read the Butlerian Jihad books yet (I hope that came across in my posting above). There are similar arguments to be made about the scene where Leto meets Jessica for the first time in the first prequel trilogy, that the comment on their first meeting in the original series was different. I suspect that some of the notes that Brian and Kevin followed were ideas that Frank Herbert would have revised before publishing. But considering that this would have required that Brian and Kevin edit Frank's work, I think it was a good choice to err on the side of caution.

FWIW, I never thought that the Butlerian Jihad had been just a campaign. From how he wrote it, to me it was obvious that something had gone terribly wrong and they must have fought some sort of war about it. I'll do another posting here when I get to read the second trilogy to let you know whether this works for me or not.

One of the thoughts (rationalisations?) I developed through the first books was that I'd rather have them make the mistakes in the prequel books than in what's commonly referred to as "Dune 7" (i.e. "Hunters of Dune" and "Sandworms of Dune"). Everybody needs a chance to learn, and writing in someone else's world and style isn't easy.
http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-dune-prequel-series-one.htm#comment1 http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-dune-prequel-series-one.htm#comment1 Daniel J. Wilson writes:
While I enjoyed the three House books, I found the Butlerian Jihad trilogy to be melodramatic and the basic story quite different from that mentioned by Frank Herbert in the original books. Herbert refers to it as a human campaign against technological comforts and artificial intelligence, not an existential war for survival against a robot army led by a murderous Evermind. Granted, they had access to Herbert's notes and I don't, but it still seems like a major change to make to the history of the Dune universe.