I remember when the first Dune prequel novel by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson came out. I hid in a corner of my college's library, hideously addicted to the book. While I never got around to finishing the rest of the "House" trilogy, I decided to read the first book in the next trilogy of prequel novels going even further into the history of Dune.
In the first novel, we learn of the Time of Titans, rebels discarded their human bodies and overthrew the current Empire, only to lose it to the computer evermind, Omnius. Now, Omnius rules most of the galaxy with only a handful of planets still free from its grasp. We are introduced to Xavier Harkoonen, Serena Butler, and Vorian Arteides, and the impeding love triangle that will probably cause the great split between the future Houses.
Stylistically, I'm very disappointed with this book, or at least with Kevin J. Anderson, who I've read other works from. There's a lot of repetitous exposition. If by chapter 10, you still don't know what happened during the Time of Titans, there's also a slim glossary of characters in the back to explain it even more. Also, most of the chapters are thin, averaging about 5 pages per chapter. And they jump around a lot. And it could have been shorter.
My only gripe about the actual story is that there's nothing new about this novel. Machines are logical, and can't comprehend human behavior. Blah, blah, blah. If Herbert the Elder had written this, he would have definitively come up with interesting views about subjects like slavery that are briefly touched about in the book.
But in the end, I did enjoy reading and kept reading it to the end. It is a great book for those who wanted to get into Dune but didn't like Herbert the Elder's intellectual and philosophical discussions. For those of us who like the depth of the original series, well... C
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