I really enjoyed this. Okay, it’s not up to the standard of the original Dune series, but as a trade off it’s much more accessible and easy to read. I did think it tried a bit too hard to fit in all the ‘stuff’ from the chronologically-later novels, covering all bases but in little depth. Still, knowing there are two follow ups kind of negates the lack of tying up loose ends.

If you haven’t read Dune et al first, this is sort of a ‘meh’ sci-fi effort. If you have, this is a nice if slightly simplistic addition, filling in some of the backstory.

In recent years, it seems there’s been a move in publishing to expand upon the most famous universes created by some of the greats of science-fiction. We’ve had the three B’s (Bear, Brin, Bradford) creating a new Foundation trilogy in the Asimov universe while over in the brilliant universe that was Frank Herbert’s Dune, we’ve had his son Brian and author Kevin J. Anderson working to fill in some of the gaps.

The Bulterian Jihad is the first of a trilogy called the Legacy of Dune and it seeks to explore the war between machines and humans that is often alluded to and referenced in Dune. I can’t aruge with the pedigree of having Frank Herbert’s son write the novel, since he created an encyclopedia for the Dune universe and would have first-hand knowledge of how things fit together.

That said, the book is a pale imitation of the style of Frank Herbert. It’s told in a more episodic nature and the characters, while interesting, lack something essnetial from Frank Herbert’s original vision. The book is fast-paced and has its moments—it does the epic battles in the first-round of the war to overthrow the machines very well. And while the authors make it fun to revisit the Dune universe, it’s not quite as rich an experience as the original novel was.