Sisterhood of Dune

November 14, 2011
This shallow but fun blend of space opera and dynastic soap opera, the latest wing on the sprawling edifice that Frank Herbert’s son and Anderson have built on the foundation of the original Dune novels, zips along faster than light. Humans have defeated cybernetic tyrants and now are torn between rejection of all technology and using machines to improve their lives. Raquella Berto-Anirul, first Reverend Mother of the Sisterhood that will become the Bene Gesserit, is determined to help women develop their potential, even if that means using forbidden computers to monitor a long-term human breeding program. The narrative is broken into short, jazzy chapters studded with familiar names like Atreides, Harkonnen, and Arrakis that will grab the attention of longtime Dune fans. The authors emphasize that any set of ideals can evolve into fanaticism; later installments will presumably enumerate the consequences. Agent: Trident Media Group.

November 15, 2011
Another entry in the latter-day Dune saga, this one beginning a trilogy about the origins of the Bene Gesserit, Mentats and Swordmasters. Eighty-three years after the defeat of the thinking machines at the Battle of Corrin, Emperor Salvador of House Corrino rules the human empire. On the jungle planet Rossak, Raquella Berto-Anirul—the first and, so far, only Reverend Mother, able to access all the memories of her female ancestors—has formed the Sisterhood to train women to achieve their full potential physical and mental powers. On Lampadas, Gilbertus Albans teaches his students to become Mentats, human computers with extraordinary powers to make statistical predictions and uncover hidden associations. His great secret is that he keeps the brain of the evil thinking robot Ersamus in a cupboard in his office. Josef Venport, heir to a vast interstellar trading empire, employs the narcotic spice from Dune to turn humans into Navigators able to find safe pathways through the higher dimensions of foldspace. War hero Vorian Atreides, having retired to a remote planet, soon finds himself on Dune itself, hunted by the vengeful descendants of the disgraced Abulurd Harkonnen and also by his siblings, half-human, half-machine warrior creations of his father, the feared mek general Agamemnon. The Butlerians, anti-technology fanatics feared by everybody up to and including the emperor, are poised to begin a new crusade against scientific progress of any sort. Characters and plot are thus beautifully set up, the timing is precise; alas that the prose drones in the usual flat, affectless manner, while the characters for the most part lack personality and distinction. McDune, sure, but the universe conceived by Frank Herbert is so vast, complex and fascinating that the magic lingers, and even Herbert-Anderson detractors will be hard put to resist the allure.

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Starred review from December 1, 2011

In the aftermath of the Butlerian Jihad and the destruction of all thinking machines, human planetary governments reorganize themselves into the First Imperium under the leadership of Faykan Butler, now known as Corrino (after the decisive Battle of Corrin). Eight decades later, a number of schools have arisen to push the human mind to its highest levels. This includes the training of Mentats as human computers, the development of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood as practitioners of mental and social manipulation, and the bizarre transformation of men and women into mutated Navigators who use their minds to allow instantaneous interplanetary travel. Amid these changes, youthful members of disgraced House Harkonnen seek vengeance against the Atreides hero responsible for Harkonnen's downfall, while the Butlerian movement under the leadership of zealot Manford Torondo seeks to root out every vestige of machine dependency. VERDICT With their usual fidelity to the vision of the late Frank Herbert, coauthors Herbert (Frank's son) and Anderson (The Winds of Dune) continue to illuminate heretofore hidden areas of the Dune time line. Fully realized characters and intricate plotting will put this title high on fans' to-read list. [See Prepub Alert, 8/1/11.]

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