Genre: Science Fiction
Setting: On different planets in the Dune Universe. It begins about eighty years after the defeat of the thinking machines.
First Sentence: Manford Torondo had lost count of his many missions.
This novel is the eighteenth book in the Dune Universe saga. It is the first in the Great Schools of Dune prequel trilogy.
Humanity has defeated the last of the thinking machines. There is a general distrust of computers and higher technology. Into this climate of fear there begins a Luddite style revolt against technology. There also begins a movement to train humans to due tasks which were once performed.
In this novel we see the development of the political factors which play a great part in the plot of the classic novel Dune: the Sisterhood which eventually becomes the Bene Gesserit, the Mentat human computers, the Suk school of incorruptible doctors, and the development of the Spacing Guild of navigators. We also learn the basis for the Harkonnen-Atreides rivalry.
The authors jump back and forth between the different characters and plot lines. The first half of the book contains a great deal of exposition which slowed the plot down and made the novel hard to read. Towards the end of the book the action picked up and made the reading more enjoyable.
If you are new to the Dune universe, I suggest you read the novels in order of publication starting with the classic original novel Dune.
I struggled with this book because it had been years since I read a Dune novel so for me it was just an okay book.
