I've read scattershot through some of the Dune books, including those by Frank Herbert, but I decided to start chronologically and read through. I hadn't read The Butlerian Jihad though it's often discussed in the other books, and I'm sorry I didn't read it sooner, as it's a primer on the Dune universe.
The book offers various POVs, including Serena Butler, a leader in the non-machine-controlled worlds and the fiancee of Xavier Harkonnen, their military leader. Vorian Atriedes is a son of Agamemnon, a Cymek (one of the Titans and a thousand-year-old brain set in a canister that serves the machine Ominus). Other progenitors of the houses seen in Dune and founders of various guilds and races have their origins in this story. It's a fascinating view of what comes later in the saga and how it all started.
This really is a must-read for those who love this universe. ( )

I can see why people (Dune fans especially) can hate this book. The writing is flimsy and the characters flat.

Still I endured because I enjoyed reading about the mythological Butlerian Jihad of the Dune Universe. There were whiffs of some wonderful stories and conflicts ... Erasumus curiosity to understanding human, Norma Cenva struggling to become more than an accident, the legend of Selim Wormrider .... any of them alone and focused on could have been a tremendous story.

A lot of the book is tedious and I approached many a time reading this book as a chore. Not recommended.

I think you would be better served by just reading the Wikipedia entries of the Dune mythos and letting your imagination fill in the blanks. ( )

This book started out slow and took a long time to take off. The actual jihad begins about two-thirds of the way through the book and then the plot becomes fast-paced. Before this the characters are not particularly likeable; Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson write characters who are careless and uncaring or blind to the impact of their own lifestyles be they AIs or human. This is the universe they clearly wished to create. But unlike Frank Herbert's Dune, we don't come to care for the characters to the same extent. Having said that, I completed the book. The last quarter of the book swept me along. But it is not Frank Herbert's Dune - this is something different set in the same universe. I will probably read the next two into this Legends of Dune trilogy: The Machine Crusade and The Battle of Corrin.

I like this rating system by ashleytylerjohn of LibraryThing (https://www.librarything.com/profile/ashleytylerjohn) that I have also adopted:
(Note: 5 stars = rare and amazing, 4 = quite good book, 3 = a decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful.) ( )

Probably the worst fiction book I’ve read (and I only read about 20% before abandoning). The idea was they would write the ultimate prequel, explaining a lot of the origin stories hinted at throughout Frank Herbert’s Dune books, but the combination of horrible heavy handed writing and inane plot made it utterly unreadable. ( )

Interesting book, but can in no way be compared to the original [b:Dune|234225|Dune (Dune Chronicles, #1)|Frank Herbert|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172968533s/234225.jpg|3634639] or the other books by [a:Frank Herbert|58|Frank Herbert|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1168661521p2/58.jpg]. This takes place a thousand years earlier during the time of the conflict between humans and machines. It's main value is in explaining and broadening the background of [b:Dune|234225|Dune (Dune Chronicles, #1)|Frank Herbert|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172968533s/234225.jpg|3634639]. As literary piece it somehow falls a bit short if looked upon freestanding. In parts, especially in the early parts of the book, it also suffers from the same stumped language as in [a:Kevin Anderson|4913574|Kevin Anderson|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg]'s Saga of the Seven Suns series. ( )