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The Muad'Dib's jihad is in full swing. His warrior legions march from victory to victory. But beneath the joy of victory there are dangerous undercurrents. Paul, like nearly every great conqueror, has enemies - those who would betray him to steal the awesome power he commands. Paul himself begins to have doubts: Is the jihad getting out of his control? Has he created anarchy? Has he been betrayed by those he loves and trusts the most? And most of all, he wonders: Am I going mad?
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.
For 12,000 years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Sheldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future, to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last 30,000 years. To preserve knowledge and save mankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire, both scientists and scholars, and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the Galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for a fututre generations.
The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction - cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender. Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade....
Gil 'The Arm' Hamilton was one of the top operatives of ARM, the elite UN police force. His intuition was unfailingly accurate, his detective skills second to none, and his psychic powers - esper sense and telekinesis - were awesome.
Now you can hear all the classic stories of the legendary ARM operative, collected in one volume for the first time - plus, an all-new, never-before-published Gil Hamilton adventure!
In the thousand-sun network of humanity's expansion, new colony worlds are struggling to find their way. Every new planet lives on a knife-edge between collapse and wonder, and the crew of the aging gunship, Rocinante, have their hands more than full keeping the fragile peace. In the vast space between Earth and Jupiter, the inner planets and the Belt have formed a tentative and uncertain alliance still haunted by a history of wars and prejudices.
The Muad'Dib's jihad is in full swing. His warrior legions march from victory to victory. But beneath the joy of victory there are dangerous undercurrents. Paul, like nearly every great conqueror, has enemies - those who would betray him to steal the awesome power he commands. Paul himself begins to have doubts: Is the jihad getting out of his control? Has he created anarchy? Has he been betrayed by those he loves and trusts the most? And most of all, he wonders: Am I going mad?
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.
For 12,000 years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Sheldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future, to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last 30,000 years. To preserve knowledge and save mankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire, both scientists and scholars, and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the Galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for a fututre generations.
The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction - cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender. Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade....
Gil 'The Arm' Hamilton was one of the top operatives of ARM, the elite UN police force. His intuition was unfailingly accurate, his detective skills second to none, and his psychic powers - esper sense and telekinesis - were awesome.
Now you can hear all the classic stories of the legendary ARM operative, collected in one volume for the first time - plus, an all-new, never-before-published Gil Hamilton adventure!
In the thousand-sun network of humanity's expansion, new colony worlds are struggling to find their way. Every new planet lives on a knife-edge between collapse and wonder, and the crew of the aging gunship, Rocinante, have their hands more than full keeping the fragile peace. In the vast space between Earth and Jupiter, the inner planets and the Belt have formed a tentative and uncertain alliance still haunted by a history of wars and prejudices.
One hundred years from now, and against all the odds, Earth has found a new stability; the political order has reached some sort of balance, and the new colony on Mars is growing. But the fraught years of the 21st century have left an uneasy legacy.... Genetically engineered alpha males designed to fight the century's wars have no wars to fight and are surplus to requirements. And a man bred and designed to fight is a dangerous man to have around in peacetime....
The Matrix: a world within a world, a graphic representation of the databanks of every computer in the human system; a consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate users in the Sprawl alone. And by Case, computer cowboy, until his nervous system is grievously maimed by a client he double crossed. Japanese experts in nerve splicing and micro bionics have left him broken and close to death. But at last Case has found a cure. He’s going back into the system.
William Mandella is a soldier in Earth's elite brigade. As the war against the Taurans sends him from galaxy to galaxy, he learns to use protective body shells and sophisticated weapons. He adapts to the cultures and terrains of distant outposts. But with each month in space, years are passing on Earth. Where will he call home when (and if) the Forever War ends?
Originally written for the pulp magazines of the 1920s and '30s, H. P. Lovecraft's astonishing tales blend elements of horror, science fiction, and cosmic terror that are as powerful today as they were when first published. This tome brings together all of Lovecraft's harrowing stories, including the complete Cthulhu Mythos cycle, just the way they were when first released.
Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden.
Four hundred years from now mankind is strung out across a region of interstellar space inherited from an ancient civilization discovered on Mars. The colonies are linked together by the occasional sublight colony ship voyages and hyperspatial data-casting. Human consciousness is digitally freighted between the stars and downloaded into bodies as a matter of course.
First Meetings is a collection of three novellas (plus the original "Ender's Game") that journey into the origins and the destiny of one Ender Wiggin.
For short-lived races like humans, space is dominated by the complicated, grandiose Mercatoria. To the Dwellers who may live billions of years, the galaxy consists of their gas-giant planets - the rest is debris. Fassin Taak is a Slow Seer privileged to work with the Dwellers of the gas-giant Nasqueron. His work consists of rummaging for data in their vast, disorganised memories and libraries. Unfortunately, without knowing it, he's come close to an ancient secret of unimaginable importance.
Epic, entertaining, blasphemous, this is the most influential and controversial of Science Fiction novels. Stranger in a Strange Land caused uproar when it was first published as it savaged conventional religious, sexual, and social ideals. Many years in the future, Valentine Michael Smith's upbringing is exceptional. Orphan child to two astronauts killed in space, he is raised on Mars. Twenty-five years later he is "rescued" and brought back to Earth. The initial enthusiasm of the administration in Smith's safe return is soon dampened by the realisation that they cannot control him.
Count Sessine is about to die for the very last time.... Chief Scientist Gadfium is about to receive the mysterious message she has been waiting for from the Plain of Sliding Stones.... And Bascule the Teller, in search of an ant, is about to enter the chaos of the crypt.... And everything is about to change.... For this is the time of the encroachment and, although the dimming sun still shines on the vast, towering walls of Serehfa Fastness, the end is close at hand.
The great Norse myths are woven into the fabric of our storytelling - from Tolkien, Alan Garner and Rosemary Sutcliff to Game of Thrones and Marvel Comics. They are also an inspiration for Neil Gaiman's own award-bedecked, best-selling fiction. Now he reaches back through time to the original source stories in a thrilling and vivid rendition of the great Norse tales.
A new novel from internationally best-selling author Raymond E. Feist. The world of Garn once boasted five great kingdoms, until the King of Ithrace was defeated and every member of his family executed by Lodavico, the ruthless King of Sandura, a man with ambitions to rule the world. Ithrace's ruling family were the legendary Firemanes and represented a great danger to the other kings. Now four great kingdoms remain, on the brink of war. But rumour has it that the newborn son of the last king of Ithrace survived....
Dune is possibly my favourite book of all time and opened my eyes to many things completely unexpectedly. The Dune saga is something I have read over and over. Listening to Children of Dune was actually a completely new experience of the text for me and I think I absorbed so much more than reading it by hand that I feel I've almost read a different book with a different thrust and am happy to have done so as some side characters seemed to jump into the limelight when before I had almost glossed over them and the following novel has a new gravitas for me that it didn't before.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
I have all the books in this series and have had them for many years, if your in to sci-fi then you can't go wrong.
I must have read this book 10 or more times over the years and never get board of it.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
I loved the first two books, but this one made me wonder if Frank had lost the plot a little. It has the usual great machinations of state and family along with some decent action, but in what must have been the last hundred pages, the plot takes a turn, which I will not spoil here, that reveals to some part the destiny of Leto, the child of Paul Atreides. For me, the revelation seemed slightly ridiculous and not in keeping with the previous two books universe. Despite this, it is as well read as ever and the story kept me interested enough to move on to the fourth in the series.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful
I was a bit let down by the second book in the series but this one just blew me out the water. The story is great and I love how the world is evolving more and more.
The audio book performance is on point as usual.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
The series continues its downward trend with this book. Definitely interesting, with some fascinating chapters but the narrative is rambling at times and hard to follow. Not as engrossing as the first two books and I'm not happy with all the character paths. Feels like all the characters are only capable of two emotions: fear and anger. Strangely, though I would definitely recommend it as a read as it closes off the story. Good that it has the same narrater as the first two books too.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
loved this series... would recommend if you have listened and liked the other dune books
I have read the series many times but have not had the pleasure of listening to it. I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook.
This book magnifies the grandeur of 'Dune', firmly confirming the saga as awesome. It does so without blemishing that original. This book needs to be performed and the narration does it justice.
i love it. fabulous read. 2nd time for me. highly recommend. long live the benegesurates!!!
really enjoyed the book as it wraps up many storylines from the original book. also makes me tempted to try another from the samr series
So the producers seem to have completely given up on the entire dramatization thing that they were doing in the first book of this series, Dune (see my review there). Simon Vance does a good job of narrating this story, but towards the end of the book it becomes very clear that he wasn't available to do some re-dos and missed text. So they end up getting some random guy to finish the project. Its actually the case that sometimes one word in a sentence is dubbed in by this other narrator. Bothersome.
The story in and of itself is good, not as good as Dune, but certainly worth listening to or reading. My only critique is that Herbert sometimes goes on far too long about relatively minor issues or expanding upon points that were made well enough earlier in the text.
26 of 28 people found this review helpful
As I run through Frank Herbert's original Dune stories, I think the best adjective for the flavor and pace is "operatic"...a good story with great color and flavor, but paced slowly. Much of the book is spent with people talking about what will before much of anything does happen. That doesn't mean it's boring...understanding the motives and machinations of the principals really are the story, but it's an unusual flavor for sci-fi.
For those who are not familiar with the previous works, this won't make sense. You need to do them in order.
This story centers around Leto II and Ghanima Atriedes (the children of Paul Muad'Dib and imperial heirs presumptive, now aged 9), Alia (their aunt and imperial regent) and the Lady Jessica (mother of Alia and Paul). Alia is struggling against the inner voices from her ancestral memory, while Leto and Ghanima try to avoid the same fate. The mysterious, blind Preacher only adds to the mystery.
Part of the vast Duniverse tapestry, Children of Dune doesn't live up to the high standard of the original Dune (few books by any author do), but improves on Dune Messiah.
Excellently narrated by Simon Vance with an assist from Scott Brick.
16 of 17 people found this review helpful
What did you like best about Children of Dune? What did you like least?
The story is very pedantic, dragging out and repeating story lines. Not near as good as the original Dune.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
Scott Brick and Simon Vance do a remarkable job bringing the characters and places to life in the Dune series. It has been a while since I have read "Children" and I am impressed with the layers of the Dune world that Herbert describes. I hope Audible continues to translate the original series into the audible format. My second favorite book after "Dune" is the "God Emperor," so I hope the trend continues. "Children" is an enjoyable listen for fans of Herbert.
13 of 16 people found this review helpful
Fantastic! Thought provoking, excellent production of arguably one of the greatest. Science fiction stories ever told.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
So, I LOVED Dune, and was really disappointed by Dune Messiah - but Children of Dune gets back to the grand, empire defining space opera I was craving.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
If you're a big fan of Dune, don't hesitate to get the audiobooks. It really adds a whole new level of understanding to the storyline and paints a picture that reading a paper copy alone won't do. I've read the physical copies of the entire series and now listened to the first three. It's truly the best way to solidify the incredible experience that is Frank Herbert's masterpiece.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
I was not as impressed with this book, where as I was with Dune. I'm taking a break from this series.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful
I was surprised to find this book to fit so well with the previous two. Even though you are following a new main character, I found the transition was natural and the story flowed very well.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful
This third installment of the Dune series started out promisingly. Early on I had high hopes. But by the end it seemed to me the story got more complicated and bizarre than it really had to be. I know it’s science fiction and science fiction is expected to take weirdness to new heights. Still, the Dune series seems headed somewhere I’m not interested in going.
I really wanted to like it. I even purchased the next book, Dune Messiah, in advance. I’m undecided at this point whether to return both Children of Dune and Dune Messiah, or to soldier on and hope things improve. My online research indicates the sailing may only get choppier.
On the brighter side, I’m glad I took the time to find out how things wind up for the various surviving characters. I just wished I’d liked those outcomes better.
4 of 6 people found this review helpful