Mentats of Dune, Brian Herbert
Mentats of Dune, Brian Herbert
7 Rating(s)
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Mentats of Dune
Book Two of the Schools of Dune Trilogy

Author: Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson

Series: Dune #9

Narrator: Scott Brick

Unabridged: 22 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/11/2014


Synopsis

In Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's Mentats of Dune, the thinking machines have been defeated but the struggle for humanity's future continues.

Gilbertus Albans has founded the Mentat School, a place where humans can learn the efficient techniques of thinking machines. But Gilbertus walks an uneasy line between his own convictions and compromises in order to survive the Butlerian fanatics, led by the madman Manford Torondo and his Swordmaster Anari Idaho. Mother Superior Raquella attempts to rebuild her Sisterhood School on Wallach IX, with her most talented and ambitious student, Valya Harkonnen, who also has another goal—to exact revenge on Vorian Atreides, the legendary hero of the Jihad, whom she blames for her family's downfall.

Meanwhile, Josef Venport conducts his own war against the Butlerians. VenHold Spacing Fleet controls nearly all commerce thanks to the superior mutated Navigators that Venport has created, and he places a ruthless embargo on any planet that accepts Manford Torondo's anti-technology pledge, hoping to starve them into submission. But fanatics rarely surrender easily . . .

The Mentats, the Navigators, and the Sisterhood all strive to improve the human race, but each group knows that as Butlerian fanaticism grows stronger, the battle will be to choose the path of humanity's future—whether to embrace civilization, or to plunge into an endless dark age.

About Brian Herbert

Brian Herbert, son of Frank Herbert, wrote the definitive biography of his father, Dreamer of Dune, which was a Hugo Award finalist. Brian is president of the company managing the legacy of Frank Herbert and is an executive producer of the motion picture Dune, as well as of the TV series Dune: The Sisterhood. He is the author or coauthor of more than forty-five books, including multiple New York Times bestsellers, has been nominated for the Nebula Award, and is always working on several projects at once. He and his wife, Jan, have traveled to all seven continents, and in 2019, they took a trip to Budapest to observe the filming of Dune.

About Scott Brick

Scott Brick first began narrating audiobooks in 2000, and after recording almost 400 titles in five years, AudioFile magazine named Brick a Golden Voice and “one of the fastest-rising stars in the audiobook galaxy.” He has read a number of titles in Frank Herbert’s bestselling Dune series, and he won the 2003 Science Fiction Audie Award for Dune: The Butlerian Jihad. Brick has narrated for many popular authors, including Michael Pollan, Joseph Finder, Tom Clancy, and Ayn Rand. He has also won over 40 AudioFile Earphones Awards and the AudioFile award for Best Voice in Mystery and Suspense 2011. In 2007, Brick was named Publishers Weekly’s Narrator of the Year. Brick has performed on film, television and radio. He appeared on stage throughout the United States in productions of Cyrano, Hamlet, Macbeth and other plays. In addition to his acting work, Brick choreographs fight sequences, and was a combatant in films including Romeo and Juliet, The Fantasticks and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. He has also been hired by Morgan Freeman to write the screenplay adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama.

About Kevin J. Anderson

Kevin J. Anderson has written dozens of national bestsellers and has been nominated for the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the SFX Readers' Choice Award. His critically acclaimed original novels include the ambitious space opera series The Saga of Seven Suns, including The Dark Between the Stars, as well as the Wake the Dragon epic fantasy trilogy, and the Terra Incognita fantasy epic with its two accompanying rock CDs. He also set the Guinness-certified world record for the largest single-author book signing, and was recently inducted into the Colorado Authors’ Hall of Fame.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Bradley on May 11, 2021

Some generations after the Butlerian Jihad has us firmly in this brave new universe where technology-hating Butlerians tear down everything and anything (including safe space travel) in their religious fervor. Honestly, the setup is pretty good and if it wasn't for the fact that this is riding on th......more

Goodreads review by Choko on April 26, 2025

*** 4.35 *** These books take a toll on you! The dark themes continue and the prevailing emphasis on mob mentality and totalitarianism continue. So many times I was drawing comparisons with some of our current political tendencies, that if I let it, it could really bring me down... As a good friend s......more

Goodreads review by Patrick on March 22, 2014

I enjoyed this book immensely. I've been sporadic with my reading of these prequels but when I read one I want an epic scale political saga and I am always delivered it by Herbert and Anderson. I had not read the Sisterhood of Dune, the book before this, but easily fell into the situations all the c......more

Goodreads review by Clint on April 19, 2022

Mentats of Dune, part two of the Schools of Dune series, was a hell of a lot of fun to read. It continues the epic story of mankind's struggle (now several decades free of the thinking machines oppression), in choosing an ideological path forward for all in the empire. On one side are Joseph Venport,......more

Goodreads review by Jonathan on November 20, 2023

Yet another terrific political sci-fi book from Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. They make the Dune universe so interesting and exciting in this series. This book follows up book one, "Sisterhood of Dune" by putting more focus on the Mentat school. Obviously, the other schools are present, but a......more