Chapterhouse: Dune E-book version review
343995
I own a hard copy of this book and this would be my 4th or 5th reread by now.  5 stars is given because this is still Frank Herbert quality.  Meticulous, intricate plot lines, new things learned each time I read it, always leaves me with more questions (and answers).  This book's significance is still underscored by his poignant final dedication to his wife.

Now, as to the E-book version, the one I just finished reading and am reviewing:  There are conveniences that I appreciate with E-books vs hard copies (ex:  who wants to lug around 20 books while traveling vs a tablet?).  There still seems to be a problem with those stray typos and wrong words thrown in that just rubs me wrong, especially if they become a distraction while I am concentrating on the story.  I would expect better from the publisher.  This is not a good reason to knock off one or two stars, but I came close to that decision.
2835357
This book is a pretty enjoyable example of the genre, although the first half is a bit slow with the world building portion that lays out the "rules" not being all that interesting.  However, the second half of the book has a lot more action and is quite good.

Only major complaint is that the kindle version has a MAJOR editing error with chapter 92 being repeated and 93 missing completely.  I had to find the web novel online to read the missing chapter.  It would be less of an issue except chapter 93 contains quite possibly the most important event in the entire book.  If you skip it you'll be confused as hell.
4049546
Length: Print, 952 pages; in audiobook format, you need to buy each of the three books separately.

Feel free to leave a comment at the end of the review or to search my profile for more good books or my email contact information.

This is an Apocalyptic science-fiction Action-Adventure for mature audiences.

What was the Amazon Rank on the date this review was published? 2,739.

Is this a book that I can read without having to read others first? Since it is the first three books, yes.

Are there a lot of typos/misspellings, grammatical errors or other editing failures?

Is it a quick, easy read and is the writer enthusiastic in his/her approach? At 952 pages this combination of three books in one volume will not be a quick read in the typical sense.

What sort of language does this writer use to amplify the points made? Pretty much everyday spoken English. Readers should be cautioned regarding the F-bomb. A quick search of the three combined books (952 pages of material in total) found the word used more than 100 times, but I was unable to get more precise than this. Readers of Stephen King, Elmore Leonard and the like should have no qualms. Fans of Louis LAmour might be shocked.

Is this, or should this, be available on audible.com? Yes, as three separate titles. Note also that a fourth book in the series also is available at audible.com.

Is this better to read, or is it better to listen to? I usually prefer audio, but, since I didn't get the audio version yet, I have no clue.

The below excerpt, from approximately 20% of the way through Book 1 displays the writing pace and style of this gifted writer:

Ethan! Help her! Cade shrieked. She fought against his grip and clawed at his arm. Ethan winced as pain shot through his skin, and he swung her around and away from Josie, setting her on the top step.

Cade! Get down the stairs! Now! Ethan ordered. His voice was hard and cold and stern, and he glared at her with as much anger as he could muster.

Cade opened her mouth to argue. The distant, familiar whir of tornado sirens interrupted anything shed been about to say. Both of them froze in place, and Cades blue eyes skipped over the side of the banister and focused on the large plate-glass windows at the front of the house.

Ethan turned back to Andrew and Josie. Neither had stopped in their advances on them. Their paces had quickened, though, and Ethan instinctively backed away from them. Cade, down the stairs, he warned again as he pointed his gun at Andrew. Stop, Ethan warned the man. Stop right there or Ill shoot.

The man didn't stop.

Ethan swallowed and flexed his finger on the trigger. He debated shooting the man. The tornado sirens blasting outside echoed in his head, making it increasingly difficult to think.

Meigs, Jessica (2015-09-20). The Becoming: The Becoming, Ground Zero, Revelations (Kindle Locations 751-759). Permuted Press. Kindle Edition.

Bottom line: If rough language does not deter you, this series of suspenseful, spine-chilling stories should find you hooked in just a few pages, for this is one of those rare, gifted even, authors who is likely to make a big splash in cinema, as well as in the book world.
2643903
The five stars are for the book, which is a classic. Is Schweik as feeble-minded as he lets on, or is he the smartest guy in the room? Hasek lets you figure that out for yourself, and you'll have plenty of fun along the way. You may also find the book a helpful survival manual for life under a decrepit, corrupt and authoritarian empire, such as we are increasingly resembling under Obama.
This e-edition, however, is terrible. First of all, whenever there is supposed to be a dash in the text -- and Hasek seems to use a lot of them -- the dash is left out and the words on either side of it are run together. In addition, there are hard page breaks that don't correspond with the page breaks you get on the Kindle. As a result, a footnote number may appear on one page, but the footnote itself will be found floating in the middle of the next page, or even the one after that. It's quite frustrating.
The Good Soldier Schweik deserves a much better e-edition, and Amazon ought to provide it for free to anyone who made the mistake of buying this one!
953391
I found this version to be well done.  The readers were dynamic, and seldom boring in tone.  My one big issue with the presentation is the change on certain chapters to a different reader.  Each of the two readers remain consistant in their seperate chapters with the pronuonciation of characters names and the names of places.  However, the readers are not consistant with each other.  This makes for some confusing moments as you try to figure out that a character is talking about the same thing/person/place that was being talked about just a chapter before.  Someone who has read the series in paperback will have less of an issue, but I could see more problems for someone who is just being introduced to this book.

  Otherwise, I enjoyed this audiobook.  I have read all of Jordan's Wheel of Time series available, and this is an excellent presentation of his work in The Great Hunt.  I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good audiobook.
4596973
Up front, anyone buying this book should know that it contains a printer error: For whatever reason, the printers added a little extra white space to every page, that means the text no longer matches up to the art and sidebars, and the end of every chapter has some text cut off.  Fortunately, Eos offers a free "reader" that contains all lost material and then some.  The PDF version of the book is flawless.

The Companion took its sweet time coming out, but it's very much worth the wait.  Eos didn't waste any space in the book and every aspect of it adds considerably to the game, making it almost indespensible.

The first part of the book details "Thrashing Minister," the default city setting of the game.  This chapter does what the corebook sometimes failed to do: provides direct, immediate and obvious ideas on what sort of game to run, and what the world of Shen Zhou might look like.  In addition to detailing the city, it provides character concepts that might fit into the city, and a variety of loresheets that allow your players to integrate them into the city.

The book also contains the "Eight Million Style Manual," a chapter that includes rules for designing your own martial arts, a loresheet offering further options for learning Kung Fu (very popular with my players), and a variety of new styles that fill in some gaps (a few new hand-to-hand techniques and several new ranged styles).  In addition to the above, without changing the rules previously laid out, the options presented shift the kung fu rules ever so slightly so as to adjust some of the less balanced aspects of the game, such as Strike.  This part of the book alone is worth the price of admission.

The final major contribution is the Great Game, a "mass combat" system for WotG that covers everything from warfare to political intrigue to clashes of ideas.  It plays something like a wargame/boardgame crossed with the infinite story possibilites of an RPG.  However, like the secret arts, it suffers from its deceptive simplicity: it looks alot harder than it is.  Still, to really make use of it requires some props (a map, some tokens).  The publisher's website has a free download to ease you into the Great Game, though, and if you want to skip it completely, you can easily do so.  Still, even if you do not wish to include rules for troop formations and conflicting agendas, some aspects of the Great Game, such as Challenge Stones, fit seamlessly and wonderfully into the core game.

The book also contains additional God Weapons, including some found in Thrashing Minister, and some created by fans of the game.  It further details Thrashing Minster and shows how to use it in the Great Game.  Finally, the Reader offers an adventure detailing the invasion of barbarians, and the stats on Jin Hu, the Tiger Emperor himself, in case you ever wanted your players to battle the corrupt and debauched lord of the Jin Empire himself!

All in all, a fantastic addition to the series, if you're willing to overlook the tragic printing error.
3369551
Great to see all the classic Dune novels on Kindle now. Dune is the kind of book that, if you haven't read it, you've left a huge gap in your knowledge of contemporary sci-fi and fantasy writing. If you never read any of the others, don't sweat it, this is the first and the best. Almost more quotable than the Bible.
4813901
I bought the eBook version of Neutron Star to replace my paperback version. I bought that version off the rack in a drugstore in 1981 and Mr. Niven just signed the cover at Dragon*Con 2013. I'm going to seal it in plastic and never open it again.

These stories introduced me to both real hard science fiction and to Larry Niven's "Known Space". I've enjoyed his style and his characters for 32 years. The stories hold up well and the places where science has caught up with fiction are easy to overlook.

In the eBook version there are, I'm afraid, a couple of almost unforgivable typos and/or OCR errors. The worst one so far? In the story "Flatlander" Elephant's ship's nickname converted to "5700"... It's full name is "Slower Than Infinity" so you can probably guess what the nickname should be. These kinds of errors are keeping me from feeling truly comfortable with buying eBooks for a first read. If I hadn't already read my paperback version 10 or 15 times I might have just passed "5700" as being weird and nonsensical and blamed the author... (I'm not sure if it is in this volume or the last one I read but "under" scanned as "tinder" - looking at the shape of the letters it's easy to see how that could happen...) My point is that this is an easy fix. Proofread the books before they are posted.

I'd appreciate it if someone can tell me who to blame for this...

Bottom line:

5 stars for the stories - Loved them then, love them now.
3 stars for the scan and the apparent lack of a proofreading...

You can do the math.
210617
I bought and downloaded this book and discovered some errors in the rendering of the text. Nothing major, but it has been my experience that many of the e-books on the market are really put together too hastily and seem to lack the proofreading the print versions enjoy. If I am paying $20+ for an ebook, I expect it to be of the same quality as the print version, though not better, of course, due to the limitations of all e-book reader software.
That said, the story is fascinating and the book hard to stop reading. Even though I am not a teenager (and I won't tell you how old I am really am), I enjoy these level of stories because they are fairly innocent, but savvy, and the evil not so overwhelming that you're hard-pressed to continue reading some of the more graphic scenes. This evil is palatable. There are not scenes of graphic death. I won't have a difficult time letting my children read these stories, and am fairly conservative about what they read and see. Recommended.
4440287
Frank Herbert's "Children of Dune" is the 3rd book in his original Dune series.  In general, it's not as good as "Dune," itself, but it's better than its immediate prequel, "Dune Messiah."  Like "Dune,"  it's well-written with well-developed characters, theme and plot.  Unlike "Dune Messiah," "Children of Dune" has lost (thankfully) most of the "dueling aphorisms" and a large chunk of the excess philosophy that marred that work.  I really only have three nits that bother me about this book.  First, there's still quite a bit of apocalyptic philosophy throughout it.  Second, Alia's "Abomination" issue sprang up without any hints from the previous two books.  Also, prior to this book, I was under the impression she had only the female memories of her heritage (as all Reverend Mothers do).  And, finally, Herbert really dumbed down Irulen in this book.  None of these are big issues.  But, the book is definitely not as good as "Dune," so I'm rating it at "just" a Very Good 4 stars out of 5.

And to help people find all the books in the original Dune series (i.e., when Frank Herbert was still alive):
1.&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Dune-40th-Anniversary-Edition-Dune-Chronicles-Book-1/dp/B001F0WXY0/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Dune (40th Anniversary Edition) (Dune Chronicles, Book 1)</a>
2.&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Dune-Messiah/dp/B0011UGNDG/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Dune Messiah</a>
3.&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Children-Of-Dune-The-Third-Dune-Novel/dp/B0015DTW50/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Children Of Dune: The Third Dune Novel</a>
4.&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/God-Emperor-of-Dune/dp/B001F0WXX6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">God Emperor of Dune</a>
5.&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Heretics-of-Dune/dp/B001L10ZIO/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Heretics of Dune</a>
6.&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Chapterhouse-Dune/dp/B001O1O6IQ/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Chapterhouse: Dune</a>
795568
Sci-fi epic! After reading Game of Thrones, and waiting and waiting for the next book, I thought this would be fun to read. I've been meaning to read Dune for a while, and thought it sounded similar to GoT on a bigger scale. They are very different books, and I am rambling now, but the point is that I love this book and immediately began Dune Messiah. The language is not difficult to understand, and there is a glossary of the terms and words made up by Herbert. I also recommend this book to anyone who is interested in getting into sci-fi, or anyone just looking for a fantastic, truly epic, story.
4164618
THIS REVIEW IS FOR THE E-BOOK (40th ANNIVERSARY EDITION) VERSION OF THE BOOK, NOT FOR THE BOOK ITSELF.

I borrowed this e-book from the library, which means i downloaded it directly from Amazon (same as when you purchase it), so i got the current .AZW3 file (and not some primitive early version); and when i read it, i found seventeen typos in the e-book -- SEVENTEEN!!!  (And that's just in the 90% of the book before the Appendices.)

That's pretty bad.  Hyphens instead of em-dashes.  Words run together, missing a space between them (lots of those).  Spaces in the middle of words where there should be none.  Stray periods, scattered here & there.  Inconsistencies with capitalization.

If it were a school project, and i deducted one point for each typo (and those were just the ones i found on a casual read), it would get a maximum grade of 83% -- probably a B Minus, assuming another typo or two in the appendices.  Maybe i'm wrong on a few of the typos (since i'm not checking against a definitive text), so i guess i could give it a B if i were feeling very generous; but it's more likely that i missed some of the typos (because i wasn't reading this with the idea of finding typos in mind), so the e-book conversion probably deserves a C.

It's not like DUNE is an obscure book.  So why the poor job?  Laziness, i guess.  Just wanting to make a quick buck.  I guess Amazon doesn't think people care.  If you buy the book, you can always confirm the typos (at locations 3579, 3852, 3860, 3947, 3993, 4030, 4447, 4916, 6143, 6303, 7511, 7639, 7921, 8457, 8462, 9364, 9815) and ask for your money back after you've read it.
2047297
This was the most money I've ever paid for an e-book and it was definitely worth it. A terrific sci-fi-adventure book in a lighter vein. Good editing, minimal typos.
3383884
I really enjoyed the old-style sci-fi adventure vibe of this story.  It does have a few issues that should be easily remedied by the author - of course it's the usual suspects that seem to be prevelant in ebooks, that is, proof-reading errors mostly.  Secondly, readers need to be aware that there is jargon that is unique to the "Participant" universe that is frequently used and some may have trouble figuring out what the terminology means.  I believe that placing a glossary of terminology and abbreviations may go along way to enhancing the reading experience and being able to understand the Participant universe - maybe this is something the author could do in either a revised edition of this book or in the next book in the series.  All that said, is this a good book - short answer: yes.
This book treks along at a bubbling pace with nice bursts of action in between story explanation.  Their are some interesting tech and scientific ideas - people are linked into the "net" and you get to see a battle through the net-vision of the main character, Asher.  There is a bit of mystery: how to explain the Cythran ability to assimilate tech quickly - 20 years ago they were little more than primitives, now they are piloting shuttles and developing their own Corp.  Why are "female" Cythrans seemingly smarter than their "male" counter-parts? What game are the Fetheren playing? There is an interesting universe to investigate that is heavily influenced by different Corporations, with their own Intelligence, military, exploratory, cultural, language/linguistic and diplomatic divisions - sometimes war breaks out between different Corporations as it does within the pages of this story.  All in all a solid first story from a new indie author - looking forward to the next installment.
2681662
I quite enjoyed reading this book. I feel it adds quite a bit for GM knowledge of the WH40K universe and also gives some players a few more options as well.

Chapter 1, The Weapons of War: This covers the new ship classes, the Grand Cruiser and the Battle-cruiser. More types of each class are shown as well. Further rules are introduced for the iconic weapon: Nova Cannons! As well star-fighters are introduced as well as the new components that they can use. The options presented try to keep the rules bloat to a minimum... But I can't help but feel they will really only work well with players that want the additional rules.

Chapter 2, The Imperium's Shield: This gives an excellent overview of the Imperial Navy, in particular it gives a strong mention for the Battlefleet Calaxis.

Chapter 3, Enemies of Humanity: This gives more ship hulls and small rules additions for Orks, Eldar, Stryxis, Rak'Gol, Kroot, and Chaos Reavers. Quite useful for GMs not wanting to make this stuff up all on their own.

Chapter 4, Rules of War: This covers Mass combat at the fleet and ground level. I felt the fleet level advice was quite good. The ground combat clearly was not play-tested / edited as well as it could have been. There are some cleaned up versions floating around on FFG's forums, and I recommend taking a look.

Overall 3.5/4, as half of Chapter 4 really needed some stronger work done on it. In conclusion, I highly recommend this supplement to any GM, simply for the first 3 chapters alone. The First two chapters are also very useful for players wishing to find more options and get some background on the Imperial Navy.
2213130
I recently read this entire series (books 1-7 so far) and have a few minor criticisms.

1) This is not a well edited series of books. The publisher, Vinnia Publishing seems to lack the resources to properly tighten the series up. None of the writing flaws are so glaring that they couldn't have been fixed with a proper editor guiding the author. I am also guessing by the lack of quality of cover art (I'm an illustrator and am very critical of these things) and my failure to easily find information on the publishing company, that it is a small poorly funded venture.
2) Any fan of David Webber's Honor Harrington series will recognize the striking similarities in the characters and stories. There really isn't much to say about this other than Thomas DePrima really didn't alter much as he recreated his epic series.

That said the books are half the size of David Webber's and read ten times as fast. The author has written a fun fast paced adventure series.  I read all seven books within a week.

This is not great science fiction, but it is enjoyable science fiction.
4805888
Wizards of the coast continues to build upon its ever-burgeoning Ebberon setting with their latest hardcover supplement, Dragonmarked.  In Eberron there are twelve houses (think clans) of Dragonmarked.  The Dragonmark is a symbol that appears on one's body and simply cannot be removed.  It is etched in various colors and provides various magical abilities to the holder of the mark.

The thirteen different houses of the Dragonmarked are introduced in vast detail.  You'll learn the rich history of each of the thirteen houses including its greatest members, notable events, house organization, guilds associated with the house, entry requirements, notes on playing as a member of that house, advancement, and much more.  These various houses afford players a chance to play within a very rich tapestry of past history and current associations, something that most starting players are usually lacking. They also allow a player to join a house that closely fits his class and personality; if your DM allows you to pick which house you want to join.  The houses are also associated with certain races such as the House of Jorasco, populated by halflings, and the House of Kundarak which is the house made up of dwarves.  These various houses continue to lend a more mythical feel to Eberron, compared to the Forgotten Realms.

Chapter two presents a full dozen new prestige classes of Dragonmarked characters and some of them are quite enthralling.  The Shadow Hunter is a special class that combines excellent combat skills with a high degree of stealth and magical powers to make themselves truly proficient combatants. They can uses their powers of darkness in defense to hide from opponents, or on offense to blind their foes.  Each prestige class includes everything you need to know about joining the class, all features and powers, organizations, play tips, sample encounters, and NPC reactions.

Chapters three and four introduce dozens of new feats, spells, and magic items to flesh out your Dragonmarked character even more. The book is, of course, accompanied by the always-excellent artwork from a host of talented artists.  I suppose you could fit Dragonmarked into the Forgotten Realms but I think its best to keep it within Eberron as its designed.  There's an extreme amount of detail in this book but it can really create some very unique characters.

Reviewed by Tim Janson