Dune: The Butlerian Jihad - Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderson

After I don't know how long I finally finished this book.  A little background is in order.  I read and liked the original Dune books (through #4 - the rest didn't do much for me) by Frank Herbert.  I bought all three of the first prequel trilogy by his son Brian and established sf writer Kevin Anderson.  Although they seemed a bit contrived and idea-heavy, they were not bad.  This is the first of a pre-prequel triogy, but I demoted it to buying as an e-book, and it was the designated trash sf novel that I keep on the Palm for reading in odd moments.  But it was so slow that I've gone through a dozen novels on the Palm since putting this one on (one of the side benefits of Palms having so much memory these days).
But, as I said, I finally finished it, and predictably the finish was simply the introduction to the next book in the series.  The problem with the book is, frankly, that it has too many plots going on.  It tries to tell too many stories, and nothing seems to have been edited out.  I guess they're trying to be "epic" and with the classic status of the original Dune books there's some tendency to preserve everything, but there just seems to be no story.  Things keep happening to a lot of people, but there's no story that you get interested in. The characters aren't bad, although the writing gets pretty hack-ish describing them at times, and I did get interested in some of the situations, but it just seemed like stories were being written just because something is being set up a couple of books down the road.  Maybe Dune aficianados (who are the market for these continuous prequels) like this sort of back story, but I didn't think it was good writing.  One indication to me that they are badly overwriting is that they have indicated that they have found Herbert's original note for the "final" Dune book (which would be #7 of the original series) and they have already split it into two books.  Seems to me that commercializing the Dune franchise is clearly taking precedence over good writing.  I don't mind additional books, but starting with this second prequel trilogy, things are getting a little fluffy.
The biggest drama of the book is whether it'll be the last of the series that I buy.  My guess is that it will be.