NeoDevilbane

www.dunenovels.com has been updated (11/3), and KJA/BH have made their intentions for Dune 7, as well as their future novel/novella intentions quite clear. Go here: http://www.dunenovels.com/news/dune7announcement.html - Neo

That's not just something I "said," it's directly from the Landsraad interview w/BH that I linked to in an earlier post (link also available from www.dunenovels.com). He mentioned that he and KJA might chronicle possible stories like the Scattering and such in "young adult novels." Those are his words. - Neo

BH & KJA are very trilogy-oriented, aren't they? They stretch the Butlerian Jihad into three books, they stretch the prelude to Dune books into three books, in that audio interview off their site BH talks about having Dune 7 be stretched into three books... and now if you go to the timeline section of www.dunenovels.com you'll see that this apocryphal "Paul of Dune" mess is ALSO being stretched to three novels. Go here to see: http://www.dunenovels.com/timeline.html I'm not too worried about things... as long as we get still Dune 7, if even just a third of it, after Legends of Dune as KJA told me. Remember, NO KJA/BH novel aside from Dune 7 has or will go off of any chapter-by-chapter outline written by Frank Herbert - Dune 7 and only Dune 7 will do that. In other words... Dune 7 won't be Frank's words, but it'll be as close as we'll ever get. - Neo

I could live with Dune 7 as a trilogy, but only so long as KJA/BH STRICTLY and RELIGIOUSLY stick to the FH-written outline and don't deviate from it. Frank was a writer that was blessed with the writing skill that enabled him to somehow very expertly condense into a single novel what it takes the Kevin J. Andersons & Brian Herberts of the writing world entire trilogies to chronicle... but then one must understand that writers like Frank Herbert only come around once in a blue moon. In this regard I could see KJA/BH being cut some slack. - Neo

Below is my original E-mail (to dunenews@dunenovels.com) and Kevin J. Anderson's response. The good news is that we WON'T have to wait for Dune 7 too much longer... after Legends of Dune, KJA/BH have now decided to make Dune 7 their next project (maybe it was my badgering them?). Here it is: Date: Tue, 01 Oct 2002 09:35:03 -0600 Subject: Re: McDune's From: <dunenews@dunenovels.com> To: <andrewm@innpros-inc.com> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- on 9/12/02 9:43 AM, Andrew Modeen at andrewm@innpros-inc.com wrote: > Dear Kevin J. Anderson & Brian Herbert, > > I'm going to be absolutely frank with you guys, and for that I apologize in > advance. I have nothing but the utmost respect for both of you and your works > thus far. > > According to you two it seems the whole purpose behind writing/releasing this > "Legends of Dune" prequel trilogy in the era of the Butlerian Jihad is more or > less to put "necessary" background bits and stuff you *must* do that will > "lead into" Dune 7, am I right? > > In short, what kind of bullshit is this? Are we supposed to believe that Frank > Herbert was really going to stop after Dune 6 (Chapterhouse: Dune), sit down, > and start leading up to Dune 7 by going back 10,000 years, writing about the > Jihad and then going back before Dune and tell the oh-so necessary tale of how > Paul grew pubes before diving into Dune 7? No! He had Dune 7 all outlined and > ready to start being worked on. > > You two are clearly stalling... you *fear* Dune 7, though with good reason. I > believe up until the point that you are actually writing Dune 7 and not just > filling in acceptable blanks in the timeline with misc. books (see the > ludicrously & ill-conceived "Paul of Dune" and these "Legends of Dune" books), > you won't really be *TRULY* attempting to emulate Frank Herbert's work or do > good by it. > > Let's face it, Dune 7 will be billed as the completion of Frank Herbert's Dune > masterwork. As far as I'm aware, there were no outlines for House Atreides, > House Harkonnen, or House Corrino by Frank, just notes about misc. things from > that era that you two went on. For Dune 7, there IS an outline to go off of, > AND notes... for all intents and purposes you two will be attempting to fill > Frank's boots for the first time in Dune 7. I just you two would stop being so > chicken-shit, quit the B.S. posturing and milking the franchise by doing books > we don't need (what's this crap I read in the Landsraad site about doing Dune > "young adult novels"? What do you guys think this is, the Star Wars series??? > Christ...), and just dive into it already. > > For the record, I have no doubt the "Legends of Dune" & "Paul of Dune" books > will be excellent reads (at least as good as the "Prelude to Dune" books, > anyway) and be meticulously weaved into the Dune timeline proper. But are > these books necessary? Maybe you two, with the "House" books selling well, are > getting pressure from publishers to whore the Dune name out for more books... > and maybe the fanboys in you have no problem with that, I don't know. I just > don't want to see the Dune book series become like the Star Wars books... I > have no wish to see "Dune: The Young Dune Chronicles," "Dune: The Junior Dune > Chronicles," "Dune: The Courtship of Irulan," or "Dune: The Fremen Academy > Trilogy." If you two wanted to "warm up" for Dune 7 by writing House Atreides, > Harkonnen, and Corrino, that's cool and I've got no real problem with that, > MAYBE even the Butlerian Jihad trilogy (granted, fans DO want to see that)... > but the line should have been drawn there. I'm speaking as an outsider, but > where I stand as a 30 year observer of Frank's works if you want to do good by > Mr. Frank Herbert, then you two need to quit jerking off around the bush and > complete Dune 7, the only unpublished book we know for a fact was left > unwritten because of his death. > > A suggestion of compromise? If you want to branch off and do all these crap > stories about young adult novels and Chani of Dune or whatever, fine, just > make Dune 7 your next project after the Butlerian Jihad trilogy, not the last > book you will write as you two have said... telling Dune fans you are going to > write Dune 7 but it will be the last novel you will write, then putting it off > more and more is a crime. If Book #11 of the Junior Fremen Knights comes out > in the year 2039 and then you guys decide, "OK, we'll do Dune 7 now," I'm > seriously going to your guys houses and beating some asses. OK, I'm kidding > about that last part, but I've conveyed my concern enough that you understand > where I'm coming from on this. > > Thank you for your time, > Andrew Modeen > Seattle, Washington > (a Dune fan) > > PS: (to Kevin) I've read your Star Wars fiction, and you have actually replied > years ago semi-promptly to two of my fan letters to you in the past regarding > the Jedi Academy series, Darksaber, and other misc. stuff. I AM a fan of your > work, so I don't want to come off wrong to you. I'm just not convinced you > understand that Dune & the Dune name SHOULD not be whored around the way the > Star Wars name has. A handful of book sequel/prequels, miniseries, cool... > leave it at that, man. Leave it at that. When you expand it beyond that it > loses the novelty it has. > Dear Andrew, We're glad you're enjoying our other books. Many parts of Frank's overall storyline needed to be established, which we are doing in the LEGENDS OF DUNE trilogy. You'll be happy to know, though, that we have decided to proceed directly to DUNE 7 after we finish the current trilogy. You'll see when you read it that we weren't stalling, but doing necessary preparation. Kevin J. Anderson

Turtles are reptiles, not amphibians. - Neo

It's all right... at least it explains once and for all what happened to Earth. - Neo

Interesting that in the exact place in the options that Mozilla has the option to "Disable Pop-Ups," Netscape 7.0 replaces the option with something else. With 7.0 Netscape took the plunge from ultra-customizable, versatile browser to user-unfriendly spammer. - Neo

Here's an interesting thought... Assuming we could locate the cross that Jesus Christ was crucified on, or even the Spear of Destiny that impaled him as he lay upon it 2002 years ago, and scientists were able to extract trace samples of Jesus' blood... imagine the repercussions if science were to CLONE Jesus. Would it not be possible? And if it were done, NO ONE could refute that the guy to come from that would be the real deal J.C., back from the dead. What do you guys think? - Neo

This really boils down to a question of whose Dune fiction would you rather see, Frank Herbert's or KJA/BH's? Do we really need to ask...? :) - Neo

I've nabbed all the map packs. Who made these, and are these in any way sanctioned by WW themselves? Just curious. - Neo

OK, I host a co-op, complete a few missions, then me and my partner call it quits. At a later time when I go back online and go to host and co-op, I have the option to "Continue Campaign," which I click on. But then... anyone who joins my hosted co-op is somehow auto-kicked out or something. I *assume* by this that only the same person you teamed up with originally can continue the campaign, but is there any way around this? Seems a bit trite. - Neo

Who are these "most" people you speak of? I use 56k, but maybe it's because I've got a pretty decent 'puter now (1.333 ghz AMD Athlon, GeForce 4 Ti video card, 256 megs of RAM), but whatever the case... it's only in very rare circumstances that games are bothersomely laggy. - Neo

In response to Colonel Worf's questions for KJA, I think those have already been answered in other media or by Brian Herbert. 1) We know from the recent Brian Herbert interview that the basic plot of Paul of Dune is that it follows Paul's early years into the midst of his jihad on Dune. I'm guessing KJA/BH will give this book more of a "personal" feel, maybe even write it in the first person... a better question for KJA might be: Aside from showing us Paul's early EARLY years and chronicling days we've already seen in the original Dune novel, what *new* can we hope to see in Paul of Dune? 2) According to what they've both said in various interviews, they ALL come from Frank's notes - but that really means very little. i.e., Frank jots down a little background on this event or that event for reference purposes later on or maybe write a little more detail on this or that on the side, and BH/KJA go and write a book about it that Frank would never have intended to write. 3) Unless you mean the other prequels, the "Machine Crusade" and the "Battle of Corrin" are the next two novels, respectively. After that it's "Paul of Dune," then maybe some kind of Dune-Dune Messiah transitional piece (completely unnecessary IMHO), and then Brian Herbert mentioned the strong possibility of doing young adult Dune novels. KJA/BH have said in different media that they have discovered a lot of omitted chapters from Dune Messiah... one can guess that, even though Frank had to have omitted those chapters for a reason, KJA/BH will somehow incorporate them into the Dune-Dune Messiah transitional piece. Neither BH or KJA will comment on any working title for Dune 7 aside from just "Dune 7." The titles for the Prelude to Dune trilogy were weak, probably just working titles that became official titles... "House Atreides," "House Harkonnen," & "House Corrino"? How imaginative... none of the three novels seem to focus on any of the said houses any more than the other. Personally, I think BH/KJA should have stuck to Frank's "... of Dune" naming scheme (boiling down to basically incorporating "Dune" into the title without the use of a subtitle). I don't even think the Legends of Dune trilogy should even have/need the name "Dune" in the title at all. - Neo

I've seen a recurring problem when I've been playing online... we'll be in the middle of a game (and by a game, I mean a 2 vs. 2 deathmatch) and one guy, maybe two will start complaining, "Who's the n00b with the dial-up connection? Who's the 56k loser?" Sometimes these people will abort the game, ruining it for me and the other guy(s) because of a little bit of lag here and there. What the *fuck* is up with this? If by nature of virtue you're stuck with a 56k modem dial-up connection and honestly want to play Emperor online - heaven forbid you're even maybe GOOD at it - are you to be blacklisted from competing "vets"? Obsurd. - Neo

There's still international copyright law. - Neo

Huh, maybe I'm just not understanding something about the fundamentals of a growing software company... but I'm just at a loss for why companies like Origin and Westwood would allow themselves to be acquired by a company like Electronic Arts. Does anybody have any clue? I always thought as a company grows, makes successful games, it should become its own identity, its own giant in the industry. Why would Westwood, with an almost cult following of hits like C&C & Dune, suddenly be like, "EA! Yeah! Our company will definitely benefit from being bought out by them!" ??? The whole thing with EA just sounds counter-productive to ensuring Westwood's growth and I can't fathom how the bigwigs at Westwood on whatever fateful day it was decided to sell out to EA. Now EA runs the show... say, if tomorrow Westwood decided to make a MASSIVE multiplayer Dune experience their next game, EA can now have the power to step in and scrap the idea just because they could deem it too heavily competed with Ultima Online, another game they own under their Origin line. You see? No good could come of it. EA probably doesn't even care if their Westwood line bombs... if they have to let their WW line of games die to further what may one day prove to be another, more lucrative line, then that's what they'll do and there's nothing anyone can do about it. - Neo

I've only been on for about 3 weeks but this week it *has* been rather quiet. No one even wanted to play co-op with me for the first time in a while the last 2 days. :( - Neo

You're absolutely right - WC: Prophecy was SUPPOSED to have multiplayer... deathmatch, co-op, the works. In fact, if you look back in old PC Games or probably PC Gamer magazines from 1996-97 you'll see ads for Prophecy that advertised a "head-to-head or deathmatch multiplayer!" option. But, as I said, a deadline was a deadline for Origin, so Prophecy shipped with no multiplayer (albeit, with the faux promise that Origin would be developing a multiplayer WC that they honestly were, but got axed by the bean counters running the show). That's EA for you though... once they obtain a company, EA dictates the deadlines of that company's games... whatever game is ready (or not) ships on the deadline. Patches? Bug reports? Bah, once the fucking bean counters come in and decide what's most cost effective or absolutely necessary to do to ensure profit, that's what you get. Sure, you'll get 1, maybe 2 patches, but only patches that fix things the bean counters decide are *absolutely necessary & critical* to ensure marketability. Ironically, since EA doesn't really seem to *grasp* marketing itself, they pretty much fuck themselves in the ass on every level. - Neo

There is really *no* time to be bothering with that in multiplayer, am I wrong? - Neo

A second question: If I were to make an infantry unit, CTRL-click it on another friendly infantry unit, kill it, and then maybe CTRL-click it to kill other infantry units, would it "level up" and thus allow me to return it to the barracks and allow me to train Level 2 infantry? - Neo

Apparently it is NEITHER the IP address or the CD key that is banned - you're right in that I was able to use my original nick after 24 hours, but in the meantime I was able to use an alternate nick I created just fine. - Neo

A few questions... 1) There is a map-builder, right? OK, assuming 4 people on Westwood Online were running a fan-built map playing Emperor: Battle for Dune, could they play against each other with the map on WO or would they have to play a modem match instead? 2) Is there any handy kind of fan-made utility that lets you fiddle with existing units/create new units for any of the three houses? If so, and two people using fan-created extra units installed on each of their games were to play each other, could they do so on Westwood Online or would they have to play a modem match? - Neo

I know this exists and the manual talks about this, how infantry can "level up," return to the barracks, and allow you to produce higher level infantry... but does anybody regularly even bother with this, either in multiplayer or single-player? I know I don't. - Neo

Unfortunately you're wrong, there never was any "WC Gold" or "WC: Covert Ops" that allowed multiplayer. You're probably thinking of WC: Prophecy Gold (collecting Prophecy & Secret Ops) or just WC: Secret Ops, the more-or-less add-on to Prophecy you could download for free from Origin before it was collected in WC: Prophecy Gold. Origin WAS planning Wing Commander Online/Privateer Online (depends on who you ask, it was going to be called one of those two things), but prior to that they were planning the eventually-axed Wing Commander: Strike Team... supposedly it would lean toward an "extreme multiplayer experience." Before that, Prophecy was advertised to have a multiplayer function, but sadly as the development team's deadline closed they couldn't deliver the multiplayer shit. Putting Secret Ops on the web, mission by mission, for free was Origin's way of making up for that, so they said at the time. Anyway, the ONLY way anyone could EVER and probably WILL ever play Wing Commander multiplayer is with the old-skool Wing Commander: Armada game, that came out before WC3 even came out. And that was just modem-to-modem, no elaborate network system like Westwood Online or anything... if you knew a buddy's phone number and wanted to play a quick fighter-vs.-fighter game in WC:Armada and he was ready to receive your call, you could play but that's about it. Cool at the time. - Neo