Road to Dune

[NeoDevilbane]

So... "Road to Dune" has been on shelves for a little bit now, what did you guys think?

IMHO, harmless little compilation of various things, chapters cut from Dune and Dune Messiah, alternate endings... almost like the 2nd disc of a special edition DVD or something.

What is kind of strange is, they took the outline for FH's original "Duneworld"... and what KJA and BH do in Road to Dune is they write the entire story from the outline (this is like the entire first half of "Road to Dune")... but don't let us read FH's actual outline -- all we get is KJA/BH's take on the outline, as if it's just practice for Dune 7/8 (where they're again going off an outline by FH). That was kind of crap... if they want to write the story for "Duneworld" and stick it in the beginning of "Road to Dune" that's fine, but at least include FH's original outline for it.

In-between is some random letters between Frank and some publishers when he was trying to get Dune first published... don't be expecting a whole lot here. There's maybe 5 pages of letters with commentary from BH, that's all. Interesting, still.

The end is just KJA/BH including their various Dune own short stories.

[Andrew]

So is it better than butlerian jihad series? better than house series? better than dreamer of dune?

Worth it? Or should I attempt to read my battle of corrin book I bought a year ago that I am too afraid to read as my intelligence will decrease?

[NHJ BV]

I didn't know it was out already. How are the "new" chapters of Dune and Messiah?

[NeoDevilbane]

Well, it's got a lot of unpublished material written by Frank Herbert that's never been seen before... so I guess that's a good thing, isn't it?

The cut chapters from Dune don't amount to much... mostly exposition and fluff, but still interesting nonetheless. The Dune Messiah cut scenes are interesting, and the "original" cut ending for Dune Messiah feels more like an ending than the one we actually got in Dune Messiah, but wouldn't work with Children of Dune for obvious reasons (if you read it in Road to Dune you'll understand).

The letters back and forth between FH and various publishers are really kind of the highlight of it, so it's too bad there's not so much. What's there is pretty interesting.

[NHJ BV]

I saw the book in a bookshop today and skimmed through some of the deleted scenes, in one Leto I says that he has ridden many Guild ships, "even to Court". I guess this is where BH&KJA got their inspiration for Leto's trial in the prequels. Good to see they're not making everything up completely.

[Mahdi]

So what was the other ending to Messiah?

[NeoDevilbane]

* * * SPOILER * * *

We actually kind of see Paul get beat down and eventually swallowed by the desert in the "alternate" ending. Also, Irulan and the Reverend Mother get torn to pieces by an angry mob.

[Mahdi]

Interesting.  Hopefully the library has the bok.  Maybe read it this september isntead of my annual reading of Dune.

[Vanguard3000]

Hmm, I didn't know it was already out.  Now if only I had money...

Sounds interesting, but it seems like the kind of thing you'd have to take with a grain of salt.  Like everything else Brian and Kevin J. have been hawking out.

[Mahdi]

I'm really enjoying it (skipping spice world to the end, just finished reading the correspondance).

Man, I hope they release a couple books just with Herberts correspondance, this stuff is awesome.

Harlan Ellison telling Herbert that he sure as hell better not miss the hugo ceremony, it may be Ellisons only chance to insult Frank on a podium :D

Fuzzyface.  Teehee.

"No one wants to read about an anti-hero"

And, finally, a definitive explination of Herberts comparason of Paul to Hitler.

I fear this may be as close to reading those notes of Herberts as we will ever get....