Dune 7 spoiler (I've read the draft)

[Mentat_one]

Hi,

OK, so I've had access to the draft of Dune 7, well the first book at least, which is to be released next year. There might still be some modifications to the story, but here are a few things I'd like to tell you about:

- As you may have guessed, the enemy from the scattering is Omnius. The evermind has been paciently awaiting for the Old Empire to show signs of weakness. The death of Leto II has triggered his plans.

- Among Omnius new toys are robotic sandwords. Having captured one, he used his self-fabrication technology to make them capable of growing and even producing more of its own kind (see The Battle of Corrin)

- Now, the thing with these robotic sandwords is that they produce Amal, the synthetic melange developed by the Tleilaxu. Omnius sends some of such worms to Wallach IX and all hell breaks loose when a group of HM starts taking Amal. One thing that this draft didn't explain was how Omnius got access to the Amal. Maybe it will be explained in a revision of the draft, maybe not. I'm not sure yet.

- Super Face Dancers: They are actually robots slipped in the middle of the 'regular' face dancers by (you've guessed it) Erasmus. Marty and Daniel were Erasmus' latest creation and the garden where they are found was Erasmus' (we all knew he had a thing for gardens).

- Two surprising returns: Vorian Atreides, yes he's alive and has been trying to track down the Evermind in the Scattering, and Paul. The latter has been cloned by Scytale and had received the mission of finding help. He, of course, finds Vorian.

- We also learn that the HM was founded by St Alia of the Knife, who has been cloned by a group of Bene Gesserit who wished to flee from the control of the Sistergroup and establish their own group and dominate the empire.  However, the book says that the ghola died prematurely, leaving this renegade BG group disoriented (after an early successful expansion)

- Now, the two Atreides guys become the center of all attentions, hunted down by everyone (hence the name of the book being 'Hunters of Dune', I suppose). Omnius wants to track them down, because he sees them as a major threat to his new Empire. The Bene Gesserit Sisterhood wants to kill Paul, and capture Vorian. Since Vorian has the original Atreides genes, perhaps then they can start with the pure Atreides genes and this time, well, do everything right, from start again. The HM that have taken Amal, gone insane, almost destroyed Wallach IX and being forced to escape, are also tracking them down. They believe that by mating with an original Atreides, they can produce a second leader, in the fashion of St. Alia of the Knife, to lead them back to their original plan of conquering the known Universe.

- Now, the scariest plan comes from Erasmus. Having learned much of Human History, Erasmus is convinced that only another god-emperor is able to rule the Universe. Now, the way he sees it, the god-emperor Leto II had failed because he was not a machine. Erasmus sees the three pillars: human-worm-machine as the key to full power. He intends to track down Paul to obtain some cell samples, with which he would create a new god-emperor with a worm. But this time, he would transplant his own gelcircuitry core to the creature's brain, making himself a new god-emperor.

- There's a chapter in which we're taken on a tour around Erasmus' new villa, and I can tell you that there are far scarier things than only Futars running around.

- Now, the ones to find Vorian and Paul are Duncan and Sheana. Sheana and Duncan have a teenage daughter named Helena. Now, Helena falls in love with Vorian, and Sheana in a vision sees that their children could bring balance to the universe. As for Paul, the BG send him a Chani ghola, to try to destroy him. But their love saves them, since Chani is able to remember him and overcome BG programming (this part I must confess I didn't understand very well, maybe it'll be revised later)

- In the mean time, Omnius ends up making an alliance with the HM/BG dissidents and they create an "Arrakis II" with the robotic sandworms. Omnius finally learns that just like the original melange, he can use Amal to control mankind, and it is implied by the end of the book that he has taken care of the side effects. There's even a humorous sentence by Omnius at the end of the book. He says: "He who controls Amal will control the universe"

- Now this is where comes the real 'twist'. Chani says that she remembers that her father, Lyet-Kynes had told her that he had discovered the original birth-planet of the sandwords, but had died before having the chance to tell her anything else. They all seem to agree that their only chance to save the universe lies in finding this original planet.

- The book ends with the good-guys group arriving at "Arrakis Zero" (I'm calling it that because it was not given a name in this draft), but not before Murbella and the BG/HM are able to kidnap Helena and force the girl, through a melange trance, to reveal the group's destination. I assume that the birth-planet of the sandworms is where "Sandworms of Dune" will take place.

That's it. There might be a few changes if the draft is revised. Unfortunately, I can't tell you more and can't reveal my true identity for legal reasons. But if anything new and worthy of being mentioned comes up, I'll keep you posted.

Mentat

[Mahdi]

All right, Gob says he doesn't have a problem with it, so here it is.

[Andrew]

Wow, what an absurd story. I want to purchase Frank's notes to verify that this is what he was thinking of doing.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Well, also remember that some of Franks books, particularly the later ones, would seem a bit absurd in an outlined plot view such as this as well (although everything he did always seemed to me to be well reasoned and purposeful, even if extrordinary, where as some of this is more akin to a "That'd be cool!" point of view).

With that said, the defining difference between the calibers of what Frank wrote, and what this could be, would be the quality of the writing, and how the plot is presented. By most reviews, the authors have a pretty big obstacle to cross if they want to take the plot from the "absurd" that a common writer would leave it at, to the "intriguing" or beyond that Frank was able to provide.

[Mahdi]

A legitimate point Tez, however a cybernetic human/sandworm hybred?

I called the Team Atreides partway through legends of Dune, but I was still hoping I was wrong.

Voirian Atreides still around after all these years?

[exatreide]

This makes extareides a very sad boy, I was hoping that this wouldn't happen, honestly they should have just left it dead with the three house books :(

[Barbarossa]

Ugh. This sounds like another case of "Things that FH would roll in his grave if he found out his son was actually publishing".

Sigh.

[TheRedDuke05]

This is a descrace to Frank Herbert. As the terroists in Team America say:

Dirka Dirka, Mohammad Jihad!  >:(

[Mahdi]

The thing that people have to remember (and Brian and Kevin inadvertantly proved with Road to Dune) is that simply because the original outline for a story is one way does not mean that the author actually intends to follow that outline for his final product.

In Frank's case (along with many other writers)it seems he wrote outlines that incorporated the major themes he wanted to explore. Added detail on top of detail in story form (including stuff he had no intention of actually using), then scrapped the whole thing and started over again taking the bits he found worked well together.

Lots of stuff goes into outlines that is never intended to actually be included in the final product.

As is evidenced by "Spice World".

Strang (and horrible) as some of this stuff is, it may in fact have all been included in the outline Herbert had written.

But that doesn't mean that for one minute he intended to include cybernetic human/sandworm hybrids and a justice league of the 35th millennium.

He may have, but I'd bet against it.

[MrFlibble]

This spoiler sounds horrible. I don't believe any bit of the 'detailed outline' story. I guess they invented it to raise interest to their new 'Dune' book.

Disgusting. Frank's books are so good and deep, and here... :'(

[Dondo]

Taht sounds AWESOME!  [/sarcasm]    ;)

[MrFlibble]

Before reading this spoiler for Dune 7, I used to think that the Emperor Worm from EBFD is the most perverted sample of mis-interpretation of the Duniverse. I was wrong, totally wrong! >:(

[tobiasthecommie]

I'm having a problem, i usually trust people, but oh i so want this to be a troll. :(

[Mahdi]

I'm having a problem, i usually trust people, but oh i so want this to be a troll. :(

A legitimate possibility.

As I said before, none if this is confirmed.

[TMA_1]

yeah... if this is all true then i am pretty sad.

oh well, make the best of it, heck there were one or two decent ideas, maybe it will be a decent brian/kevin collaboration.

hmm.

[Mahdi]

If Frank's mysterious enemies were indeed enemies from very distant past, it would be fascinating. But he wouldn't have written the legend of dune in the first place.

Actually, Herbert and McNelly had jsut begun collaborating on a novel about the Butlerian Jihad (called, strangely enough, The Butlerian Jihad) shortly before Herbert's death.  It was to be the next novel in the Dune series.

[Mahdi]

It was going to follow the story as presented int he DE.

[Edric O]

...and then Omnius reveals his Amal-powered uber-1337 Megacannon of DOOM!

Team Atreides, F*CK YEAH!

[MrFlibble]

Amal... Sounds suspiciously like Amtal... Who has the lack of imagination here - me or BH/KJA?

[Egeides]

...erm?...

....I will face my fear.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me....

[Dude_Doc]

Why couldn't they just invent more philosophical and radical political ideas in all kinds of different and difficult situations in the new books? This outline seems to be something from Star Wars or Star Trek - it's too much! Every single living creature just have to be cloned, and then there are machines, then they discover that the Butlerian Jihad is still underway, and that the whole time they were just in a giant Matrix-simulator, and when they discover this, Paul suddenly learns to fly and becomes a master of Kung Fu, but at the same time, Omnimus clones himself, and then we find out Omnimus is really the devil himself! Then, we find out that the CIA is still around and makes clones, and that it is these clones that control that Matrix-sim I was talking about earlier.

But the whole thing ends with Han Solo waking up on Cloud City and saying: "Blasters, what a horrible dream."

(There you have it, outline for "Dune 9".)

[MrFlibble]

Will there be Darth Vader? And Predator? If not, I'm not going to read your "Dune 9". Pah! ;)

[Dude_Doc]

Nah, but Vader's mask is being feutured on Omnimus! And "Predator" makes a cameo-appearance in the end, killing the main character (which I won't tell who it is!)... muhuhahahaw...

[Caid Ivik]

hm, wasn't there already a Dune VII book? http://www.usul.net/fandom/marco/frames.html

[TMA_1]

I sure wish that original concept with McNelly and Frank would have worked out. Honestly there was great potential in the history of the Duniverse as told from the DE. TO me it felt ancient, powerful, and well, just more adult. Not saying that in a silly sort of way, but the ideas were more out there and complex.