Coming Soon: Dune 7... Sort of

It's been a while since I've searched on "Dune" for new information regarding possible movie adaptations and novels. I was pleased (okay, ecstatic!) to read on the Official Dune Website that two new novels based on Frank Herbert's own notes/outline for the legendary final installment in the Dune saga, until this time, dubbed only Dune 7. What seems to have been originally intended as a single final volume, will actually be release as two, Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune. According to the website (run by the authors--one of whom is Frank's son), authors Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson have crafted nearly 1300 pages which are currently being edited for publication.

What was once a book (Dune 7) I could not wait to get my hands on, has become two books I nervously anticipate. Although the books that are part of the Dune mythos NOT written by Frank seem to me serviceable science-fiction, they are of course pale by comparison. Very pale.

Although I read all six of the original Dune novels in a single summer, I actually quit struggling through the more recent novels halfway through The Machine Crusade "chapter" of what has been called officially, The Legends of Dune series. I am sorry to say that even after purchasing all things Dune in hardcover up to this
point, I have yet to even buy a paperback copy of the most recent new Dune product, The Battle of Corrin.

What all this says about me as a true Dune fan is debatable, but what is not, is that I look forward to revisting my old friends from Chapterhouse:Dune to see where they have been. The rub is this--unlike the previous "new" books, Anderson and (Brian) Herbert will be picking up and completing an existing storyline... a huge challenge to follow the Master in this endeavor, for sure.

All this talk of new novels based on Frank's outlines begs the question: Will the outline written my Frank ever be released for the completist Dune fan who has been part of this world for so many moons? My gut says they will nvere see the light of day, esepcailly if fan resposne to the new version of them is poorly received by fans.

"The person who takes the banal and ordinary and illuminates it in a new way can terrify. We do not want our ideas changed. We feel threatened by such demands. 'I already know the important things!' we say. Then Changer comes and throws our old ideas away."--The Zensufi Master, Chapterhouse: Dune