Get Hold Of The Road To Dune Devised By Frank Herbert Presented As Booklet

is a very difficult book to rate, Some parts I loved and others had to skip over,

First I would say if you are intending to read the Dune books in order, as I have chosen to do, leave this one until after you have read all of Franks books, or at least until after you have read Dune Messiah.
The list I had placed this book after Paul of Dune but it just doesn't belong there, The different charcater, extra chanpetrs and alternative ending are somethign to enjoy after you have finished the originals,

After the preface you have an alternative dune novel names Spice Planet, It was basically like reading about a parallel universe where name were different but roles remained mostly the same,

Part One followed the original Dune storyline quite closely but there was enough different to amke it a good read, Some interesting fact around the great worms surfaced, whether they are true of the on Arakis I cannot tell,

Part Two had a storyline that strayed from the one in Dune or was it Dune strayed from tis story as I believe Spice Planet was one of the original drafts A very clever way to deal with the worms is developed that I almost wish had made it to the final cut.


I really enjoyed this alternative story even though it lacked some of the depth of the final version, although having read every book up until Dune maybe I just had the benefit of a deeper understanding of those characters.
If Spice Planet were released as a short story unrelated to Dune I would probably give itstars,

After this fairly short novel we move on to communications and explanation of how Dune came to be this part did not interest me at all and I found myself scanning over it but mostly not reading it.


Then we have a section containing unpublished scenes and chapters, Many of these I enjoyed and others I am glad they were left out, There is no running story, just snippets from the book so for a lot of the time you are trying to reorientate yourself as to what is happening in this particular scene.


The section of short stories at the end contains some but not all of the short stories that often sit between the main books, As I have already read them all I did not read them again, Each one has been rated individually as I finished them and most gained aorfor their fast and fun content,

This books is definitely a book to be read after you have enjoyed the originals, It is not part of the storyline at all and if you are to read it I would recommend you leave it until last, This is an interesting book but I will warn you that you really do have to be a fan of Dune to appreciate this book, Now this is not as dumb a statement as it sounds you see Frank Herbert was a very complex person who was passionate about certain things it can be seen in his writing but also in his research and perseverance to see things through.

Ok so why be a "real" fan to appreciate this book, As has been told and retold many times the genesis of the new or extended Dune books came about when boxes and I mean BOXES of notes and additional material was discovered by Brian Herbert.
What came about as a result of painstaking and almost Herculean dedication to catalogue, annotate and piece together all these fragments was to provide not only a picture of the Author but also the true scope of what he had planned for the universe of Dune.
So this book really gives a glimpse in to that body of work so you have essays, stories, correspondence, on all aspects of the books and the journey Frank Herbert took to get there.
It also explains why there is so much more of the story being told by his heirs Brain Herbert and Kevin J Anderson, Now as fascinating as all of this is it can be at times hard work to wade through it all but I can assure you its worth it if nothing else to help you gain a whole new appreciation for the universe of Dune A decade after the death of Frank Herbert, his son Brian and Brian's cowriter Kevin J.
Anderson, stumbled upon a safe deposit box containing a cache of the author's unpublished manuscripts, Dune chapters and letters,   Brian Herbert relates their excitement, not just from the standpoint that they were preparing to continue writing about Herbert's Dune Universe, but also from the standpoint of a fan of the series.
  They compiled these newly found writings, and published them in The Road to Dune,

When I started reading this book, I completely understood their excitement,   The first piece is a novella called Spice Planet, which Dune was actually based on,   Some of the names were changed:  Leto Atreides was known as Jesse Linkam his concubine Jessica was known as Dorothy Mapes and Paul went by the name Barri.
  But the story was terrific, and despite the name changes, any Dune fan would immediately slip into the comfort of familiar characters and places,

I also enjoyed reading some of the missing chapters although they might have been better added to subsequent publications of their respective books and the letters responding to Frank Herbert's original publication of Dune.
  This is definitely a mustread for any Dune fan, The Road to Dune is an incredible book,

But do not be mislead, this is not a prequel, nor is it really an expansion of the Dune universe, Instead it is a glimpse into the evolution of everything Dune, a view of its pre layered subtlety, an origin story of the idea itself, not an origin story of the universe created.


The lead novella, Duneworld, contains characters familiar but not really, Names which morph onto the mantles of other characters in Dune are present, but are different protagonists with different motives, roles, and presentations, And missing from Duneworld are the native Fremen, as is the foundational presence

of environmentalism, It is more of a space opera in some ways, but having been to Dune, you see its harbingers in Duneworld,

The innocuous and nondescript reporting piece which ignited Dune in Herberts mind is presented, What a brilliant individual! Also included are chapters dropped to keep serialization within contracted length, alternate endings, paths not taken, and several short stories bridging several of the prequels.


This book is for those interested in the creative process of Frank Herbert, of the spall of ideas, of paths not taken, and potentialities not reached.
If you enter the path with that in mind you will be transported to a wondrous place, but a place not Dune, more of a place from which to consider Dune.


Happy wandering.
Four but Im obsessed so take that for what its worth, I particularly liked the last two short stories, Bene Gesserit sect of warrior whores Im in, I found the BH/KJA version of Spice Planet to be a fairly passable work, though I would have preferred to just see what Frank's material looked like instead.
And I was already familiar with the short stories, so that felt like unnecessary padding,

However, the most egregious thing to me was the presentation of the "alternate or additional chapters", They are all presented as Frank's work, but several of the chapters are very clearly the writing style of BH/KJA: simplistic language, unnecessary repetition, etc, Coming on the heels of examples of Frank's actual writing style, it is infuriating to have them claim that this is Frank's work, when the differences are striking.


What's worse is that the deception wasn't needed had they simply stated that they were writing these chapters based on material that was found, ala the infamous "notes", then most would have accepted it as such.
So why the deception

It reinforces my overall feeling that a treatment of Frank's notes in the vein of Christopher Tolkien's "Middle Earth" series of books would have been far more palatable to most fans.
Frank Herbert's Dune is widely known as the science fiction equivalent of The Lord of the Rings, Now The Road to Dune is a companion work comparable to The Silmarillion, shedding light on and following the remarkable development of the bestselling science fiction novel of all time.


In this fascinating volume, the world's millions of Dune fans can readat long lastthe unpublished chapters and scenes from Dune and Dune Messiah.
The Road to Dune also includes some of the original correspondence between Frank Herbert and famed editor John W, Campbell, Jr. , along with other correspondence during Herbert's yearslong struggle to get his innovative work published, and the article "They Stopped the Moving Sands," Herbert's original inspiration for Dune.


The Road to Dune also features newly discovered papers and manuscripts of Frank Herbert, and Spice Planet, an original novel by Brian Herbert and Kevin J.
Anderson, based on a detailed outline left by Frank Herbert,

The Road to Dune is a treasure trove of essays, articles, and fiction that every reader of Dune will want to add to their shelf.
This was a disappointing read, I was looking forward to reading Herbert's article, "They Stopped the Moving Sands" and reading the letters of Frank Herbert sections of this book, Admittedly before starting the book Road to Dune, I was not clear on the fact that the article, "They Stopped the Moving Sands" was not ever completed, But what appears in this book isnt even an outline, it is merely a letter proposal that was shot down, The letters of Frank Herbert section was very sadly short and not particularly illuminating, The deleted and alternate scenes from the first three Dune novels are not particularly noteworthy, Honestly, one of the only real highlights of the book was Bill Ransoms preface reflecting on his relationship with Frank Herbert, which was a lovely read, The rest of the tome is Brian Herbert and Kevin J, Anderson fan fiction. Ultimately this book seems like a disappointing cash grab by Brian Herbert and Kevin J, Anderson, revealing little of Frank Herbert or his road to the creation of one of the greatest novels ever, Read the bits I was most interested in the letters of Herbert, his agent, and John Campbel and I will return to finish the remainder at a later date.
So Brian Herbert and Kevin J, Anderson found Frank Herbert's early drafts for Dune and Dune Messiah, including a long and very deviant outline for the original novel, I hoped they would publish them in a format something like Christopher Tolkien's History of MiddleEarth series, They didn't. They rewrote the early Dune variant into a complete novel, but one with no value whatsoever none as part of the Dune canon, of course, and also none as insight into how Dune developed, because there's no way to recover the actual outline from Herbert Jr.
and Anderson's rewriting. The deleted chapters from later but rejected drafts are barely treated any better, At least they aren't rewritten, but Herbert and Anderson don't give any indication of what kind of draft each was part of, let alone what motivated the changes.
Then they include some of their own Dune short stories, connected with their ginormous prequel project, but not particularly relevant here, The only decently illuminating reading here was a summary of Frank Herbert and his agent's correspondence with prospective publishers and others before and immediately after Dune was published, including Herbert's illfated proposal for a magazine article on sand dune stabilization that started the whole thing, but that's a paltry few tens of pages out of nearly.
If Christopher Tolkien's work is like a carefully documented archaeological excavation of his father's writings, this is more like a looter's collection, This book is interesting because it has a little bit of everything, perhaps most notably a novellalength story that was essentially an early draft of the first Dune book.
It had different names and concepts and yet was also recognisable, and that made for a super strange and super enjoyable read,

That novella is probably the highlight here, although there are also some cracking little short stories for you to enjoy and which bridge some of the gaps that naturally came about with the original Dune series.
Those are worth checking out as well,

But for me, I think the stuff that I enjoyed the most was the nonfiction sections which took a closer look at how Frank wrote the books in the first place.
I think its a writer thing I just love to see how people came up with and executed their ideas, I think its a great way of picking up some inspiration, and it also allows you to take a peek behind the curtain, as it were,

Still, theres only so much to say about this one, and I dont think it was anywhere near as good as the actual entries in the wider series.
Its really more of a book for the completionists which just brings together a bunch of random stuff that didnt have a home anywhere else, Being a completionist myself, Im glad that this thing exists, but taking it objectively as a book, its definitely not in the same league as the rest of the Dune saga.


When I finished reading it and looked back at it, it wasthe novella that stuck with me the most, It was fascinating to see the early ideas for Dune, as well as the way that spice started out as a leisure drug, rather than as something that made navigation possible.


But it was cool because it had a lot of the ideas that later came up, including the classic Duke Leto line where he gave the order to, “Damn the spice, save the men!” Although of course, he wasnt called Leto Atreides at the time.
That didnt come until later, like Pauls powers, .