The Dune Encyclopedia
Eight years in the making, the work of painstakung scholarship and research, containing thousands of entries and cross-references... Futurist, journalist, bestselling author, world-maker Frank Herbert's magnificent future history, The Dune Chronicles, has proven itself the most popular and enduring work of speculative fiction of our age--not only for the grandeur of its epic sweep, but for the complexity and intricacy of its world. Now, for the first time, Dune is revealed in panoramic detail--the people, the desert planet, the ecology, the history, the entire universe of the visionary masterpiece! • The legendary history of Paul Atreides, the Kwisatz Haderach • Salusa Secundus: The prison planet • Fremen Desert survival techniques • Duncan Idaho (10158-10191): Swordmaster of the Ginaz • A complete guide to the heraldry of the major house of Harkonnen • "How Muad'Dib got his name": a folktale from the Oral history • The Dune tarot; or the Golden Path • The assassin's handbook: a complete guide to professional Chaumurky
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What Hacker News says
- IMHO the Dune Encyclopedia (written in collaboration with Frank Herbert) does a much better job elucidating aspects of the Dune Universe in an interesting way than Brian's books do -- there's a narrative thread that weaves through the last three of Frank's books that is really, really present and which Brian's books set aside for an alternative -- and to my view, much less satisfying -- interpretation of late-stage events in the series.
- Oh, yeah, one more thing: If you're a big fan, you may want to consider the Dune Encyclopedia: http://www.amazon.com/Dune-Encyclopedia-Authorized-Masterpie...
It was rendered non-canonical by either God Emperor or Chapterhouse, but it's full of interesting stuff if you're the sort that can get stuck on a Wiki-walk. This is probably the most monetarily valuable book in my meager collection, picked up without knowledge of its rarity from a library book sale.
- Tell me, have you read the original Dune and the accompanying Dune Encyclopedia? They're basically the foundations of the fictional science of terraforming ecology.
- A couple of things for your consideration:
In the original 6 Frank Herbert novels, it’s not ever truly explained what problems, if any, the thinking machines were actually causing. And given much of the rest of the setting, it could have very easily been a religious movement against a useful technology that got out of hand. Like Space ISIS blowing up Petra, or a “what would happen if the Luddites won” scenario.
The Dune Encyclopedia, which was not written by him but which he said he considered canonical, says the whole thing was incited when an AI doctor flagged a Bene Gesserit’s baby for abortion due to an alleged genetic defect. The Bene Gesserit woman knew it was healthy because of her abilities, and upon investigation it was found that the hospital’s AI had been running a eugenics program. (Or something like that, it’s been forever since I’ve read this stuff.)
In either case, Herbert really implied that humans took the lead on dismantling AI, and there is never any Terminator or Matrix style machine uprising scenario.
- > The Dune Encyclopedia, which was not written by him but which he said he considered canonical
No, he literally wrote in the intro to the book that it wasn't canon. It was a fan project and he thought that it was great there were fans doing things like that.
edit: and like with the terrible Dune prequels, the impulse to say "here's what really happened" usually diminishes what's interesting and powerful about oblique allusions in SF meant at least partly to function as a mirror on humanity.
- > I remember being told that it was compiled from his notes but I guess that was mistaken.
You may be confusing the Dune Encyclopedia with Brian Herbert's novels, which he claims are based on his father's notes (but probably aren't).
Frank Herbert actually wrote a foreword to the Dune Encyclopedia, in which he noted that:
"I must confess that I found it fascinating to re-enter here some of the sources on which the Chronicles are built. As the first 'Dune fan,' I give this encyclopedia my delighted approval, although I hold my own counsel on some of the issues still to be explored as the Chronicles unfold."
