I had hoped this would be extremely interesting, but unfortunately it turned out to just be "quite" interesting. Written by Herberts son, Brian Herbert, with Kevin J. Anderson, the main part is taken up by the novelette "Dune World", written on the basis of Herberts discarded initial outline for the story that turned into "Dune" and its sequels. It is a quite interesting read, much flatter and simpler, but you can see the start of many characters and concepts that made it into "Dune". As such it is rather interesting to get a glimpse of the process of how he arrived at the finished novel (and world). But in and of itself it is rather bland. That Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson aren't the best of writers (in my opinion at least) doesn't exactly help matters. But it is quite interesting.

A brief outline of an unpublished article on moving dunes is also quite interesting (as a glimpse of where the idea started).

The rest of the book is taken up by a few uninteresting letters that don't really tell us anything other than "yes, Herbert worked with an agent and they tried hard to get it published, and yes, Herbert made corrections and cut stuff before publishing it" ... not exactly earth shattering stuff. Also included are 4 previously published short stories that aren't very interesting.

This combination of fiction and nonfiction opens with a long list of acknowledgements, including members of the Herbert family, and opens with a foreword by Bill Ransom that mentions Frank Herbert lived a fun life and was humorous, hailing from the Puyallup Valley in Washington State. The fathers of Herbert and Ransom were in law enforcement, with the latter moving to Port Townsend in the early seventies. William Faulkner is said to be one of the influences of Herbert, with the writer’s wife Beverly Stuart Herbert dying of cancer while Ransom went through a divorce, with the memories of Herbert and his wife living on.

Following the foreword and the preface in which it is said that Frank Herbert kept much documentation on the Duniverse and partially-written manuscripts is a precursor to the original Dune entitled Spice Planet, with Brian Herbert saying that he researched his father’s mythology carefully before formulating his own Dune stories, with Spice Planet having many different names for the characters that would ultimately find their way into the initial Dune. The novel itself opens with a fictitious quote in its first chapter, as do subsequent sections, with protagonist Jesse Linkam suspecting that the news must be important with an Imperial vessel touching down in Catalan’s spaceport.

Jesse is a foremost aristocrat, and wants Counselor Ulla Bauers to accept him as he is. The Counselor wants Jesse to pack for a return to Renaissance, with Grand Emperor Wuda wanting him to give a report on the production of spice on Duneworld. Dorothy Mapes is Jesse’s concubine and business partner, and it is mentioned that Jesse’s father, among others, nearly brought House Linkam to ruin. Bauers’ ship transports Jesse and his entourage to Renaissance, a wealthy planet, where the Emperor sees both Jesse and his chief rival, Valdemar Hoskanner, with a spice production contest proposed between the antagonistic Houses, which Jesse accepts.

As an advance guard for the new Linkam operations, General Esmar Tuek and a hundred Catalan men arrive on Duneworld, with William English as a spice-crew manager, having been a prisoner on the penal planet Eridanus V, although the Emperor and Hoskanners offered him amnesty. It is further said that sand geysers and giant sandworms threaten spice operations. Dorothy Mapes is ultimate introduced, who wants full devotion to Duneworld, and while she and Jesse aren’t officially wed, they have a son named Barri, alongside an entertainer named Gurney Halleck, with the young boy missing Catalan.

Throughout their spice operations, the Linkams suspect Hoskanner sabotage, alongside natural crises such as sandworms attacking, although despite these dangers, Jesse brings along Barri to help survey spice operations. Sure enough, Imperial ambassadors find Linkam spice operations to be below standards, and Jesse thus seeks to rectify working conditions, with propositions for dealing with the sandworms as well. There are some occasional twists in the story towards the end, with the novel ending on a positive note alongside the maxim that true nobility is not a birthright, but rather must be earned by individuals.

The book moves back to nonfiction with the section “They Stopped the Moving Sands,” with Frank Herbert flying to Florence, Oregon in 1957 to write an article for the USDA about sand dune stabilization, potentially useful for Sahara Desert inhabitants, with sand dunes in the State swallowing cities, roads, and so forth. It was proposed that European beach grass could stop the destruction of the dunes, with more than eleven thousand other grass types proposed but ineffective, although Herbert’s report was criticized for more describing the adversity of the sand dunes rather than the battle against them, and the author urged to give the story to a more interested American editor.

Following this is a series of letters between Frank Herbert, prospective editors, and fellow authors, with the original version of Dune said to be rejected due to daunting length, and the final product barely resembling the final product. Herbert’s ambitious novel won several awards, with the writer himself having an interest in climate ecology. Afterward is a series of unpublished scenes and chapters from Dune and its sequel Dune Messiah, such as interactions between protagonist Paul Atreides and various characters, deleted chapters, and so forth.

After that comes a series of short stories beginning with “A Whisper of Caladan Seas,” which when published in 1999 marked the first Dune story written since Frank Herbert’s death thirteen years earlier, occurring concurrently with the Harkonnen attack on Arrakeen in the original Dune. The narrative itself occurs on Arrakis in the year 10,191 of the Imperial Calendar, with soldiers for House Atreides surviving an onslaught in a Shield Wall, with characters such as Elto Vitt and his uncle Sergeant Hoh Vitt. The short story does a nice job describing the conditions of the conflict and reveals backstory for the Vitts, ending on a negative note.

“Hunting Harkonnens” introduces the world of the epic Butlerian Jihad that long predates the original Dune, with ancestors of the Atreides and Harkonnens families battling machines with human minds. The short story opens with a Harkonnen craft leaving family-held industries on Hagal, Salusa Secundus as their destination, with Ulf Harkonnen as the pilot, having an adult son named Piers and a wife named Katarina. Cymeks, hybrid machines with human minds, attack, with Piers punished by being sealed in a lifepod that ejects from his family’s ship, and he lands among Caladan primitives. The narrative is ultimately enjoyable.

“Whipping Mek” occurs between The Butlerian Jihad and The Machine Crusade, opening with a Jihad warship arriving at Giedi Prime with expectant news of victory against the machines, although Vergyl Tantor believes the defense of the Peridot Colony didn’t go well, with Xavier Harkonnen as his adoptive brother, and the Jihad beginning with the infant son of Serena Butler and Xavier, Manion, killed by machines. Vergyl himself has a wife named Sheel, with the defeat at Peridot seen as a moral victory, and Xavier not wanting his friend to involve himself in the war, although he does allow him noncombat roles in repair and recharging, the titular mek making for practice against battle with machines. Another enjoyable prequel story.

“The Faces of a Martyr” occurs between The Machine Crusade and The Battle of Corrin, with the mention that mad scientist Rekur Van fled a lynch mob on his homeworld, with missing soldiers and Zensunni slaves said to be carved up to provide replacement parts for wounded warriors. Meanwhile, the robot Erasmus studies human emotion, finding their inherit goodness and hatching a plan to clone Serena Butler. Vorian Atreides receives an invitation from the widow of the Grand Patriarch, Camie Boro-Ginjo, who blames Xavier Harkonnen for her husband’s death. The story satisfactorily ends with a recall of sacrifice by friends.

“Sea Child” is the final tale in the book, occurring at the terminus of the Dune saga, with initial mention that Bene Gesserit punishments must have inescapable lessons, the Honored Matres conquering the planet Buzzell, and Sister Corysta, a disgraced Reverend Mother, caring for a phibian baby, which she doesn’t want to turn over to Monaya. The surviving members of the order are tortured for the location of the world of Chapterhouse, hidden homeworld of the Bene Gesserits, with further backstory exposed in the Famine Times after the death of Leto II, God Emperor of Dune. A bittersweet ending concludes this enjoyable Dune short story.

The anthology is dedicated to Beverly Herbert, with her husband Frank having completed Chapterhouse: Dune when she was dying in Hawaii, with Jessica Atreides based on her. Overall, this is an enjoyable book that gives some insight into the Duniverse, with the novel Spice Planet being a good precursor to the final version of Herbert’s original Dune. It even warrants rereads when those such as this reviewer choose to read the Dune saga in chronological order, and is definitely a good diving board for the average reader into the beloved science-fiction saga.

Really enjoyed this, but it is for Dune fans who have already read most of the other books. It contains a novella written from an early draft of the Dune story, several "deleted scenes", and a few new short stories. None of these are essential, but are entirely enjoyable for the hardcore Dune fan.

This book is so good and hits so hard, you feel guilty enjoying it. It is a Franken-Dune novel with only some parts by Frank Herbert and the rest by other writers. I guess if people can enjoy a Tupac Hologram, they can enjoy a new Frank Herbert Dune novel that isn't really a Dune novel and isn't really a Frank Herbert novel. Midway through the book, inside the illusion, I had to ask myself if it was all a lie. If I enjoyed so much because it was all fake. And that it being fake meant it was even better than the real thing. This Dune novel reads like a boy's own adventure, a tourist's venture into Dune, but that was exactly what I wanted and it was exactly what I got.

A decade after the death of Frank Herbert, his son Brian and Brian's co-writer 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 must-read for any Dune fan.

This is a companion book for the Dune series. As such it has some short stories, missing chapters and information regarding Frank Herbert, his wife and the process of writing and publishing the original Dune.

The noteworthy part of the book is Spice Planet, the draft of thankfully Dune didn't end up. As after writing it he desired to work it anew. The are some names an characters that resemble their Dune counterparts and some don't. You truly appreciate Herbert's decision of writing the book from scratch.

This book has not had many very good reviews, but some people found parts of it interesting. As I picked it up brand new on CD for $2 and can resell it for more than double that, I thought I would give it a try.
Overall, I have to agree with most peoples opinion. The letters and extracts from Frank Herbert, to and from, people such has John W. Campbell and Jack Vance were very interesting. These document a lot of the story of how Dune was conceived, written and marketed. The novella 'Spice Planet' is an early draft version of Dune. A lot of the plot elements are there, but the names are different and most of the subplots and politics are missing. Still, it's fascinating to read if your a Dune fan. The other short stories were all written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J Andersen and really had nothing to do with the rest of the book. It would have been much better if the length was cut in half and these 'new' stories were dropped.

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

Érdekes volt ez a könyv.
Különösen arra gondolva, hogy tartalmaz egy áttekintést A Dűne megszületését megelőző időszakról, illetve áttekintést arról, milyen nehezen jutott el az olvasókhoz könyv alakban.
Elolvasható e kötetben az az eredeti, igen rövid sztori, ami egyféle magva volt az egész Dűne-univerzumnak, ami ugyan jelentős változáson esett át, de mégis a kezdetnek tekinthető, amiből, mint a fűszer a mélyből, kitört a teljes, végleges sztori.
Néhány levelezés is olvasható a kötetben, a szerző és mások között, illetve az a cikk, ami {{a sivatag homokjának megkötéséről szól, Amerikában, és amiből az egész Dűne ötlete előjött}}.
A könyv tartalmaz még néhány kihagyott részt, melyek sosem kerültek be egyetlen részbe sem, egy-két alternatív jelenetbefejezést, illetve pár novellát, melyek kiegészítik és színesítik a teljes képet.
Érdekes volt.
Örülök, hogy olvastam.

This is hard to review because it's not a regular book. This volume collects unpublished chapters from Dune and Dune Messiah. It also has the first three short stories written by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson after they started writing the prequels. The bulk of the book is a novella that is written by Brian and Kevin from an outline by Frank Herbert that is an original version of the story that would become Dune.

This novella is interesting for anyone who wants to learn about what Frank Herbert was thinking when he started this world and how a writing process can change so much and improve so much. On its own, Spice Planet (the name of the novella) isn't very good, but as insight to the writing process and the world of Dune, it was fascinating. First of all, everything is very different. There were no schools (Bene Gesserit, Suk, Mentat, etc.) and the plot is exceedingly more straight forward. So much so, that it lacks what makes it great. Also, the son (now named Barri) is not a major character in the book. It is the father character (Jesse) the entire way through who is the protagonist, and this character was split in the later version between father and son.

Something I found incredibly intriguing is the original idea for the ecology of the planet. It is rather different and surprising. Knowing now that Frank Herbert did tons of research into desert ecology while writing Dune, I wonder if these changes were made to make a more realistic ecology for the planet.

As for the extra chapters or revised chapters, they were also really interesting, but a lot like watching the deleted scenes on a DVD. You generally get why it was edited out and the unfinished version that you see doesn't make you wish it was still in. However, many of these chapters were written before the final version of the story was set, and so they give you different ways that the story might have gone. The different endings to Dune Messiah in particular are very interesting.

So while the content of the book isn't very good on its own, if you want to further your understanding of Dune, then it's incredibly enlightening. It also gives you hope that if your novel currently looks more like Spice Planet, you can still change it and make it into something amazing.

Fascinating additional material which never before published. I really liked the original novella by Frank Herbert "Spice Planet".

If you are a Dune nerd, you will enjoy this book.

It gives you
1) A first draft of Dune, significantly different from the final product and about 50% smaller in content and themes.
2) A set of letters between Herbert, his agent and Joseph Campbell (the science fiction giant) giving some insight into how a story that seemed to have mostly began with an ecological bent turns into this sprawling epic with political and religious and metaphysical implications.
3) A set of out-takes from the Dune and Dune Messiah books, the latter outtakes suggesting a very different path than the one we saw.
4) A set of short stories written not by Frank Herbert but his son, Brian ... these will form various bridges to the sequels and prequels that Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have undertaken ... and have left me wanting. I did not read them because I have not really paid attention to post-Frank books.

Frank Herbert's dune universe is of such import to me it's hard to say why you should read this book ... you already know that you will, or you won't.

It is a really interesting thing to read the short draft, to see the basic form of Dune that is so etched into my mind start off as this relatively mundane tale of ecology and economy, where the spice is not yet imbued with its mystical essence, where the Fremen have not of the deep Islam-steeped culture they would eventually get, or to see a Lady Jessica spelled out the way she reads in my heart but is, in the actual Dune universe, written far more obtusely (as generally everyone in the book is ... it's incredibly odd reading a draft that is brisk and with characters who don't feel opaque and mysterious)