The Road to Dune
First edition cover
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| Author | Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson; edited by Patrick LoBrutto |
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| Audio read by | Scott Brick |
| Cover artist | Stephen Youll |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Dune franchise |
| Genre | Science fiction novel |
| Published | 2005 (Tor Books) |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 489 |
| ISBN | |
The Road to Dune is a science fiction companion book to the Dune novels by Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. The book was released in September 2005.
This companion work to the Dune novels includes an alternate novel based on Frank Herbert's original notes for Dune, letters between Frank Herbert and his editor, the original article by Frank Herbert that inspired the creation of Dune — "They Stopped the Moving Sands" — as well as unused chapters from Dune and Dune Messiah, and the short stories in the Dune universe written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.
Spice Planet is an alternate Dune story written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson based upon the original story outline that Frank Herbert made for Dune. It features House Linkam (a version of House Atreides) temporarily taking control of Duneworld from their rivals, House Hoskanner (the forerunner of the Harkonnens), to settle a dispute between them. The Hoskanners had received a monopoly concession on the recently discovered Duneworld, but as melange had grown in popularity in the Empire, other Houses had begun to dislike the Hoskanner's wealth and pushed House Linkam to challenge House Hoskanner. The Emperor, secretly allied with the Hoskanners, orders Linkam to take over Duneworld for two years with the promise that if they produce more melange, then they will receive the concession — else it will go permanently to the Hoskanners. Much like in Dune, the Hoskanners sabotage and thwart to the best of their abilities, although the Linkams enlist the help of the Imperial Planetologist to devise a way to neutralize the sandworms and vastly increase the efficiency of operations.
The story has some obvious links to the original Dune novel, such as many of the same characters, but some key themes are underdeveloped in this version:
When we arranged all the chapters and read through the remarkable outline, we found that Spice Planet was a unique and worthy story in its own right, not just a precursor to Dune. Although the harsh desert is very similar to the one familiar to millions of fans, the tale itself is thematically different, focusing on decadence and drug addiction instead of ecology, finite resources, freedom, and religious fanaticism.
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