DUNE BLOG

Saturday, April 4, 2009

The Winds of Dune Copy-Edit and UK Jacket Text

Brian and I have each received the manuscript of THE WINDS OF DUNE, which has been marked-up by the copy editor for spelling, punctuation, and consistency. By the time we deliver a new DUNE ms., it has been studied and proofed so many times that it’s usually fairly clean. For WINDS, we have a new copy editor who seems to be unfamiliar with the series, either our new novels or Frank Herbert’s originals. So, we’ve had to go through carefully to mark STET on all the times the copy editor incorrectly corrected (incorrected?) Chusuk to Chusak, adding an unnecessary second hyphen to Lisan al-Gaib, spelling out St. Alia of the Knife (which Frank Herbert did not do), and adding a hyphen to good-bye (which is not the style in any of our ten previous books…do they also want to add a hyphen to to-night and to-morrow?) We are being very thorough, and then after we return the manuscript, we will see it one more time to proofread the typeset galleys. Publication date is August 5.

We have also received the cover copy for the UK edition, to be released by Simon & Schuster. Here, as a sneak preview, is the jacket text:

After the reign of Muad’Dib, an empire begins to crumble.

Paul Muad’Dib – cheered as a hero, worshipped as a messiah, hated as a tyrant – has vanished into the endless deserts of the planet Dune, leaving his turbulent empire without guidance. Now it’s up to his young sister Alia and his formidable mother, the Lady Jessica, aided by the faithful Gurney Halleck, the Fremen leader Stilgar and the resurrected Duncan Idaho, to keep the human race from tearing itself apart.

Fuelling the flames of dissent is the outspoken rebel, Bronso of Ix, doing everything he can to destroy the myth of Paul Muad’Dib, the man responsible for more deaths than any other in history.

Working with Princess Irulan, Jessica tries to uncover the truth about her son. As the winds of rebellion and treachery brew, she discovers that Muad’Dib may have knowingly planted the seeds for his own downfall. And that Bronxo of Ix has a secret mission of his own, one that will force Jessica to choose between the memory of her son and the future of the human race.

-- KJA