DUNE 7 BLOG

Friday, December 16, 2005

Conspiracy Theories

We receive a lot of fan letters at the dunenovels website, but Brian and I do not lurk on any of the various unofficial Dune discussion boards. (Brian is not connected to the internet at all, and both of us are too busy writing our novels.) But news trickles back to us, and we recently received a letter that we wanted to share and comment on, with the author's permission.

"In the Dune online community there are people who, under normal circumstances, are of the most intelligent ilk who have great opinions and views about a great many things. But when it turns to the Dune prequels and now Dune 7, they turn themselves into total, utter morons. It's beyond fathom.

"I mean, honestly... the latest blog has gotten them all riled up again. "Paul is back to life! bleh!" "KJA and BH are using Dune as a cash cow again!" "There was no safety deposit box, they're lying!" "BH hates his father so he lied about the Dune 7 outline!" and so on.

"It's just really sad that a fandom can be so divided amongst themselves. What really irks me most, personally, is the people who go on about Brian basically just making the whole bit up about the outline of Dune 7 so as to gain notoriety and revenge on his dad (for what, I don't know). Saying a son is publically lying about his deceased father's outline is just inhuman, unsubstantiated, and makes them sound like douchebags.

"Seemingly in every manifestation of the WWW and Dune, dozens of these kind of bitter, jaded people are congregating. I'm not the only fan put off by this, I have many friends -- real Dune fans -- who won't go anywhere near a Dune message board because of these folk.

"Anyway, just know that these people don't represent the majority of Dune fans out there and that Dune 7 is a very, very welcome addition/conclusion to the saga that has been cliffhung for 20 years."

Disappointing news, but not surprising. Brian and I are aware of a small group of fans like that, particularly congregating on a few discussion boards. My friend, artist Bob Eggleton (who painted the cover for my novel THE MARTIAN WAR) calls them the "Talifan."

They started appearing as soon as our first DUNE prequels were announced, vehemently opposed to *anything* new connected to DUNE, regardless of whether the novels were based on Frank Herbert's own notes, regardless of whether Frank had asked his son to write additional DUNE novels with him before his death. We can certainly understand many devoted fans being protective of their favorite universe, and we can understand their initial skepticism. Frank Herbert was a genius, against whom few writers in history can measure up. We felt the fans were showing their passion and dedication, and Brian and I worked as hard as we could so as not to disappoint them.

Unfortunately, their tactics soon became apparent. Even before HOUSE ATREIDES was published, before review copies were ever distributed, these "Talifan" got together and posted 60 one-star reviews on amazon.com. None of them had read the book, but that didn't stop them from trashing it with quotes like "This can't possibly be good, so it has to be terrible" and "I don't even need to read this book to know how bad it must be."

After HOUSE ATREIDES was published, however, we actually received genuine apology letters from some of those fans, admitting that they had been unfair. HOUSE ATREIDES sold three times what the publisher originally expected. The members of the Science Fiction Book Club voted it their "favorite SF novel of the year" by the largest margin in the history of that award. Our subsequent DUNE prequels have been selected for many honors, including a New York Times Notable Book, numerous awards, and several of them were ranked as the best-selling SF novel of the year. Brian and I are confident to let our prequels stand on their own merits.

But some of those fans are still out there, and they are still writing their nasty posts. We realized from the outset that there was nothing, absolutely nothing, we could do that would satisfy those fans for Dune 7. That much is apparent from the letter quoted above.

"Paul is back to life! bleh!" While they complain about the work Brian and I are doing, one wonders how closely these fans have read Frank Herbert's DUNE novels. Frank was planning to bring back a Paul ghola and very clearly set it up himself. We thought that much of the story would have been obvious to our readers. See CHAPTERHOUSE: DUNE, paperback p. 84: "Paul Atreides and his beloved Chani were there. (Oh what that had cost in searching garments of the dead for random cells!) The original Duncan Idaho was there with other Atreides minions-the Mentat Thufir Hawat, Gurney Halleck, the Fremen Naib Stilgar . . . enough potential servants and slaves to people a Tleilaxu universe."

But, there are those who see conspiracies around every corner. As to whether Brian and I are making up the very existence of the Dune 7 outline -- our editors have read Frank's original outline, our publisher has read it, as did Frank's editor at Ace/Putnam back when he originally sold the book. To the left, I'm posting copies of the actual IBM diskettes containing the files, with the labels "Dune 7 Outline" and "Dune 7 Notes" in Frank Herbert's own handwriting. (Will this convince any of the conspiracy crazies? Probably not. They don't *want* to accept an explanation.)

Anybody who still doesn't believe the outline exists is likely also spending time tracking down Elvis sightings, running after crop circles or reports of alien abductions, or listening to mysterious transmissions through their tooth fillings. There is no conspiracy.

And finally, to anyone posting comments that Brian hated his father or was somehow trying to get revenge on him -- shame on you. That is offensive and goes beyond the pale even for the worst internet fans. If you want to know about the relationship between Brian and his father, read his Hugo-nominated biography, DREAMER OF DUNE. Brian spent years writing that book as a loving tribute to his father. Here's a quote (p. 527):

"Frank Herbert was brilliant, loving, honest, loyal, generous and thoughtful. His deficiencies were more interesting than significant. In the days and months after my father's passing, I experienced more apparent grief for him than for my mother. I felt a terrible emptiness. In moments of privacy and silence or during conversation I would suddenly be overwhelmed with emotion, and it confounded me. Perhaps it was because we grieved for Mom over a ten-year period, during her illness. We were conditioned to expect her death. But with Dad it had been so nightmarishly sudden and shocking. He was such a survivor, such a larger-than-life figure. I thought he could beat anything."

Frank Herbert spent a great deal of time advising his son Brian on how to be a writer, helping him to find a publisher for his novels, offering critiques on his manuscripts. The last book Frank Herbert wrote was a collaboration with Brian, MAN OF TWO WORLDS.

Before he died, Frank Herbert asked Brian to write more DUNE novels with him, particularly to flesh out the Butlerian Jihad story.

When Frank wrote HERETICS and CHAPTERHOUSE he obviously intended to complete the story. He had planned an entire epic that tied his chronicles back through his whole projected history.

Frank Herbert wrote a detailed outline for "Dune 7" and he left extensive "Dune 7 notes," as well as stored boxes of his descriptions, epigraphs, chapters, character backgrounds, historical notes -- over a thousand pages worth.

These were books that Frank Herbert intended to write. He actually began work on Dune 7 in 1984, but he died before he could complete the project. Knowing this, if you truly see our new novels as nothing more than "KJA and BH are using Dune as a cash cow again!" -- then don't buy them.

We are extremely proud of every one of our DUNE novels and have not let a single one be published that we didn't feel was the absolute best we could do. In the best of circumstances, we would rather Frank Herbert was still alive to write the books he wanted to write, but that's not possible. If you choose not to buy or read the new novels based on Frank's notes, then we respect your decision. Reread the original six DUNE chronicles, if that is your preference.

But don't post crazy rumors that Brian hated his father or that we're making up the existence of the Dune 7 outline. They are untrue, unfair, and unbelievable.

******

Sadly, these kinds of guerilla fans are not restricted to Dune. You'll find the same sort of rude nastiness on the Star Trek boards, on Robert Jordan boards, on X-Files boards. The behavior of a small group of unpleasant fans has driven virtually every Star Wars writer to avoid participating in online discussion groups. [My favorite ridiculous posting from a Star Wars fan board: "I absolutely hated the first thirteen books in Kevin J. Anderson's series, and I hate the fourteenth one even more!" Any rational person would say, If you hate it so much, why keep reading? Go to a bookstore -- you've got plenty of choices if you don't like my work.]

The problem is, they hate *everything.*

In the past year I've very much enjoyed a new band (to me), Dream Theater. I find their music to be exciting and thought-provoking. They are innovative, but at the same time they give acknowledged homages to some of the great progressive rock bands. I liked their music enough that I bought nine of their CDs plus a DVD concert. So I decided to check out some of the fan boards to read the messages and background. Guess what -- the Dream Theater boards are full of trash postings, vitriolic complaints about ridiculous things, whining about one song or another, by a few dozen people who probably play air guitar in their underwear vehemently insisting that they could do better.

Then I went to look at the Evanescence fan postings. Evanescence's Grammy-award-winning CD "Fallen" is the best-selling music CD in the past two decades (if the postings are correct), and I think Amy Lee has an absolutely haunting voice. My 52-year-old brother-in-law loves the CD, as does his 26-year-old daughter; I love it, so does my young nephew. But if you look at the postings of supposed "fans" on amazon.com and on the message boards, again you'll see angry garbage, trash postings, insults, ripping anything and everything about Evanescence to shreds.

You can probably find the same thing in fan groups for actors, sports teams, needlepoint and horse breeding. It's a sad fact about any sort of fandom that one of the smallest, and loudest, groups just has to complain. Meanwhile, for the rest of you, please content yourselves with enjoying the books, music, sports, artwork or whatever you love.

-- KJA

=====================

Brian Herbert's Personal Letter to Dune Fans

I have been writing new Dune novels with Kevin J. Anderson for several years now, and it has been a remarkable journey through my father's fantastic science-fiction universe. As many of you know, I did not undertake this task quickly. In fact, I delayed tackling any new Dune projects until 1997, eleven years after my father's untimely death. If I had wanted to maximize my income from these books, there was a big "window of opportunity" in the first couple of years after he passed away. For many reasons, most of them having to do with the integrity of my father's literary legacy, I did not continue the series when it would have been the most financially profitable.

It was not until many years later, after a great deal of the interest in Dune had waned, that I undertook new projects. By that time, I felt the necessary enthusiasm for the formidable task that this would involve, and I proceeded with the absolute certainty that I had found the writing partner in Kevin who matched my desire to maintain the extraordinary high quality of the series.

In 1999, several fans posted negative comments about our forthcoming series. Months before Dune: House Atreides was published, they said vitriolic things about a novel they had not even read, and they came up with insulting names for both Kevin and me. The comments troubled me, but I told my co-author that I forgave those fans. After all, they felt that they had a stake in the marvelous Dune universe, and they did not want anyone coming in with big boots on, tromping around on sacred ground. Those fans loved the Dune universe enough to want its quality to remain high, and some of them eventually apologized to us after they actually read House Atreides.

When Kevin and I appeared at the big DragonCon convention in Atlanta in the summer of 1999, the fans had only read an excerpt booklet for House Atreides. The novel was still several months away from publication. When hundreds of fans lined up to see us, I didn't know if they would come with insults or tomatoes. A short while later, we had our answer. A man at the front of the line thanked us for continuing the series after so long. He said that he had been waiting for new stories, and he was tremendously excited. That day, we heard similar comments over and over, and they have continued whenever we make public appearances for each new novel. We are very grateful for this solid base of fans who look forward to a new Dune novel each year.

Before writing a single word in the series, I spent a year compiling a huge concordance of the Dune series that my father wrote, so that we could make sure that our facts were straight. I also spent years writing a biography of him, Dreamer of Dune, a massive project that enabled me to understand my complex father even more. Anyone who claims that I hated my father, or that I somehow wanted revenge on him, did not read this book. While my relationship with him was rocky when I was growing up in his strict household, by the time I reached my twenties he and I became best friends, and we even collaborated on the very last novel that he wrote, Man of Two Worlds. I loved him deeply and I miss him tremendously. The day does not go by when I do not think of my remarkable father and the incredible literary legacy that he left for his millions of fans.

I have said many times that Frank Herbert would not have been the incredible man that he was, or the genius author, if it had not been for the contributions of my mother, Beverly Herbert. She was his inspiration, his intellectual equal, and his loving companion for nearly four decades. To understand Frank Herbert, it is essential to understand her as well, so I worked hard to bring her back to life in Dreamer of Dune. But I am also part of the process of understanding Frank Herbert. I am genetically linked to him, and I also heard him say many things (politics, philosophy, etc.) that I have been able to include in new Dune novels. I don't claim to be Frank Herbert or to have anywhere near his talent. But I have bits and pieces of him in everything I do and in every thought I have. He is always with me.

I am not asking anyone to respect me just because they respected Frank Herbert. But I am asking for a fair shake. Unfortunately, it is part of our culture for people to make snap judgments about others without a scintilla of evidence to support their views. They simply have gut reactions, or preconceived notions, and confuse that with evidence. The news media and others are constantly asking people if they think that So-and-So is guilty of this or that, and opinions pour in -- on both sides. Guilty or innocent. But those "trial by public opinion" verdicts are based, in large degree, on filtered information and not on actual evidence. This is a form of shallow thinking, if it can be called thinking at all. It is more emotion-based than intellectual, and the emotions can easily send people careening in the wrong direction.

Obviously, we have vastly more fans who support our new Dune stories than there are detractors. That's why sales of the new novels have been so strong, and why the overwhelming majority of letters that we receive are positive. It is also encouraging to us that sales of Frank Herbert's six Dune novels increased dramatically after Kevin and I started publishing our prequels. Dune in particular has enjoyed a renaissance, as new, younger readers are picking up the classic novel for the first time.

Even with the few negative and unfair comments that Kevin has responded to in his "Conspiracy Theories" blog, I respect those fans. They love the Dune universe and they want the best for it. Remember, though, that it is not possible to please everyone all of the time. Even Frank Herbert could not do that, as many fans and editors did not understand his first sequel Dune Messiah, in which he made the dark side of the hero central to the story. More than a decade after that, in 1984, the David Lynch movie "Dune" was severely criticized as well. In both cases, it was largely because fans had their own images of what the Dune universe should contain, and the sequel novel and the movie did not match those images. For some fans, it is undoubtedly the same now, as the books that Kevin and I write do not match their own images.

In the Dune universe, however, it is important to keep an open mind. It has such an incredible wealth of ideas that anyone working in that "sandbox" is bound to go in any number of directions. That's part of the enjoyment of writing new Dune stories, and I can assure you that Kevin and I are having a wonderful time in the creative process. It is great fun as we play off each other like riffing in a jazz performance, taking each other's ideas to new levels.

Thinking back, I remember how much I enjoyed L. Frank Baum's "Oz" series when I was a boy. I was six years old when my mother handed me a thick Oz novel and told me I was ready to read it. It wasn't long before I had read through all of the Baum books and I was looking for more. Baum had died, but the series was continued by others afterward, particularly by Ruth Plumly Thompson. To my delight, I found that I enjoyed her novels just as much as the originals. In a very engaging style, she wrote Purple Prince of Oz, The Gnome King of Oz, The Silver Princess in Oz, The Cowardly Lion of Oz, and other great stories. If she had not continued the series, it would have been a great loss to me.

On a different level, the Dune series is like that. While the novels are much more complex than Oz stories, Frank Herbert generated a tremendously loyal readership, and those fans were disappointed when he died. They wanted to read new stories. It would be better if he could be here today writing the new novels, but that is not possible. In his absence, Kevin and I are doing the very best job we possibly can. We don't expect to please everyone, but in each novel we always try to write for the most demanding of fans, because we understand why their standards are so high.

The Dune universe stands on its own pinnacle. We recognize that, and we will not publish any books that are not the highest quality. I take this very seriously, and you have my word on it.

Brian Herbert
December 15, 2005