Ah fuck. . .

Just saw this on sfsignal.com:

Simon & Schuster has paid two "good" six-figure sums for UK and Commonwealth rights in two new series by science fiction authors Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson.

The first series is a new trilogy in the long-running science fiction series Dune. The first volume in the series, Jessica of Dune, is scheduled for an autumn 2009 release in trade paperback. The other books in the series are Irulan of Dune and Leto of Dune for releases in 2011 and 2013 respectively.

The authors are also working on the first three volumes of another series, Hellhole. The first book in the series will be published in autumn 2010 and the next volumes in the series will be published on alternate years.

The rights were sold by Claire Roberts at Trident Media Group on behalf of John Silbersack and Robert Gottlieb to Simon & Schuster senior fiction editor Kate Lyall-Grant. The books will be published by Tor Books in the US. S&S publishes Anderson's Saga of the Seven Suns series.

The entire article can be found here.

Either a new safe-deposit box was unearthed, or they have no qualms about mutilating Herbert's legacy. . .

Poor Frank Herbert, he must be turning in his grave.:-(

13 commentaires:

Shawn C. Speakman said...

The notes in the safety deposit box and those found on the floppy disk had Frank's notes that sprawled from the Jihad through Paul's story into the Dune 7 story. So it's not another safety deposit box; it's all part of the same cache found.

Also, I can't believe how erroneous that press release is. The Heroes Trilogy is Paul of Dune, Jessica of Dune< and Irulan of Dune. Leto is not involved at all--at least as far as I know.

And Frank is probably turning over in his grave, but the graves of his great-great grandchildren will be lined with green. That would be a consolation to a man who was one of the poorest in Tacoma, Washington. As they say, Brian and Kevin wouldn't be writing this if people weren't buying it.

Just some thoughts. Hate them if you want.

Joe said...

I've known about this for a while, but I hadn't heard about Leto of Dune...I don't think that's right.

And...just to clarify, Hellhole isn't a Dune series...I don't think...they've thrown the word Dune in nearly everything they've done so I doubt it.

Ah well. I didn't mind the House trilogy, but I tried to read the first of the waaaay back prequels and it sucked rocks. I haven't decided if I'll dip into the Dune 7 books.

Ed S. said...

I believe this all came about because Frank Herbert's grocery shopping list was discovered in an old jacket. An extensive computer analysis of it was done and the plots for the next 30 Dune novels were decoded. And there are a few words the computer is still working on: "salami", "one quart milk" and "rye bread", leading to some excitement that the plots to even more novels may yet be uncovered. This is going to be an exciting century for Dune lovers!!!!

Anonymous said...

So does anyone know if this covers events after that last Duology/Finale I thought the last one "Sandworms of Dune" brought the series to a close.....

Shawn C. Speakman said...

Megaleafs: Paul of Dune is the story set between the novel Dune and its sequel Dune Messiah. As you probably know, there is an enormous gap between those two novels where Paul was quelling the universe. Paul of Dune is that story.

Anonymous said...

RIP Frank

I thought you were a genius after Dune, but the depths of that genius and where it was heading was becoming very evident after Chapterhouse.

Anonymous said...

Sadly it goes to show you that the allmighty dollar can rune even the best of franchises. Its getting to the point were book series are getting like TV series, just running far too long sometimes for some and not long enough for othres.

Anonymous said...

I think franks son and family who seem to be okay with it are the only ones who need be concerned with any sort of legacy and by all accounts so far they have been positive of the brian/kevin continuity of the series.
Quit whining.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, I read the Hunters of Dune book and it was as bad, if not worse, than The Machine Crusade. Instead of reading the Sandworms of Dune, I read the summary of it on Wikipedia and saved myself $30. I would have loved to see how well Frank Herbert would have developed the ideas that Anderson and Hebert only flail at.

Joe said...

That's disappointing. I couldn't even make it through The Butlerian Jihad. I had been kind of looking forward to it for years but never picked it up...and then I tried it...ugh.

I'll re-read Frank's novels and see how I feel about starting Hunters.

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed the House Trilogy, but thought the Jihad books were pretty dull and bland. You can tell what will happen from miles away (ohhh, one of the machine spirits sent hundreds of replicas across space...wonder what the Honored Matres were running from then?), the books are overly long and filled with uninteresting characters. Each 600-700 page book could have been cut by one third easily.

And do we really need to have the origin of every single thing explained to us? Leaves no more room for imagination.

That's what those new Dune books are: imagination killers.

I still haven't read The Road to Dune, which has been sitting on my shelf since release. I might pick up Dune 7 after my next reread of the original 6, whenever that will be. But that's it, not interested one bit in the Paul books.

C.B.

Tony said...

I second your comment. Someone needs to leave the Dune universe alone. I read the House Trilogy and other than a few issues I thought it was pretty well done.

The Jihad trilogy was a complete waste of my time, and although I finished it, I will never read another Dune book by Brian and Kevin.

SandChigger said...

And soon (221 days, as I write this) Jessica of Dune will be hitting the shelves...

Hopefully with the same listless thwump as Paul of Dune. Almost a virtual non-event in publishing. Maybe this will mark the end and the series will get cancelled.

In case anyone is interested, in PoD Kevin J. Anderson and the other guy bring into full play their goal of reducing Frank Herbert's Dune books to mere in-universe texts written by Duniverse characters such as Irulan...with all the potential unreliability that that entails. Apparently KJA thinks this will silence critics on the issue of inconsistencies with FH's works. FH's Dune was written by Irulan; KJA's "Dune" is the real story. Anyone that isn't outraged by this isn't really a true fan of Frank Herbert.

Btw, Shawn up there is a friend of the two "authors" and flogs signed copies of their books on his website. Not exactly an unbiased observer.