last book (SPOILERS)

Duncan was the point almost from the beginning FH used him in each story as measurement fo humanities evolution as he remains constant each incarnation from the next, at least until Heritcs and that really just brought all the Duncans together.

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If you are wondering what FH intended for the last book I highly recommend reading the Dune Encyclopedia first chance you get to get an idea how much the prequels and sequels diverged from what he no doubt intended; it is out of print and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. But it is readily available on most file-sharing programs; even a P2P rookie could probably get a .pdf copy in a few hours.

I can say that the Dune Encyclopedia's accounts of the history recounted in KJA's and the ingrate son's books has more entertainment value in a few dozen pages for those specific entries than the two upstarts managed in six shoddy prequels, and their statement of the canon statue of the DE certainly conflicts with Frank Herbert's statements on the first page:

Here is a rich background (and foreground) for the Dune Chronicles, including scholarly bypaths and amusing sidelights. Some of the contributions are sure to arouse controversy, based as they are on questionable sources. Others round out long speculation. Specialists have had their field day here with problems geological, biological, astronomical, and mystical, with pronunciations, major biographies, histories and accounts of little-known figures. The range of topics is catholic: cf. from games for amusement to games of life and death (Cheops or Pyramid Chess to "The Assassins' Handbook.")

The history of the Financial Synod which spawned CHOAM gets its first airing in these pages. In fact, many secrets hidden in the Dune Chronicles are answered here.

How did Irulan first gain and then arouse the displeasure of Ghanima? Who was Jehanne Butler and why does the Butlerian Johand carry her name? What are the hidden origins of the Spacing Guild? Where did spice-trance navigational techniques develop? What was Leto II's private opinion of Holy Sister Quintinius Violet Chenoeh? Does Cheops have something in common with the three-body problem?

I must confess that I found it fascinating to re-enter here some of the sources on which the Chronicles are built. As the first "dune fan," I give this encyclopedia my delighted approval, although I hold my own counsel on some of the issues still to be explored as the Chronicles unfold.

So all of this talk about the prequels and sequels being based on Frank Herbert's notes is obviously nonsense; Take, for example, this excerpt describing tactics used in the Butlerian Jihad used by the crusaders against their "enemies:"

For example, consider Transcom, a trading corporation lasting for almost seven thousand years: the all-but-overwhelming amounts of data processed in split seconds during hyperspatial travel led Transcom to direct irs ships from a central computer bank, Centrans, located on an artificial satellite, Xenophon. As a ship entered hyperspace, its destination vwas transmitted to Centrans via Holtzman Waves. During the ship's progress to pre-designated points en route, Centrans processed the information and prepared course corrections. When the ship reached the first "mail drop," it reentered normal space and received course updates from Centrans. The computer-bank simultaneously handled routing for Transcom's more-than-twelve-thousand ships; during its long history, various mercantile associations subscribed to Transcom's service- the Van Rijn combine, Asconel, Far Traveler Couriers, and many others. With a clear perception of the indispensibility of the communications satellites, the crusaders of the Jihad struck early at Xenophon and similar establishments. The result was immediate and final: the utter collapse of regular interstellar trade. Had Transcom(and companies like it) not been destroyed by the Jihad, there would have been no transportation vacuum for the Spacing Guild to fill.

Hmmmm... you mean the human race wasn't trying to free itself from giant robots, but was instead embarking on a crusade against billions of innocent people in a clear parallel to Paul's Jihad? For Frank Herbert to say what he said in the introduction while he sat on notes detailing a Butlerian Jihad and other such events that are far different from what his son and KJA crapped out makes no sense. In fact, by telling such a bald-faced lie, KJA and Brian Herbert are in fact branding Frank Herbert as such.

Frankly, if I was the writer of the Peter Berg's upcoming "Dune" movie, I would sneak in as many little snipes against the prequels as possible: show a portrait of Duke Leto's father on Caladan that clearly says "Minotauros Atreides" rather than Paulus. Have Gurney Halleck talk about how Duke Leto freed him personally in a raid on a slave market on Giedi Prime. Have Duncan Idaho refer to Caladan as his homeworld. The one thing that surprised me was that Mohian is indeed Jessica's mother, but of course the circumstances are far different and has nothing to do with the Baron being immensely fat.

The Dune Encyclopedia is written as an in-universe historical document; it was published in 15540 AG, which is sometime before "Heretics" and "Chapterhouse", and there is a subsection under Paul Atreides entry arguing that he had to have been a Fremen and could not possibly have been born of a Great House (for many reasons- the Fremen wouldn't follow an off-worlder being one of them) and arguments for the history we know to be true.

It makes me wonder if the old man and woman from the end of "Chapterhouse" were actually aliens (they sure as *beep* weren't "Omnius" and "Erasmus" as no such concepts existed in the DE; there were no Terminator-esque robots, giant insectoid robots, no cymeks, etc. The butlerian Jihad was described as being fought against people who used machines rather than machines themselves), because of an entry detailing the Crompton Ruins, which were found on the planet Crompton which at that point the Guild believed no human had ever set foot on. Humanity thought it had finally found proof of alien life in the universe, and it details for a bit the reactions to (it was later discovered to be constructed by Leto II, the God Emperor)the site and how humanity thought for a time it was not alone (and it mentions that detailed protocols were in place in case of alien contact). It makes me wonder if he was trying to set up something with that. But we'll never know, as the two pretenders have likely wiped their asses with Frank Herbert's real notes.

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