This is an interesting book but I will warn you that you really do have to be a fan of Dune to appreciate this book. Now this is not as dumb a statement as it sounds you see Frank Herbert was a very complex person who was passionate about certain things - it can be seen in his writing but also in his research and perseverance to see things through. Ok so why be a "real" fan to appreciate this book. As has been told and retold many times the genesis of the new or extended Dune books came about wh...

This was a very entertaining collection of deleted scenes, short stories, and letters about the novel Dune and its sequels. It's definitely one for the Dune enthusiast and probably won't be much use to the casual fan."Spice Planet" takes up most of the first half of the book. The cover advertises this as a "new" novel by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson. In reality, it is a short novel length work that they put together based on an outline by Frank Herbert. This outline was a very early draft o...

This book is composed primarily of sort pieces of fiction comprised of an alternative story line for Dune from Frank Herbert's notes, deleted chapters and scenes from Dune and Dune Messiah and four short stories tied into the prequels to Dune written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. It will only make sense if you have read the appropriate books from the Dune series and are a fan of the series.

If you've read all the Dune books and want a fix, then here it is. Just don't expect another Dune book!Contains a version Dune before Herbert re-wrote it. Interesting but not as good.

Yet another Dune book released by the duo of Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson, but this one is a lot different from their normal milking of the cash cow. In many ways this is a fascinating read, presenting discovered material from Frank Herbert himself, allowing an insight, not only into the way that books come together, especially in the pre-digital age, but also in the way that Dune itself came into existence.The Road to Dune is divided into different parts, first and foremost the science fict...

If you love Dune, this is essential reading. It explains how that novel came to be and all the trials and tribulations Frank Herbert went through to cement his vision. The correspondence is great. The short stories near the end are OK. It was interesting to see what got cut out of Dune and Dune Messiah. However, the thing I was really interested in was Spice Planet. This was the book Herbert originally wanted to write. He outlined it but never did it. His son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson wrote it...

Read the bits I was most interested in (the letters of Herbert, his agent, and John Campbel) and I will return to finish the remainder at a later date.

Four stars but I’m obsessed so take that for what it’s worth. I particularly liked the last two short stories. Bene Gesserit sect of warrior whores? I’m in.

A decade after the death of Frank Herbert, his son Brian and Brian's co-writer Kevin J. Anderson, stumbled upon a safe deposit box containing a cache of the author's unpublished manuscripts, Dune chapters and letters.  Brian Herbert relates their excitement, not just from the standpoint that they were preparing to continue writing about Herbert's Dune Universe, but also from the standpoint of a fan of the series.  They compiled these newly found writings, and published them in The Road to Dune.W...

great companion to Dune

The softly cutting soprano smell of sage climbed a desert night lush with stars, and there came a stillness so unaltered that the moonlight itself could almost be heard flowing across sentinel saguaro and spiked paintbrush. The Road to Dune is a rich supplemental volume for explorers of the Dune Universe!A blend of fiction and non-fiction components. A fitting tribute to the legacy of Frank Herbert and the world he created. Favorite Passages:ForwardFrank believed that poetry was the apex of hum

This combination of fiction and nonfiction opens with a long list of acknowledgements, including members of the Herbert family, and opens with a foreword by Bill Ransom that mentions Frank Herbert lived a fun life and was humorous, hailing from the Puyallup Valley in Washington State. The fathers of Herbert and Ransom were in law enforcement, with the latter moving to Port Townsend in the early seventies. William Faulkner is said to be one of the influences of Herbert, with the writer’s wife Bev...

This is a very difficult book to rate. Some parts I loved and others had to skip over.First I would say if you are intending to read the Dune books in order, as I have chosen to do, leave this one until after you have read all of Franks books, or at least until after you have read Dune Messiah. The list I had placed this book after Paul of Dune but it just doesn't belong there. The different charcater, extra chanpetrs and alternative ending are somethign to enjoy after you have finished the orig...

This is hard to review because it's not a regular book. This volume collects unpublished chapters from Dune and Dune Messiah. It also has the first three short stories written by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson after they started writing the prequels. The bulk of the book is a novella that is written by Brian and Kevin from an outline by Frank Herbert that is an original version of the story that would become Dune. This novella is interesting for anyone who wants to learn about what Frank Herbe...

So Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson found Frank Herbert's early drafts for Dune and Dune Messiah, including a long and very deviant outline for the original novel. I hoped they would publish them in a format something like Christopher Tolkien's History of Middle-Earth series. They didn't. They rewrote the early Dune variant into a complete novel, but one with no value whatsoever - none as part of the Dune canon, of course, and also none as insight into how Dune developed, because there's no w...

I picked up my first copy of Dune in 1973, and have re-read it, and the following books by both Frank, and his son, Brian, around every 5 years or so since then, so I guess I am classed as a real fan of Frank Herbert's seminal work - which means that finding this book was such a treat for me.I really loved reading the alternate endings to his works, but what really fascinated me, were the letters he wrote to various people, which gave an insight to his thought processes.I really enjoyed Spice Pl...

I listened to this book via Audible.The Road to Dune is a collection of letters to and from author Frank Herbert giving context to the popular series, as well as a very early draft of the story, a selection of deleted scenes from the books, and a few short stories from his son Brian Herbert and collaborator Kevin J. Anderson. All told, it's a very insightful look into the creation of the classic series.I think the most interesting part of the collection is Spice Planet, an early version of the D...

I found the BH/KJA version of Spice Planet to be a fairly passable work, though I would have preferred to just see what Frank's material looked like instead. And I was already familiar with the short stories, so that felt like unnecessary padding.However, the most egregious thing to me was the presentation of the "alternate or additional chapters". They are all presented as Frank's work, but several of the chapters are very clearly the writing style of BH/KJA: simplistic language, unnecessary re...

Interesting collection of short stories and odds and ends. The Spice World outline adaption gives a lot of insight into the evolution of Dune. The back and forth letters between Herbert and his editor was pretty revealing too.The short stories were enjoyable. They show that Brian Herbert and KJA can be good in small doses but just like their novels they can long winded as well. The only problem with the short stories is that Whipping Mek takes place in between the Butlerian Jihad books. I haven'...

This was a disappointing read. I was looking forward to reading Herbert's article, "They Stopped the Moving Sands" and reading the letters of Frank Herbert sections of this book. Admittedly before starting the book Road to Dune, I was not clear on the fact that the article, "They Stopped the Moving Sands" was not ever completed. But what appears in this book isn’t even an outline, it is merely a letter proposal that was shot down. The letters of Frank Herbert section was very sadly short and not...

The deleted scenes from Dune and Dune Messiah included here are interesting enough, though it's easy to see why they were axed from the final versions. Aside from an alternate ending to Dune Messiah which completely changes the meaning of the story, the rest is exposition which will only draw the interest of the most die hard Dune fans.Frank's material is in short supply here, with Spice Planet being a "what if" version of the original Dune manuscript written by Brian and Kevin rather than the e...

Three stars for general audience, 4 stars for fans of the Dune series who are interested in the early alternative draft of the first book, and an exploration of the extra bits: deleted chapters, publisher correspondence etc. What struck me is how similar the books were even though the final version was much richer and many characters are renamed. The early version was also quite a bit shorter and not as engrossing as the final work, but many of the themes are there from royal intrigue, feuding n...

If you aren't a die hard fan of the Dune books, both the original or the newer books, this might not interest you. It begins with what had been the origin of Dune, a story or novella, about Duneworld with different characters but a similar feel. It also includes letters from the author and more of a peek into what he had left behind in his notes including alternate endings and deleted scenes from the books that ended up not being used.

I wasn't sure what to expect out of this collections of stories and the history behind the original Dune book. I originally read Dune in 1968 while living through a sever drought on a subtropical island. It was fun and informative to read how the book developed and the struggles it took to get printed.

I was hoping for a more historical document, but If you enjoy the original books the short stories here are sweet and round. There are like the extras in a dvd: if you enjoyed the original sources, Brian Herbert is much more palatable in small doses. I am used to Tolkien’s work, so I liked it.

I loved the parts written by Frank Herbert, both his letters about Dune and the deleted scenes from the first two books. However the book suffers a bit because of the addition of stories written by his son and writing companion

This was interesting. It was a collection of stories. Both fiction and non-fiction. The alternate version of the dune was pretty good. More of a straight science fiction story than dune is. It is a good read. I might recommend reading it after the saga, not in the middle of it. Maybe beforehand.

An entertaining window into the past, our past that is, another glimpse of Frank Herbert's writing style. These are a little rough, unpolished, and no new information, but a welcome little supplement to the Dune universe.

loved the unpublished dune excerpts and chapters, liked the spice planet proto dune novel - both would have benefitted from some context and commentary - not too crazy about the short stories carrying on dune tales by his son and writing partner.

Loved reading the deleted scenes from Herbert's original trilogy. If you are a Dune fan this is a great window into Frank Herbert and how the original book got published.