Dune Encyclopedia

[Headgehog]

continued from another thread

”LexxLurker” wrote:

The Ency(if I could spell it I would)paedia is dang cool if it’s the one I’m thinking of.

It came out a loong time ago, before Herbert decided to write the last 2-3 books. But it contains some really great stories, and ironically mentions things that later DID become part of the greater Universe. Like House Ordos is mentioned as a minor house and later became an integral part of the video game series.

I always hate their explainations of the BT and Scytale, glad Herbert fixed that =) But it is a must read if it’s still circulated.

The Dune Encyclopedia was compiled immediatly after God Emporer of Dune. It is more or less a collection of fan fics from various authors (which ultimatly doomed it for future production). The book was authorized and praised by Frank Herbert, but from the start it was meant as an alternate Dune universe. It had incosistancies form the start. For instance it claims the Minthros was Paul’s grandfather, Even though it clearly states in Dune, that it was Paulus, about 14 times!

The incosistancies continued when Herectics and Chapter House were released. (Don’t even get me started on the prequels!) The discrepencies are too numerous to mention here. Again much of the book was fan written. Frank Herbert already knew where future books would go, and did not want to tell fans authors, such as to not spoil them. Further more, becuase much of it was NOT his ideas (most of it was speculation) or intellectual property, for him to use that material in future publications would require getting permission from the author. As well as finacially compensating the author for their intellectual property. This is the same reason why authors, writiers, producers etc, can’t frequent fan bboards. The reasoning is that someone could write a fan fic or idea, then the writier would see it online and use it on the show without compensating the person. JMS once had this problem. At a convention a fan shouted out a cool idea for B5. His reply was that he couldn’t use that premise any more. Simply becuase it would become a he says/she says as to who came up with it first. On a further note, many studios/publishers/authors have a policy to trash any fan works to avoid future legal hassels.

With all that siad,The Encyclopedia is a good read, and is worth having. Even though much of it is speculation, and inaccurate, it is still enterataing. Parts of it can still be used a reference.

It is out of circulation and it is higly doubtful that it wil ever be printed again. As it was explained to me, they’d have to track down and get permission from over 100 authors before they could do it. It’d wouldn’t be worth the hassle (for the publisher). Luckily many copies are still in librairies. My copy is on extended (read: permanent) loan from my grandmother.

I have heard (semi-reliable) rumours of new encyclopedia being produced in the next few years. As I understand it, it depends on how well the other prequels do.[/quote]

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