| KJA Interview Continued ... In a forward to House Atreides, Brian Herbert mentions that he will
use Frank Herbert’s notes to someday write a Dune 7 novel, thereby completing
the storyline of Chapterhouse: Dune. Will you be involved in that
project and can you share any details? I'll definitely be writing it with him -- that was the project that
originally made me contact Brian. We have the outline for the Grand Finale
and how it wraps up all the storylines, so we are laying the basis for much
of it in our prequels. However, the Grand Finale should really be the last
one...why go back and fill in a few more holes after we write THE END? We still have the Legends of Dune trilogy to finish -- THE BUTLERIAN JIHAD,
THE MACHINE CRUSADE, and THE BATTLE OF CORRIN -- and we also want to write the early years of Paul Atreides. THE MACHINE CRUSADE is written and is now in its third draft, so we're right on schedule. Those most familiar with Herbert’s original works notice historical
differences with the original Dune novels and the prequels. One example
is the secret Zensunni faith of the Tleilaxu being quite well known in
the prequels. Were these differences intentional? I don't believe there is any mention of the Tleilaxu Buddislamic faith --
secret or otherwise -- before HERETICS (or possibly GOD-EMPEROR...I don't
have my books in front of me), which take place many thousands of years after
DUNE. That's like questioning why religions and cultures have changed in the
time since the peoples who survived the last Ice Age on Earth. In the
intervening millennia, who knows what kind of social or political upheavals
may have occurred in the already-insular Tleilaxu society? 
We did not do any "intentional historical differences," but conversely DUNE
readers should not study the novels with blinders on. Frank Herbert did not
believe in absolutes. (As soon as HOUSE ATREIDES was published, people
started squawking because we had introduced no-field technology before it was
time...but by HOUSE CORRINO that is all neatly explained. Same with the
identity of Jessica's mother -- which came straight from Frank's notes, by
the way -- all contradictions are resolved by the end of the trilogy.)
Honest, we do have a plan and we're looking at the overall series, not one
little piece at a time. Sit back and wait for the end of the story. There is quite a fanatical legion of Dune fans online. Do you and Brian
Herbert ever visit Dune sites on the Internet? I know there are quite a few wonderful and devoted fans online, but
unfortunately there is also a handful of people, "the surly bunch," who need,
er, social adjustment lessons! Before HOUSE ATREIDES was even published, a
dozen or so of these surly Dune fans launched their own crusade to trash our
prequels -- they uploaded horrendous postings about the books (which none of
them had ever read, since it wasn't available anywhere), then they posted
dozens and dozens of one-star hate-mail reviews of the novel on amazon.com
(again, before anybody had ever read the book); they called Brian the
"illegitimate son of Frank Herbert" and "the antichrist" and I was "the Dummy
of Dune." We were both rather shocked at this unfair reaction, and Brian
stewed over it for a long time -- that's why he ended up terminating his
e-mail account. We were doing this out of a sincere love for the series, and this was the
legacy Frank had left to his son. To see so much vitriol from know-nothings
[I'm not being snide: that's by-definition, since none of them had bothered
to read the book before trashing it], was very disappointing to me...but I
had seen the same phenomenon with STAR WARS and X-FILES. I am very pleased to say that some of those surly trashers had the decency to write us genuine letters of apology after they had read HOUSE ATREIDES. I mean, we have put huge amounts of work and soul and energy into this
project, and the books have won various awards, critical acclaim, fans-choice
awards, even selected as New York Times Notable books. So, I think we really
did the best we could. All that said, the "web fan" experience has sort of soured us to some of the
fanatical online communities. We respect their right to an opinion, even if
they don't like the books we write...but at least have the decency to be
objective and read the books before you form an opinion. We're not trying to do better than Frank Herbert -- how is that possible? -- but we are carrying
on his legacy, finishing the stories he himself wanted to write [hey, I would
*rather* he had lived to write them!], and we are introducing a whole new
generation of readers to the overall DUNE epic. 
What new projects are lined up for Kevin J. Anderson? Any new publishing
projects with your wife, Rebecca Moesta? Next month (July) Warner is launching an epic science fiction series of my
own, THE SAGA OF SEVEN SUNS, with the first volume HIDDEN EMPIRE. I really think this series has all the best ingredients of both DUNE and STAR WARS, and it's the kind of story I have always most wanted to tell. It has politics and intrigue, sense of wonder and space battles, detailed worldbuilding, adventure, romance, and very intricate plotting. Brian Herbert helped me a great deal in the planning and in the manuscript itself. Anybody who likes my DUNE prequels with Brian should enjoy this series. In early 2002 I published a novel, CAPTAIN NEMO, which tells the life story of Jules Verne's famous captain of the Nautilus. As a sort of companion novel, I am writing a novel with H.G. Wells and Percival Lowell fending off the Martian invasion at the end of the 19th century. I am writing the answers to this interview while I'm on the road from a research trip to Lowell Observatory and the Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona. And I'm doing the BUTLERIAN JIHAD books with Brian. My wife Rebecca and I are currently developing a new young adult fantasy
series, and she is working on several projects for BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. So, I'm keeping busy. With the tremendous success of the Dune miniseries and the current
filming of Children of Dune, do you have any plans or hopes for any of
your novels to hit the small or big screen? The miniseries is great for attracting new readers to the original novels,
and we hope they want to continue to do DUNE projects. Candidly, though, next in line is GOD-EMPEROR...which, because it is so internal and philosophical, would be difficult to film. We hope they're interested in
considering our prequels for future DUNE films. You have extraordinary success as a science fiction author, any dream
projects you still have? Any goals you haven’t yet met? What could be more of a dream project than writing Dune novels with Frank Herbert's son based on Frank Herbert's original notes? I mean, this is as good as it gets! Of course, I would love for the numerous DUNE fans to try HIDDEN EMPIRE and help some of my solo novels. I would love to see CAPTAIN NEMO turned into a film. But for the most part, I am only doing projects I truly love to be involved with, and I don't feel like I'll be bored anytime soon. The Landsraad website
has been buzzing about the growing success of Dune in the 21st century.Much of that new success and buzz is due to you and Brian Herbert and your
new Dune novels. We thank you for your hard work. Anything you would like
to say to the members of the Landsraad Dune site? Before we launched our new prequels, all of Frank Herbert's other books had gone out of print, but when HOUSE ATREIDES was published, the sales of Frank's original Dune books literally tripled, and next fall at least four of Frank's classic science fiction novels are being reprinted. Brian's terrific and personal biography of his father, DREAMER OF DUNE, will be published by Tor Books. The first Sci-Fi Channel miniseries of DUNE was a smash hit and now they're doing another one -- all of which attracts new readers. Four of Frank's non-DUNE novels are being reprinted this fall -- THE GREEN BRAIN, THE DOSADI EXPERIMENT, THE EYES OF HEISENBERG, and THE SANTAROGA BARRIER. All together, it feels as if this has been a shot in the arm to the greatest SF series of all time. I get a lot of fan letters from people who were too intimidated to pick up
the original DUNE, but because they had liked my other novels, they were
willing to try HOUSE ATREIDES -- and then jumped right into DUNE. Wow, I'm a "gateway drug" to the best science fiction novel ever written! But even with all the work Brian and I are doing, the DUNE fans have also
been the biggest help to keeping the series alive and successful. So we
would like to thank you, and everyone on the Landsraad site, for your
continued interest. Kevin J. Anderson
www.dunenovels.com
www.wordfire.com http://www.dunenovels.com/news/interviews.html | 
