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INTRODUCTION
by Brian Herbert
Frank Herbert had a reinal on in the Sea (1956), he ca, an idea that the Japanese later commercialized to enormous success Dune, only his second novel, was published in 1965 A coy, philosophy, history, religion, and politics beneath the epic tale of the heroic Paul Atreides
By 1968, five more of Frank Herbert's novels had been published: Destination: Void, The Eyes of Heisenberg, The Green Brain, The Heaven Makers, and The Santaroga Barrier All the while, the popularity of Dune was growing, particularly a university intellectuals ere ireat adventure story The novel beca extolled it as an environmental handbook
As his eldest son, I didn't even knohatnear Caravein the back of the s I told them that my dad was a newspaperman for the San Francisco Examiner and that he had written a couple of books
"Oh?" the young man said "What did he write?"
"Uh, Dune," I said
"Dune!" He was so excited that he pulled the car off to the side of the road "Your dad is Frank Herbert?"
Hesitantly I replied, "Yeah"
"Dune! I love that book! One of e turned me on to it Wow! I can't believe it!"
I was duraphy of Frank Herbert,well in those years I was a rebellious teenager, and we had one shouting argument after another The relationship see reor from his newspaper job As a fae, and so of a black sheep He was eccentric, they said, and went his oay How little did they kno little did I know I hadn't even read the novel yet
Dune Messiah, Frank Herbert's first sequel to Dune, was published in 1969 In that book, he flipped over what he called the "myth of the hero" and showed the dark side of Paul Atreides Some readers didn't understand it Why would the author do that to his great hero? In interviews, Dad spent years afterward explaining why, and his reasons were sound He believed that chariserous because they could lead their followers off the edge of a cliff
His alternate way of looking at the universe fascinated many readers anyway, and they couldn't wait to see where he was going with the series He was developing a core readership In the early 1970s, Frank Herbert became involved with the environmental movement, just as the popularity of the novel Dune was skyrocketing He spoke on college campuses all over the country Readers wanted even more sequels, but Dad took his ti the next novel in the series to be as skillfully written as possible In conjunction with the first Earth Day, Dad wrote entries for and edited New World or No World, a book about the i the environment He followed that with two novels, Soul Catcher and The Godmakers, and then a third, Hellstrom's Hive, which had a els Experience was also published with a film connection
By 1976, Frank Herbert had co-awaited sequel, which he titled Children of Dune A four-part Analogy serialization of the novel early that year was a resounding success, causing issues to sell out at news-stands Letters poured in from excited fans who loved the story
For months, David Hartwell, Dad's astute editor at G P Putnaeh copies, that when Children of Dune was printed soon in hardcover, it was going to be a national best seller purchased by enre buster, he said
Dune itself had not made it onto very radual groundswell Its sales since publication were ih, and Dune Messiah had sold
relatively well But Dune Messiah hadn't been favorably received by the critics, and consensus held that its sales came on the coattails of Dune Would Children of Dune be an even bigger critical disappointment than Dune Messiah?
There had never been a hardcover science fiction best seller, so Putnae results provided David Hartith the necessary ammunition Putnam increased the first print run to 75,000 copies,in history Publication was scheduled for later in the year, after coazine serialization
When Children of Dune came out in hardback in 1976, it was an instant best seller True to the prediction of David Hartwell and the gut feeling ofhardback in science fiction history up to that timemore than 100,000 copies in a fewyear, Berkley Books initially printed 750,000 copies That wasn't half enough, and they went back to press Six months after the release of the paperback, Dad said paperback sales were approaching two million copies
"It's a runaway best seller," he told me in a telephone conversation Dad enjoyed this phrase, and I heard it often in the ensuing years regarding his numerous best sellers
At the age of fifty-five, Dad went on his first book tour, and it was a big one--twenty-one cities in thirty days, including an appearance on The Today Show in New York City with fellow science fiction writers Frederik Pohl and Lester del Rey The Literary Guild y in a boxed hardbound set
At the vanguard of an explosive growth of sales in science fiction, Frank Herbert blazed the trail for other writers in the genre After the phenomenal success of the Dune series, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, Robert A Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, and other science fiction writers had national hardcover best sellers
Children of Dune is an exciting, vividly iined novel It is Frank Herbert at the top of his craft
Brian Herbert
Seattle, Washington
January 11, 2008
Muad'Dib's teachings have becoround of scholastics, of the superstitious and the corrupt He taught a balanced way of life, a philosophy hich a hu universe He said hu, in a process which will never end He said this evolutionprinciples which are known only to eternity How can corrupted reasoning play with such an essence?