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From: burton@inuxg.UUCP (Thomas Burton)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Heretics of Dune - slight spoiler
Message-ID: <276@inuxg.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 12-Mar-84 09:17:27 EST
Article-I.D.: inuxg.276
Posted: Mon Mar 12 09:17:27 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 13-Mar-84 08:10:56 EST
Organization: AT&T Consumer Products Div., Indianapolis
Lines: 33

xx <- two footed stomp

The March edition of Omni magazine contains a small excerpt from Frank
Herbert's new Dune novel, Heretics of Dune. When I say small, I mean small!
I haven't read Omni lately, but I seem to remember that when they excerpted
Number of the Beast and Firestarter, the excerpts had some substance; I 
finished the Dune excerpt in less than 10 minutes. Anyway, the story
seems to be taking place many generations after Leto II died and returned
his spirit to the desert (i.e., returned the sandtrout vector of the 
sandworm to the desert to start making new sandworms). The excerpt
is actually a flashback of an eleven-year-old priestess to when she
was eight years old, and the circumstances that led to her position. It
appears that, while the sandworms are back, they are not as powerful
as before; the girl refers to a thirty meter worm as a big one, and if
I remember correctly, that wasn't a very big worm in the time of Stilgar
and Paul. Apparently, the Bene Gesserit (yes, the witches are still
around!) have been waiting (of course) for someone to come along who
has the power to control the sandworms, and she's the one. That's
about it for the excerpt.

As an aside, I just want to note that I will probably buy this one 
just to keep up the collection (as many of the net readers in
net.comics are doing with the "Secret Wars"), but I really am not
looking forward to reading it; I think Herbert had a great thing
going with Dune, but he really shouldn't have made it into a series
(by the way, what is the proper term for a collection of five books?
Or six books?) I understand he signed a contract to continue the Dune
saga to six books.


			Doug Burton
			ATT-CP Indianapolis
			inuxg!burton