A few years ago, a madness came upon me and I wanted everything there was to be had about, and related to, Frank Herbert’s Dune and its sequels. The novel remains a favourite, although I don’t especially admire its prose (see here). Herbert’s other sf works have not entirely withstood the test of time, although I consider him the most thoughtful writer of his generation, and the most interesting in that regard. This peculiar madness struck me after Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson had begun hacking at the Dune corpus and, to be honest, having bought and waded through the House prequel trilogy I wasn’t much interested in their additions to the universe. Nonetheless, I did buy the Legends of Dune trilogy, and the two “sequels” to Chapterhouse Dune… But enough was enough. The books were getting worse and worse, and I had to give up in disgust.

I managed to find a whole bunch of stuff related to Frank Herbert and his Dune books – not to mention the merchandising associated with the David Lynch 1985 film adaptation.

The three attempts at adapting Dune have all been, for various reasons, near-misses. Alejandro Jodorowsky’s never got beyond some concept art, and its story likely wouldn’t have been recognisable as Herbert’s novel, but it would have been a film worth seeing (some of Jodorowsky’s ideas were later used in his Incal comics series with Moebius). The “television version” of Lynch’s version gives some idea of what he was trying to do in his adaptation, but the studio butchered it and the end result was far from satisfactory. The Sci-Fi Channel (as was) mini-series was more faithful to the book, but the production design couldn’t compete with that of Lynch’s film. The sequel, Children Of Dune, was much better, however.

Anyway, below are the various bits and pieces I’ve managed to pick up for my collection of things Dune-related…

five editions of Dune – sadly, that middle one is not a true first edition, but a Book Club Edition

Frank Herbert’s Dune sequels

Brian Herbert & Kevin J Anderson’s two sequels, plus a collection of Dune-related, er, stuff

the House trilogy

the execrable Legends of Dune trilogy

three free chapbooks produced by Tor to publicise the BH & KJA Dune novels

God Emperor Of Dune, a signed and numbered limited edition (I’m a big fan of limited editions)

limited editions of God Emperor Of Dune, Chapterhouse Dune and Heretics of Dune; a first edition hardback of The Dune Encyclopedia

two books about adaptations of Dune, one on the “science” of the novel, and a collection of Herbert’s poetry

five books about Frank Herbert and his works

two study notes for Dune, and two boxes of the Dune CCG (I have two big boxes of the CCG cards on top of the bookcase)

two Wormhole Press signed editions of short fiction by BH & KJA set in the Dune universe

a book of the chapter headings from Dune (but… why?); and pop-up book from the film (but… why?)

strategy guides for the two computer games

the novelisation of the film (the book of the film of the book – a concept which never ceases to puzzle me); and the rule book for the aborted role-playing game

the Marvel comic of the film, the issue of Métal Hurlant containing concept art for Jodorowsky’s version (see below for a sample), and a collectible magazine

Moebius character designs for Jodorowsky’s film

activity books for the Dune film (but… why?)

LPs of Frank Herbert reading excerpts from his novels

the 1978 Dune calendar, with art by John Schoenherr

three special edition DVDs – UK, US and Germany (and yes, that’s a sandworm made of plaster)

the much-played Avalon Hill boardgame and its two expansion sets