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When I riting Dune

there was no room in my mind for concerns about the book's success or failure I was concerned only with the writing Six years of research had preceded the day I sat down to put the story together, and the interweaving of the ree of concentration I had never before experienced

It was to be a story exploring the myth of the Messiah

It was to produce another view of a huy machine

It was to penetrate the interlocked workings of politics and economics

It was to be an examination of absolute prediction and its pitfalls

It was to have an awareness drug in it and tell what could happen through dependence on such a substance

Potable water was to be an analog for oil and for water itself, a substance whose supply diminishes each day

It was to be an ecological novel, then, with many overtones, as well as a story about people and their human concerns with human values, and I had to e in the book

There wasn't room in my head to think about much else

Following the first publication, reports from the publishers were slow and, as it turned out, inaccurate The critics had panned it More than twelve publishers had turned it down before publication There was no advertising Soh

For two years, I amped with bookstore and reader coet the book The Whole Earth Catalog praised it I kept getting these telephone calls fro a cult

The answer: "God no!"

What I' is the slow realization of success By the time the first three Dune books were completed, there was little doubt that this was a popular work--one of the most popular in history, I am told, with some ten million copies sold ide Now the most common question people ask is: "What does this success mean to you?"

It surprises me I didn't expect failure either It was a work and I did it Parts of Dune Messiah and Children of Dune ritten before Dune was co, but the essential story re The success

Looking back

on it, I realize I did the right thing instinctively You don't write for success That takes part of your attention away fro it, that's all you're doing: writing

There's an unwritten compact between you and the reader If someone enters a bookstore and sets down hard earned y) for your book, you owe that person soive

That was really

Most discipline is hidden discipline, designed not to liberate but to limit Do not ask Why? Be cautious with How? Why? leads inexorably to paradox How? traps you in a universe of cause and effect Both deny the infinite

--The Apocrypha of Arrakis

"Taraza told you, did she not, that we have gone through eleven of these Duncan Idaho gholas? This one is the twelfth"

The old Reverend Mother Schwangyu spoke with deliberate bitterness as she looked down fro on the enclosed lawn The planet Gaht bounced off the white courtyard walls filling the area beneath theht had been directed onto the young ghola

Gone through! the Reverend Mother Lucilla thought She allowed herself a short nod, thinking how coldly iyu's manner and choice of words We have used up our supply; send us more!

The child on the lawn appeared to be about twelve standard years of age, but appearance could be deceptive with a ghola not yet awakened to his original memories The child took that moure with a direct gaze that focused intently froht of early spring cast a shtpale skin at the left shoulder

"Not only are these gholas costly but they are supreyu said Her voice came out flat and emotionless, all the more powerful because of that It was the voice of a Reverend Mother Instructor speaking down to an acolyte and it eyu was one of those who protested openly against the ghola project

Taraza had warned: "She will try to win you over"

"Eleven failures are enough," Schwangyu said

Lucilla glanced at Schwangyu's wrinkled features, thinking suddenly: Someday I may be old and wizened, too And perhaps I will be a power in the Bene Gesserit as well

Schwangyu was a se marks earned in the Sisterhood's affairs Lucilla knew froyu's conventional black robe concealed a skinny figure that few other than her acolyte dressers and the yu's e lines that fanned into a jutting chin Her manner tended to a curt abruptness that the uninitiated often interpreted as anger The commander of the Gammu Keep was one who kept herself to herself more than most Reverend Mothers

Once hola project Taraza had drawn the dividing line clearly enough, though: "Schwangyu is not to be trusted where the safety of the ghola is concerned"

"We think the Tleilaxu theyu said "That in itself should tell us so"

Matching Schwangyu's manner, Lucilla adopted a quiet attitude of al Her yu, but I, too, aaze

Schwangyu had seen the holos of this Lucilla but the wo An I, no doubt of it Blue-in-blue eyes uncorrected by any lens gave Lucilla a piercing expression that ith her long oval face With the hood of her black aba robe thrown back as it was now, brown hair was revealed, drawn into a tight barette and then cascading down her back Not even the stiffest robe could coenetic line famous for its motherly nature and she already had borne three children for the Sisterhood, two by the same sire Yes--a brown-haired charmer with full breasts and a motherly disposition