Dreamer of Dune: The Biography of Frank Herbert | |||||||||
Brian Herbert | |||||||||
Tor, 576 pages | |||||||||
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A review by David Maddox
The biography captures an amazing account of the Herbert family's beginnings. It is a well-researched history and presents
a vivid picture of turn of the century America and a Bavarian family's attempt to find their place in it.
On October 8, 1920, Frank Herbert was born. At age 5, he declared "I wanna be a author!" He would spend the bulk of his life
attempting to achieve this dream. The chronicle moves through many touching moments as the young Frank experiences life events which
will eventually be incorporated in his six Dune novels.
The true "story" of the book begins when Frank meets his soul-mate, Beverly Forbes. She would become his wife, business manager and
life-long companion. Together they have two sons, Brian and Bruce. In the course of his youth, Brian watches his family move up and
down the west coast, through Mexico and in and out of a variety of jobs as his father hopes to find the right locale to express his
creativity. The early adventures of the Herbert family are short tales in themselves and are vividly recounted. There is plenty of
hardship and heartache as the family struggles both financially and emotionally.
In the early 60s, Frank Herbert gets the idea for a story set on a desert planet. He feels that this is the "big one," but, after years
of research and a maddening quest to find a publisher, the book seems to be a mediocre success. Yet the reader of the biography has a
little inside knowledge, knowing that Dune is a sleeper hit.
When people start to realize what an incredible piece of literature it is, everything changes for the Herberts. The adventures Brian
recounts after Dune's success are just as on par with the early family trials, but with a happier feel. From his self-sufficient
Xanadu in Washington state to the Kawaloa Hawaiian retreat, Frank continues to create. The reader gets to experience the many aborted
Dune film attempts and the joy Frank feels when David Lynch manages to bring the epic to the big screen. And through it all, Frank
writes, expanding on his desert planet in way he never thought would be possible.
Many passages are written from the heart and the reader might even find themselves shedding a tear at some tragedies along the
way. Though jumpy at times as anecdotes about Frank seems to throw the flow of the history, the biography still gets all the facts
in, but makes them as interesting as an adventure novel.
Although Frank Herbert left a great legacy, there was so much more he wanted to do. Yet Dreamer of Dune is a fascinating chronicle
of both a son's love of his father and as a working blueprint and insight into the mind of one of the twentieth century's greatest
science fiction writers.
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