On 1/6/2008 9:00 PM, Jeff Smith wrote to Jason Vierik:

->     The Dune movies were interesting in that they were not related in
-> any way to us earthers. They were from another future galaxy far, far
-> away.

The newer books by Brian Hebert (Frank's Son) tell the story of what
happened to earth.  The Fremen have a lot of Islamic and Buddhist
influences ... the Religion they follow is called Bud-Islam.  The Empire
follows a similar religion based on Christianity but not Christian and they
follow the "Orange-Catholic Bible".

It's really interesting when you read the books how it all comes
together... and how the different factions really have distant earth-ties.

Allen 
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