Sunday, June 30, 2013

Dragons Lost

Reprint: 9 May 2013 at 2:42 am

Dragonsdawn (Pern: Dragonriders of Pern, #6)Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
When I read this novel several years ago it was awesome. The development of characters was as fascinating as the space opera romp. This time I was not impressed. What changed? A new edition. In the interest of increasing the ever shrinking bricks and mortar shelfspace and (I presume) to keep the attention of an ADD population who think Mark Twain wrote in "old English", Publisher are gutting past works and passing the readers digest version as an improvement.
What was a great novel by a respected author is now a much diminished work that I'd have passed on if I'd known. Plotting suffered, characterization was flattened and in certain cases characters were simply eliminated along with entire chapters of plot development that was necessary to a smooth and coherent conclusion.
I'd still recommend reading it, just find a 1st edition mass market. You'll be a lot happier.

No comments:

Post a Comment