Kevin's Watch

Trilogy!!! Yum! Dinner is served!

Halfway through the Mirror of Her Dreams - can anyone tell me why Mordant's Need was published as two books? Yes, so put together they'd be a little long in pagecount, but at the pace this first book is going, I can't help feeling it would have worked better in one volume (plus, the pace means I'm not taking much longer to read this book than I did to read Ring, a book half the length of tMoHD).

Have any of you read 'The Liar' by Stephen Fry? It is pretty funny! Disgusting, but funny.

Murrin wrote:Halfway through the Mirror of Her Dreams - can anyone tell me why Mordant's Need was published as two books? Yes, so put together they'd be a little long in pagecount, but at the pace this first book is going, I can't help feeling it would have worked better in one volume (plus, the pace means I'm not taking much longer to read this book than I did to read Ring, a book half the length of tMoHD).

The pace quickens by the beginning of book 2; Donaldson had a lot of groundwork to do first, though.

Erm... you're reading me wrong. How does saying the pace moves like a book half its length imply that it's too slow?
I don't find the pace of the plot slow at all - and I wasn't talking about that anyway. I mean the pace at which it reads. Some books I can read quickly despite pagecount, other can be quite short and take a long time. This one reads quick enough that I feel it would have been better to have book 2 right on the end of it instead of seperate.

Murrin wrote:This one reads quick enough that I feel it would have been better to have book 2 right on the end of it instead of seperate.

It's probably more a manufacturing thing than anything else, Murrin. If they were smooshed into one book, it'd probably physically fall apart. Unless you're reading the new trade editions (big paperbacks) rather than the mass markets (little paperbacks), in which case they'd definitely fall apart.

More than a manufacturing thing or reading thing, it's a financial thing. Donaldson turns in a 1200 plus page manuscript - publisher says, "We can split this in half and sell two books for double the money."

I own at least five paperbacks more than 1000 pages long, and none of them fall apart (apart from the second chrons I have in a single volume, which isn't over 1000 pages but is beginning to seem fragile despite only being read twice).
In my experience the trade paperbacks are better than normal sized ones (although I must say that in the case of The Mirror of Her Dreams this isn't true - the cover is far too soft, it's bending and folding all over).

Then Roland must be right....

Roland of Gilead wrote:More than a manufacturing thing or reading thing, it's a financial thing. Donaldson turns in a 1200 plus page manuscript - publisher says, "We can split this in half and sell two books for double the money."

There is also the fact, sad but true, that some people are intimidated by the commitment a 1200-pager requires, and are more likely to purchase a slightly smaller book. Plus, smaller books fit better in coat pockets.

It might also be a conspiracy by book cover artists--if there are two books, they get to take commissions on two covers instead of one.

Myste wrote:

Murrin wrote:This one reads quick enough that I feel it would have been better to have book 2 right on the end of it instead of seperate.

It's probably more a manufacturing thing than anything else, Murrin. If they were smooshed into one book, it'd probably physically fall apart. Unless you're reading the new trade editions (big paperbacks) rather than the mass markets (little paperbacks), in which case they'd definitely fall apart.

It's worth mentioning that in the 1980s, Del Rey's manufacturing was seriously below standard. One of my friends eagerly devoured books from every other publisher in the SF field, but was very reluctant to buy Del Rey paperbacks because they tended to fall apart during the first reading.

I have the original Del Rey hardcovers of Mordant's Need. They're not especially well-bound as hardcovers go, and the paper is thick — and needs to be, because it's rather low-quality paper with inferior tensile strength: it would probably rip if it was as thin as the strong, acid-free stuff most publishers use nowadays. (It almost reminds me of the cheap, gritty grey paper they used during World War II, which was as thick as blotting paper and just about as easy to tear. That stuff disintegrates at the edges just from normal handling.) The result is that those 600-page hardcovers are as thick and unwieldy as most 1000-page books I have bought from other publishers.

So I'm sure that many other publishers could have issued MN in one volume; but it seems that Del Rey either couldn't, or were too cheap to print books of the necessary quality.

Interesting stuff, VS. Are there any newer versions of the Donaldson hardbacks that are better constructed? I for one would like to replace several of my hardbacks due to their aging.

Murrin wrote:I own at least five paperbacks more than 1000 pages long, and none of them fall apart

Tell that to my copy of A Storm of Swords that snapped apart at page 60!

I think in most countries other than the States, they split up that book in mass market paperback because of its size.

dANdeLION wrote:Interesting stuff, VS. Are there any newer versions of the Donaldson hardbacks that are better constructed? I for one would like to replace several of my hardbacks due to their aging.

Unfortunately, I don't know which for SRD's books are still available in hardcover. However, my Bantam hardcovers of The Gap are all slim (for their page count), elegant, and excellently bound. And I have no complaint about my TC hardcovers. Mordant's Need seemed to fall right at the low point in the quality curve.

I reading the Elric Saga. Supposedly they're making a movie. I figure I'd better read the books.

Finished Daniel Wyatt's THE MARY JANE MISSION, a Bermuda-triangle type thriller about the WWII air war in the Pacific. Seems extremely knowledgeable technically.

Now reading THE VOYAGE OF THE "DAWN TREADER" from the Narnia Chronicles.

Finished tMoHD, started The Neutronium Alchemist - I must say, I had high hopes for Quinn Dexter after his return at the end of The Reality Dysfunction, but the scene at Cricklade Manor in the next book was a little disappointing...

Just started Virtual Light by William Gibson. I know there are a few Gibson fans out there. I'm starting to appreciate his style--filled with fragments of thoughts and images that manage to seamlessly fall into order. I love that he writes about the future--technology, lifestyles, social classes--without overexplaining anything. Instead of going into detail about why the Japanese are the wealthiest people in the world, or why Costa Rica is a data technology hotspot, or why sneakers have scrolling lyrics on them, Gibson focuses on the story. So far so good!

Tulizar wrote:or why sneakers have scrolling lyrics on them

I love this. I'm surprised Nike hasn't jumped on the idea.

I've read Nueromancer, Burning Chrome, Idoru and the Difference Engine by Gibson--let me know how VL checks ok, thanks!