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[bryant]

Why aren't any US publishers publishing lines like this? Or this, from the fantasy perspective. Wow. (No insult meant to Tor, whose reprint line is delightful; mild snide perhaps for Baen, since I'm still mournful about the Telzey edits.)

Comments

[bryant]

I think they were a bad idea and I think they were poorly handled.

First off, there's little indication on the books that Eric Flint rewrote (admittedly small) portions of the books. Sure, it says he edited them, but to me that means he chose the order of the stories. I would have liked to have known that he rewrote them to make them "better," since Eric Flint's idea of better doesn't necessarily match mine.

Second, I think Eric Flint did a poor job of editing, on the whole. He discusses the issue at some length here:

http://tentacle.net/~prophet/honor/Trigger%20and%20Friends/0671319663___9.htm

I think this demonstrates that he's not competent to edit as he has. For example: "The term 'chick' was changed to 'girl' because it's an outdated slang expression. Ubiquitous in the 60s, when Schmitz wrote the novel, but rarely used today." That's a pretty trivial change, but in my social circles, I hear "chick" all the time. Usually sardonically, but it's hardly rare.

"Try offering a cigarette today to an unknown woman in an aircraft, and you are likely to get arrested." Um, really? Not in my experience -- I don't smoke, but my brother's a smoker. Further, at that point in the story, Telzey isn't an unknown woman -- she's someone Quillan has already interacted with.

So, yeah; I probably would have minded less if it had been clearer that the books were edited up front, and I certainly would have minded less if Flint was a better editor. I don't object to removing most of the exclamation points. However, I don't want Flint making decisions for me about what language I'd find hopelessly antiquated. Kind of him, but no.