THE BROKEN SWORD

[Deleted]

I borrowed this from the THREE HEARTS THREE LIONS thread.

Mar 9, 2011 17:08:24 GMT -6 sirjaguar said:

The Broken Sword is a fantastic novel. It turned me into a Poul Anderson fan.
Also, for Anderson's impressive take on the "twilight Earth" genre, read Winter of the World.

Lawson

I got a copy of BROKEN SWORD in paperback from a used bookstore and in the intro it says that it has been re-written from the original. WTF? Anyone know why he re-wrote it and what he changed?

I wanted to read the original.

[Finarvyn]

I have copies of both but haven't gotten around to reading the older version. I'll see if I can bump it up in my reading list and get back to you.

[makofan]

Read the original - it's raw. (Can't remember much other than that)

[Falconer]

The edition currently in-print is the original. Awesome read!

[kenmeister]

Jun 2, 2011 14:31:47 GMT -6 Falconer said:

The edition currently in-print is the original. Awesome read!

This quote from the review section of that page helps a lot:

A word on the revision. This is the original and it's the first time I've read this version and, comparing it to the version I read 10 years ago, I have to say there's not too much difference. In the revision, Anderson changed one plot element (he has a witch calling up Odin instead of Satan) but otherwise left the plot intact, changing only the style to be less frantic. Whilst it's true that the original reads better, Anderson had the best of motives in the revision - he, like a lot of authors, was dissatisfied with his earlier work and admitted in the introduction that his current style (as of 1970) was more 'Three Hearts and Three Lions' (an excellent book by the same author, due for re-release in the Masterworks series and worth getting, I'd give it 4 stars.) The point I'm trying to make here is that the revision a) wasn't too bad or very extensive and b) was done for the best of reasons, because the author (wrongly) felt his early work was bad and could be improved - i.e. aesthethic reasons.